I came across this recent article from USA Today titled “Americans are going into debt over death.  Here are affordability tips.”  Reading that article led me to a survey and results from Debt.com and another article, that you can access here, titled “The Financial Toll of Grief: More than 1 in 3 Americans took on debt after a loved one’s death.” 

The Debt.com survey, which was done in October, pointed out that in 2025, 37% of those surveyed had taken on debt after the death of a loved one.  That compared to only a 14% rate from one year earlier.  The survey also suggested that 57% of Americans say “they couldn’t cover a loved one’s funeral today without going into debt.”

Debt.com’s Chairman, Howard Dvorkin, made this comment about those results in the USA Today article, “This one was a little shocking and it kind of makes sense.”  The article then mentioned that “Inflation has lifted consumer prices by at least 24% since early 2020 seeding recent talk of a national affordability crisis.”  

The USA Today article also pointed out that those in the Generation X cohort of ages (born between 1965 and 1980) that fall between 45 and 60 have taken on more funeral debt than any other generational cohort.   43% of Gen Xer’s say that they have taken on debt to pay for funerals.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take :  I suggest that you read the linked articles — the survey article has some very good graphics.  I found both articles to be good, honest, and because they were written  from a perspective that is not one of a Death Care professional they might contain opinions that we agree with, but are not always taken seriously because we are the pre-planning advocates.  For instance. . . here were a couple of comments:

• “When there is no funeral plan, survivors scramble”
• “Most people don’t have the family conversation (about death)”
• “Having that conversation is probably the most important thing”

While I’m no longer on the front lines of funeral service, I remember what it was like sitting with families who had just experienced a loved one’s death and did not have the resources, or credit ability, to fund the memorial experience that they would like to have.  It’s never an easy experience for the family members or the funeral director making the arrangements.

And, I’ve worried lately about the apparent “K-shaped” economy and those it may be leaving behind in my own community.  With compounding inflation over the past couple of years and wage growth in many sectors of our economy not keeping up with that inflation, this affordability issue was bound to happen.

You can’t blame funeral homes and memorialization providers for raising their prices because inflation has caused virtually all of their expenses to go up.  For instance, Angie and I have lived in our home for 34 years and never had an insurance claim. . . however, only a few days ago I received an annual homeowner’s insurance premium renewal that is up 28.2% over last year’s premium.

I’m not so sure that the increases are over yet for me, for you, and for Death Care and other businesses. . . . . From my point of view, health insurance premiums are just one item that I see going up.  Think of this perspective — Social Security has announced a 2.8% cost-of-living increase for its recipients for 2026, but the basic Medicare premium for those recipient’s has been announced as a 10.8% increase in premium.

And, for funeral homes and other businesses. . . .if your health care costs are going up, then so is your cost of doing business and those costs will more than likely be passed on to client families — making affordability of funeral and cremation services move up for them.

In my opinion, the best thing that could happen for business, and the American consumer at this time, is for the inflationary cycle to settle down a little bit.

Related — You might be able to help families find hidden resources by using the no-cost Sunset App.  Here’s what one reader told me recently when he tried using the app, “I was on the Sunset Software App yesterday and was reminded that you introduced (me to it).  I think this is the BEST app I’ve seen so far for the ‘Estate Settlement’ side of the business.  Super Clean and so easy to navigate.” 

Here’s a link to what Sunset App can do.

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Americans Embrace Digital Funeral Planning While Still Seeking Professional Guidance, New NFDA Consumer Awareness and Preferences Study Reveals 

Brookfield, Wis. – The National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA), the world’s leading and largest funeral service association, has released its 2025 Consumer Awareness & Preferences Study, revealing significant shifts in how Americans approach death and funeral planning. The comprehensive research shows consumers are increasingly embracing digital solutions while simultaneously demonstrating growing reliance on funeral directors’ expertise. 

The research continues NFDA’s ongoing effort since 2012 to track evolving consumer attitudes and help funeral service professionals better serve families. 

Key findings include: 

● Digital adoption surges: Nearly 30% of families now complete all funeral arrangements online, while 40% of consumers have used the services of a funeral home they found on Facebook—nearly doubling from 21% in 2023. 

● Professional expertise increasingly valued: 44.4% would feel not very confident or not at all confident planning a funeral without a funeral director’s help—up 7.1% since 2024, despite growing digital adoption. Additionally, of those consumers who planned a funeral online, nearly 48% still needed the assistance of a funeral director and more than 15% felt the online planning process was either impersonal and lacked the level of compassionate service they would have received had they planned with a funeral director. 

● Religion remains central: 75.7% consider religious components very important or somewhat important in funeral services, while nearly 64% would arrange livestreaming for distant relatives. 

● Green options gain appeal: More than 61.4% of consumers are interested in exploring “green” funeral and natural burial options. 

● Economic pressures shape choices: 55.4% of respondents earned less than $50,000 annually, compared to 38.5% in 2024, influencing demand for value.

● Pre-planning preferences evolve: While 19.4% have pre-planned and prepaid for arrangements, primarily to guarantee prices and relieve survivors of financial burden, 31.8% prefer a hybrid approach combining online planning with direct funeral director consultation. 

