I’ve told you before that I sometimes get ideas for Funeral Director Daily articles from the strangest of sources.  Today’s thought process in thinking about year-end planning came to my mind on Wednesday afternoon when I was on the treadmill — it was 41 degrees, cold and cloudy in Minnesota — so I was inside listening to an afternoon business talk show on television while I got my daily regiment in.

The talking heads were talking about the United States’ national debt that now sits at about $38.15 trillion.  In my opinion, it is so large that it just blows my mind looking at all of the zero’s when I write it out.  Anyway, one of the commentators mentioned that the last time the United States had zero debt as a nation was when President Andrew Jackson paid it off on January 1, 1835.  Just for the record, part of how he did it was cancelling infrastructure spending and selling off lands in the western United States.  . . . . The results were not great right away for the U.S. as the federal real estate sales caused a “bubble” in real estate values and other issues led to the “Panic of 1837”.  Here’s a story from History.com on the subject.

This story is not about debt, but the idea of debt and the time around mid-November made me think of end-of-the-year business planning.  Have you looked at your business’ situation and understand how you want to spend the cash-flow that has came in during the year?

I was pretty good about planning and pretty good at holding off major expenses unless I had budgeted for them.  So, at the end of the year I generally had almost all of the cash-flow from the projected profit for the year in a bank account and it was time to decide what I would do with it.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

It was at this time of the year that I got serious about what I would do with that money.  Depending on the financial performance for the year my first thought was always about employee bonuses which included retirement plans that included shareholders. . . . and then it was about sharing some of what we had made with non-profit entities in our community through some tax-deductible contributions.  (By the way — we always allocated 1% of annual gross revenues for what we termed “Christian Giving”.  Our team members helped us decide to which organizations we should send it to each year.)

Next, we looked at Section 179 depreciable items to see if there was anything we could take advantage of before the end of the year and expense the item completely during that calendar year.

Finally, if we had debt — and we carried very little — we might look at paying it down, especially if interest rates were on the high side.   And we would look at putting some of the cash-flow into our funeral home savings account to be used for future projects or to be simply divided up among shareholders when we decided to leave the business.

My goal here is not to tell you what to do because every business is different and there are thousands of ways to allocate a business’s cash-flow, but simply to get you to think about what might be good options now so that you have time to implement those options between now and December 31.

To that end, I came upon two short articles from the business consultants and tax specialists at CLA that might be of interest to you:

1. Year-end planning to strengthen your business operations
2. Tax Bill signed into law:  What it means for you and your tax strategy.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

In a new world order that includes cremation, alkaline hydrolysis, and natural organic reduction it is sometimes forgotten that over 1 million caskets are sold in the United States every year.  To that discussion we will bring you some news from a couple of casket companies today.

Batesville, long known for its casket products, is continuing their transition to a total solutions company for funeral homes.  To that end they are introducing their “Remembrance Store” which will be a co-branded turnkey e-commerce storefront designed to generate incremental revenue streams for funeral homes.

According to this recent press release from Batesville,  “families are increasingly turning to outside providers and often shopping online for urns, remembrance jewelry, keepsakes, and other memorial products, leaving funeral homes vulnerable to both lost revenue and relationships”.

According to that press release:

• 58% of pre-need and 64% of at-need families researched funeral products such as urns and jewelry online, highlighting a need for shoppable digital resources consumers can access prior to contacting the funeral home.

• 30% of families buy urns before contacting a funeral home.

• 38% of pre-need and 37% of at-need consumers purchased remembrance products through Amazon.

• 32% of pre-need and 36% of at-need families consider shopping online to be a more ideal place to purchase memorialization products vs. only 20% at funeral homes.

Batesville’s “Remembrance Store”  will give families who prefer to shop online the convenience of purchasing through their trusted funeral home, which would allow funeral homes to capture that online revenue that may be going to other sources at this time.

Private Label Caskets, operating out of Indianapolis, Indiana, recently posted the following notice to their website:

Another Announcement ––  While we didn’t see it as a press release on the Batesville website we did receive the following notice from Batesville on their Facebook page which appeared on our Facebook scroll on October 28:

“We’re honored that Private Label has chosen Batesville as their recommended domestic supplier for their customers.  In times of change, we believe strength comes from partnership — and we’re committed to making this transition seamless for every funeral home they serve.  At Batesville, we’re proud to honor the tradition that defines this profession while driving the transformation prepares it for the future.”

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  The National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) recently released this report which predicts that traditional burial in a casket will drop from today’s selection rate of 33.2% to approximately 13.0% –  a number that is lower than was originally thought —  by 2045.

We question what that might mean for casket companies in raw numbers.  Here’s some available statistics and some projected ideas that may give meaning to that answer.

In 2024, the United States reported approximately 3.1 million deaths with a 33.2% burial rate.  Extrapolating those numbers would mean that about 1,029,000 caskets were needed for those burials.

In 2050, projections tell us that the United States will grow to about 380 million people and the death rate per thousand people will grow from today’s level of about 9.06 deaths per 1,000 people to about 10.3 deaths per 1,000 people because of an “older average age”.  Projections tell us extrapolating those numbers would bring about a raw number death total of about 3.9 million residents.  At a 13.0% casket useage that would mean that about 507,000 caskets would be needed for those deaths.

