Cremation rates are rising. What do we do?

Rich Darby,
Chief Operating Officer

Lately, I have seen a lot of cremation studies that have extremely vital information and data that helps in assessing a road map for a funeral business’s future. The big number that is always discussed is the one that is predicting what the funeral industry will be like fifteen to twenty years down the road. According to a few recent studies I have read, cremation will be 70 to 75% of our business. YIKES!!! That makes you want to close up shop and run for the hills, doesn’t it?
 
How do we prepare for an industry that is overwhelmingly controlled by cremation? We start by educating ourselves and coming up with tools to show the consumer that every life lived deserves to be memorialized.

My sister, Linda, is the current President at FAMIC and they head the “Have the Talk of a Lifetime.” The goal of this campaign is to get consumers talking about what matters most in their lives and how they want to be remembered. I love this campaign and I believe our industry needs to continue to embrace and support it, but I also believe it’s just the beginning. I truly believe there is a lot of good funeral service ahead of us. The definition of traditional may change, but I truly feel that the one common denominator in most families is the person that has passed was deeply loved.

Don’t be afraid of the numbers. Let’s embrace them. Let’s understand them. Let’s digest them. Let’s come together as an industry and build an educational system that works.
 

This article originally appeared in Modern Memorialization, Trigard Memorials' weekly electronic newsletter featuring information for the funeral industry. Sign up for your free subscription at http://www.trigard.com/thursdays.