cemetery

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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…

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…

It would be my assumption that the majority of the country’s cemeteries do not maintain a trust for the maintenance and care of its graves.  While this may differ from state to state, most states’ perpetual care statutes exempt small family cemeteries, not for profit cemeteries, municipal cemeteries, county cemeteries and church cemeteries from their…

The Missouri legislature has passed a bill to authorize county commissioners to diversify their cemetery trusts.  Prior to the passage of House Bill No. 51 Missouri’s counties were restricted in how they could invest cemetery care funds.  Essentially, a Missouri county could invest care funds only in government bonds.  But, since the mortgage bond crisis…

For consumers who need installments to pay for their preneed arrangement, funeral directors report that the $100 monthly payment is the comfort threshold for most individuals.   For a widow planning her own funeral, the $100 monthly payment will require an installment term of six years or longer.  If the widow needs to also cover an…

One message that can be taken from the FAMIC’s Talk of a Lifetime campaign is that funeral directors need to re-think their prearrangement procedures.  Perhaps too much emphasis has been given to preneed, and not enough to the planning process.  Prearrangement marketing and procedures have often been crafted by the funeral home’s preneed funding agent. …