While preserving traditional burials should be a cemetery’s top preneed priority, a priority should also be placed on the surviving lot owner that is opting for cremation.  The Wirthlin studies that we’ve been referencing in prior posts suggest that most grave spaces sold by cemeteries during the past 20 years will never be used.  One Wirthlin finding indicated that only 16 percent of those surveyed planned to have their cremains buried in a grave space. …

When selling interment rights on a preneed basis, it was once very common for cemeteries to include a forfeiture clause in the sales agreement.  If the consumer used installment payments to pay for a grave space and defaulted on that payment plan, the terms of the contract would declare all payments applied to the contract to have been forfeited.  The cemetery retained all payments and the consumer received nothing in exchange.  The forfeiture clause has…

In continuing with our last post about a cemetery preneed pivot, the cemetery operator seeking to improve its burial revenues can initiate a preneed program that first focuses on its existing lot owners.   To efficiently market to existing lot owners, the cemetery should use a questionnaire to reach out and learn the owners’ current preferences and whether steps have been taken towards funding a prearrangement.  As suggested in our previous post, the cemetery’s first…

Almost thirty years ago, associations representing funeral homes, casket suppliers, vault makers, monument builders and life insurers joined together to form the Funeral and Memorialization Information Council (FAMIC).  These industries were concerned about the future impact of cremation on the traditional funeral and burial.  FAMIC used Wirthlin Worldwide to conduct research studies every 5 years on consumer opinions about funerals and cremation.  We did not find any documentation to suggest that any cemetery…

For revenues, most cemeteries are dependent upon grave sales, opening/closing services, and care fund distributions.  These revenue sources have been on the decline for a decade.  As cremation trends up, fewer families are purchasing burial lots.  Those families that already own burial lots frequently don’t use them.  COVID induced financial difficulties will only accelerate the cremation choice by families. Bonds, the staple of cemetery care funds, bottomed out more than 12 years ago.  While the…

Prior to October 31st each year, Missouri preneed sellers must file a renewal/annual report that sets out each preneed contract issued or sold during the reporting period (September 1st through August 31st).  We recently had funeral home clients express confusion over when an arrangement with a family constitutes a preneed contract.  Some funeral homes have a practice of providing a family a completed contract to take home and study.  But some funeral homes go so…

The risk of COVID to family members is causing some preneed contract holders to rethink the traditional funeral they have purchased.  During the early stages of the coronavirus spread, a handful of funerals were found to have been super spreader events.  Dozens of attendees were infected, and several deaths resulted.  Funeral homes have since implemented COVID safety precautions that include attendee restrictions, social distancing and mask wearing.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also…