Total US Population
1950 = 148 million, 2010 = 309 million, 2025 = 343 million

So, if those population, death rate, and disposition projections hold up over the next two decades you can see that only about 1/2 of the caskets used today will be needed in 2050.  If those numbers hold up there will probably be casket company consolidations and, as Batesville is doing, branching of the company into other segments.

U.S. Death Rate
1950=9.65/1000, 2010=8.00/1000, 2021=10.40/1000, 2021 represents a rise per pandemic

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

Trying to be a “BTC” (Business to Consumer) casket company has been tried before and even with great effort the cause was difficult.  However, the people at Titan Casket must relate to the Curtis Mayfield tune “Keep on Keeping On” as they seem to be moving one step forward all the time and growing as a company.

Not only are they selling more caskets to the traditional funeral consumer but they are gaining disciples among funeral homes joining their funeral home partnership (which you can learn about here).  In addition, I recently learned of their new venture helping consumers weave the sometimes tangled path of available funeral and cremation options available to consumers.   The company has formed the Titan Concierge division and hired proficient funeral service experts to handle this task.  You can learn about Titan Concierge here.

The people at Titan have added Titan Concierge which will help consumers from “Start to Finish” coordinating logistics with funeral homes and service providers.  From perusing the Titan Concierge website it appears that this service is available for $199.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  As a retired funeral director and funeral home owner the growth of Titan has been very interesting to me.  I was never very bullish that a company that deals over the internet and by phone could succeed in such a personal business as Death Care.  However, the founders of Titan Casket, some of whom have experience as Amazon executives, have proved to me that internet sales can work for all types of items.  (As an aside here, I’m also continuously amazed by my many winter neighbors in Florida who buy their cars onlive via Carvana — every week it seems that the Carvana delivery vehicle is pulling into our neighborhood).

So, I don’t think the internet sale of caskets sounds odd to anybody anymore.  And, I’ve told more than one enterprising company in the Death Care business that if they are interested in online sales they should look to Titan Casket and their ability to capture consumers as a roadmap.

A little bit “Edgy” —  I guess don’t knock what is working, however,  as an “old-style, old-fashioned” funeral director some of the ways that Titan has reached the American consumer looks a little edgy to me. . . . .but it evidently is working.  Ad Age recently took  note of the company’s “Heavenly Guarantee” of their merchandise.

You can access the 48-second video ad starring Titan spokesman and actor David Dastmalchian here.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

It will have been over two years since the last horse-drawn caisson carried a United States military member to their grave at Arlington National Cemetery when the horse-drawn caissons are again given that opportunity.

According to this article, “The U.S. Army announced . .  the limited reintegration of the caisson into funeral services at Arlington National Cemetery”.   Caissons were suspended from use in May 2023 in an attempt to improve the health and conditions of the horse herd.

The horse drawn caissons will go back into limited action beginning the week of June 2, 2025.  The “limited” reintegration is necessary to ensure the safe and sustainable reintegration of the caisson horses into the unique and dynamic environment of an active cemetery according to the press release.

Here’s what Karen Durham-Aguilera, executive director of the Office of Army Cemeteries and Army National Military Cemeteries had to say about the re-implementation process, “After careful consideration and coordination, we are pleased to reintegrate the caisson conveyance into funeral services at Arlington National Cemetery, a solemn and revered tradition that honors our veterans and service members as they are laid to rest”.

Renea Yates, director of the Office of Army Cemeteries and acting superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery, had this to say about the re-integration of the caisson corps, “Preserving the caisson as a limited resource is paramount to the Army’s decision to redefine eligibility for the caisson conveyance in conjunction with the full military funeral honors with escort.  While (the limitation is) disappointing to some families, this decision allows us to reintegrate our working horses back to the cemetery and safely continue the sacred duty of escorting our nation’s heroes to their final resting place.”

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  For me the horse-drawn caisson is an iconic symbol.  I remember seeing it used for the funeral of President John F. Kennedy when I was in Kindergarten.

As I grew older I also learned of our family’s connection with Sen. Knute Nelson of my home community.  As the book “Norwegian Yankee” points out Nelson “was the first Scandinavian-American politician to attain national prominence, as congressman, as governor of the state of Minnesota, and as a United States Senator.  He came to personify for many of his compatriots the American dream, moving as Nelson did from inauspicious beginnings as a poor immigrant boy to the heights of political power. His career symbolized treasured images in the iconography of American political culture.”

Sen. Knute Nelson funeral cortege moves by Lake Agnes on its way to Kinkead Cemetery – 1923.

I grew up knowing of this iconic (to me) photograph of the service that was conducted for then Senator Nelson in our hometown.  Dying in 1923 while still serving as a United States Senator our family funeral home was entrusted to carry out his local funeral services.  The photograph shows his cortege moving from the city armory where services were held along the shores of Lake Agnes to his final resting place of Kinkead Cemetery.  Please note the horse-drawn caisson that was used.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”