The US Funeral Industry Today

How much is the U.S. Funeral Industry worth? The U.S. funeral market is currently estimated to be worth around $20 billion annually, with 2.4 million funerals taking place each year. Due to the increase in the U.S. senior population in the coming years, this death rate is set to rise. There are an estimated 19,000 … Read more

How to Claim FEMA Funeral Assistance for a COVID-related death

In April 2021 Congress passed legislation to authorize FEMA to provide financial assistance to those families who had incurred funeral expenses related to the passing of a family member from COVID-19.  This relates ONLY to funeral expenses paid out after January 20th, 2020. FEMA is now accepting applications to claim back funeral expenses incurred.  As … Read more

Maritime Mortuary – the cruise to eternity!

CNN ran an interesting story today from Asia about the design project for a floating cemetery. The title of “A cruise for cremains” caught my eye as I envisaged that the Carnival Cruise Ship Line was introducing a service offering ash scattering cruises from the U.S. to the Caribbean. I recently read of a baby … Read more

Funeral Poverty in the 21st Century

We all are familiar with the term ‘poverty’ and what it implies. The US Census 2017 reported that 13.9% of Americans live below the poverty line or poverty threshold. The poverty threshold is defined as a household income of $16,240 for a family of 2. This, however, does not take into account the thousands of … Read more

Funeral Homes Turn to Event Hosting to Boost Revenues

This seems to be a growing trend among progressive funeral homes today. Since we first published an article in January 2011 about ‘US Funeral Homes Adapting to Host Weddings and Other Life Celebration Events’, it seems there are more and more innovative ways in which funeral homes are serving as community centers. The bottom line … Read more

Funeral Homes catering to Hispanic Population

According to the 2008 census, people of Hispanic origin are now the nation’s largest ethnic or race minority. Hispanics constitute 15% of the nation’s total population, with 48% of the Hispanic-origin population living in California and Texas. With an ever-increasing Hispanic population, even the Funeral Industry is now adapting to how to fulfill the growing … Read more