I received a marketing piece from a retirement wealth management company the other day and in looking at it found some statistics on the Baby Boomer generation that I feel pertains to funeral homes, cemeteries, and death care in general.  In particular, I wondered how funeral homes are reaching out and making sure that they connect with this group to build market share and business.

Here’s four facts that the marketing piece laid out that I believe have some implication on how your funeral home can prosper depending on how you strategize in turning these groups of older adults into future clients.  Considering that the Baby Boom generation is generally considered being born between 1946 and 1964, we have about five more years of Baby Boomers turning 65 years of age.

1. The 65-and-older population is one of the fastest -growing demographics in the United States.  In 2022 there were 58 million Americans aged 65 and older.  That number is expected to grow to 82 million by 2050.
2. Every day between now and the end of the decade 10,000 baby boomers are expected to turn 65.  That’s one roughly every 8 seconds.
3. Seventy-three percent of retirees say they are confident about having enough money to live comfortably throughout their retirement years.
4. Sixty-four percent of retirees depend on Social Security as a major source of their income.  The average monthly Social Security retirement benefit as of January 2024 was $1,907 per month.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  There’s a lot of information that you can take from these four simple facts about the Baby Boomer generation and funeral service.  For instance, if the number of people 65 and older is going to grow from 58 million to 82 million in the next couple of decades, funeral service is poised for a greater number of deaths moving forward.

Another inference that I received from this information is that 73% of retirees indicate that they believe they can live comfortably through retirement.  If that is true, it is probably an indication that price is not the deciding factor on why they are, in many instances, spending less on death care services.  I think that proves that for those individuals death care professionals must be really thorough in going over death care planning with them. . . . . Simply because they say they may want “cremation” does not necessarily indicate that they are not willing to spend for the services or “after cremation” products that may be available to them.

Satisfying that group of people with their death care expectations will require that death care providers are familiar with all options available for funerals, cremations, alkaline hydrolysis, and natural organic reduction as well as the memorialization options available following those disposition methods.

On the other hand and somewhat in contrast to that thinking there also seems to be a large number — 64% — that rely on Social Security as their primary source of income. . . . and that monthly income is, on average, $1,907 per month.  While that group of people may wish to have traditional funeral services and more death care services, those services may become out of this group’s reach financially. . . . So, it appears that there may be a group of Baby Boomers who will require lower cost care and disposition services also.

The secret with this group of consumers will be how to make their service choices profitable for the funeral home.  It’s also conceivable that those consumers who are “comfortable” might fall out of that group into this “less comfortable” group because of potential health care and senior living costs as they age.

I think as more and more data becomes available about the death care consumers of the next two decades, death care providers will be able to hone in and offer the proper services necessary to be profitable.  Until that information becomes clearer it would be my position to put a full-court press on preneed services to get in front of these people before competitors to engage with them and serve each individual with preneed plans for the services that they are comfortable with.

Related Article — Fact Sheet: Aging in the United States.  Population Reference Bureau

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