In Ptolemaic Egypt (332–30 BC) professional burial guilds of Hawara, Thebes and Memphis were profitable family businesses with considerable movable and real property. In the same period funeral services were provided by social and religious associations devoted to a particular deity. These organizations combined in themselves features of religious, social and professional associations and maintained close connections between their members by means of religious festivals and funerary banquets for the deceased members including customary burial rituals. This paper brings together information from different archives on the funeral activities of the three burial guilds and several social and religious associations of Ptolemaic Egypt.