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

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”

Are we living in the age of Debt, Demographics, and Disruption?  And, if we are, are there parallels from life and investing that might also move into the Death Care realm?

I heard the phrase “Debt, Demographics, and Disruption” when I sat down to catch my breath on Wednesday afternoon after returning from an afternoon of working on the lawn at our lake cabin.  It was mid-afternoon and I heard it on the Claman Countdown on Fox Business Channel which is aired one hour prior to markets closing.

The phrase caught my attention because of the word “Demographics” and how I always relate America’s changing demographics with how it will affect the Death Care business.  Turns out the Claman Countdown was interviewing Mike Smith, an investment advisor  with Allspring Global and he mentioned that we were living in a world of Debt, Demographics, and Disruption.  You can see a short video of his explanation and a printed transcript here from Yahoo Finance.

In any regard catching the phrase made me think, as I mentioned, in Death Care terms and here’s some thoughts I have on the phrase and how it relates to Death Care businesses.

Debt — I think it is good for businesses to be nimble  —  to be able to move their resources into categories that will build their businesses.  If you have too big a percentage of your revenue going into the expense category of “Debt or Interest” it is hard to be nimble because it is hard to stop making those payments.

Just yesterday we published an article that Great Britain’s Dignity Funeral Directors sold about 90 of their under-performing funeral homes and used the proceeds to reduce their debt.  On this side of the Atlantic Carriage Service has also been upfront to their stockholders, through their quarterly reports,  that part of their process going forward is to reduce the percentage of debt they are paying.  Paying it off early will make them more nimble.

Take a look at your debt service.  If there is a way to pay some off early, think about doing it. . . . It will give you more flexibility moving forward.

Demographics —  Mr. Smith talked about the aging of America in terms of how health care payments will be dealt with and who will benefit from the coming aging tsunami.

According to him, Baby Boomers start turning 80 next year and we will soon have 70 million of them.  That will be a boom for funeral homes and death care providers if. . . . . . . your locations are in the locations that these Baby Boomers live in and if the services you provide are what they are asking for.

Disruption —  Mr. Smith talked about Disruption in some of the same terms that others do. . . with the focus being on how Artificial Intelligence and technology moves forward in our lives.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

I’m pretty certain that there will be some disruption in Death Care. . . . . . What we don’t know is how disruptive things may become or if the disruption is minor over time and does not change the business of Death Care which would include disposition, ceremony, and memorialization that is usually lead by the traditional funeral homes.

There is already some movement away from those traditional retail funeral outlets and time will tell if it is a fad or a long-term social change.

In any regard a good column to end the weekend on. . . . As you’re mowing the yard or sitting at the lake this weekend you can ponder funeral service and how the 3D’s mentioned in this article will intersect with it.

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