“This research demonstrates that while technology is transforming how families access funeral services, the fundamental value of professional guidance remains irreplaceable,” said Dutch Nie, NFDA Immediate Past-President and Nie Family Funeral Home & Cremation Services owner, CEO/President and funeral director . “Funeral directors are successfully adapting to digital expectations while maintaining their essential role as trusted advisors during families’ most difficult times.” 

The study also reveals that consumers increasingly view funeral directors as valuable experts, with growing recognition of their professional expertise in navigating complex arrangements and providing essential support during grief. 

About the Study 

The 2025 NFDA Consumer Awareness & Preferences Study continues NFDA’s ongoing research tracking consumer attitudes since 2012. The study is designed to help funeral service professionals better understand and serve evolving family needs while maintaining the highest standards of care and professionalism. Conducted in the spring of 2025, 1,126 Americans age 40 and older were surveyed. 

About NFDA 

NFDA is the world’s leading and largest funeral service association, serving 20,000 individual members who represent nearly 11,000 funeral homes in the United States and 49 countries around the world. NFDA is the trusted leader, beacon for ethics and the strongest advocate for the profession. NFDA is the association of choice because it offers funeral professionals comprehensive educational resources, tools to manage successful businesses, guidance to become pillars in their communities and the expertise to foster future generations of funeral professionals. NFDA is headquartered in Brookfield, Wis., and has an office in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit NFDA.org. 

With These Sketchy Solutions, No Wonder Early Americans Didn’t Embalm Their Dead

While the practice of embalming stretches back to the ancient Egyptians, Americans didn’t begin embalming their dead until the Civil War, and then it was only for the purposes of safely transporting the bodies of fallen soldiers to their homes for proper burial. But the idea of preserving dead bodies wasn’t exactly foreign to the people of the “New World.”  

In fact, early Americans were able to read all about the evolving practice of embalming in their newspapers. All across Europe and in the larger American cities, physicians, pharmacists, and scientists seemed to be fascinated by the possibility of keeping deceased people intact for various purposes, and news of their experimental techniques was often published throughout the States. 

Perhaps the key word here, though, is “experimental.” The solutions and procedures early Americans read about ranged from the ridiculous to the barbaric. So, it stands to reason that if Egyptian mummification and these early attempts were the only exposure the colonists and settlers had to embalming, no wonder it didn’t catch on until it was an absolute necessity. Just check out these stories below, featuring some of the sketchiest pre-formaldehyde embalming experiments that appeared in the U.S. papers.

Submersion in wine, 1790 and 1800, France

Leave it to the French to propose wine as a solution for preserving humans. In 1790, a Frenchman proclaimed to have witnessed insects being revived “in the rays of the sun” after being drowned and sealed in a bottle of Madeira. This led him to propose a similar option for humans. Ten years later, an article recalled that the cerebellum of French writer and philosopher Voltaire had been preserved in “spirits of wine” after his 1789 death. The French government had just agreed to purchase this artifact and include it in a monument in a library.

Pyroligenous acid and sulphate of iron, 1823 and 1826, Connecticut and France

Formaldehyde may not have been the most mainstream chemical when it was determined to be the best embalming solution, but these early concoctions of pyroligenous acid and iron sulphate do make one wonder how these became options. Especially because we now know pyroligenous acid by the more common name of “liquid smoke” (yes, the same liquid smoke that you use for backyard barbecues) and iron sulphate is used for iron deficiencies in humans as well as plants. Also interesting is the method suggested for applying the iron sulphate; the first part of the article (above) mentions months-long submersion of body parts, but later recommends “adding riverwater” and applying “with a brush over the surface of the part to be preserved.”

Sublimate of mercury and carbonization, 1835 and 1836, France and Italy

In the 1830s, these would-be embalmers took inspiration from the battlefield and the blazing desert sands of Africa. Larry, the French army surgeon in the first piece above, must have thought that if a sublimate of mercury — what we know now as the highly corrosive mercuric chloride — could prevent dry rot in timber, why not try it on bodies? Segato, an Italian mapmaker, found a substance that turned bodies to “stone.” He proceeded to practice on birds, snakes, and “various portions of the human body,” which he inlaid in a table, and proposed his invention as a “petrifective process.”

More not-so-successful embalming techniques

You get the point, right? Although there’s not enough room here to share each of these seemingly-breakthrough discoveries, here are a few more that we found in early American newspapers:

• Beeswax, 1829, Boston
• Painting with white lead, 1838, New York
• Covering with salt, 1843, France
• Coating with wax then filling the coffin with Plaster of Paris, 1848, New York

It wasn’t long after these dubious options were presented that French chemist Jean Gannal discovered arterial injection, formaldehyde was introduced, and mortician Dr. Thomas Holmes of New York combined these discoveries to become the “father of American embalming.” Holmes’ method became the most widely accepted and practiced solution.

Although new embalming techniques and materials are still being developed today, these solutions just don’t seem as outlandish as those to which our forefathers were unfortunately subjected — but be sure that Connecting Directors will be the first to bring you the news.