Disposition Demystified: NFDA’s 2026 Virtual Conference Offers a Deep Dive Into Today’s Emerging Options

Earn up to six CE hours without leaving the funeral home.

Brookfield, Wis. – “I’ve heard about water cremation, but I don’t really know how it works.” “My loved one was a veteran. Is burial at sea possible?” “I want something greener.” “What exactly is natural organic reduction?” “I just want to make the right choice.” 

These are just a few of the real questions families are asking about disposition and the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) will address them head-on during its 2026 virtual conference, “Disposition Demystified,” taking place February 17 and 18, 2026. 

This two-day, insight-rich online event will help funeral service professionals deepen their understanding of traditional, emerging and alternative disposition methods. As consumer expectations continue to shift, attendees will gain the clarity and confidence needed to educate families, navigate legal considerations and strengthen their service offerings. 

The virtual conference will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. CT each day. Participants will learn from experts who bring practical experience, legal insights and hands-on knowledge of today’s full spectrum of disposition options. 

“Disposition Demystified is designed for any funeral service professional who wants to stay informed, remain competitive and better serve today’s evolving consumers. This virtual format makes it easy and affordable to earn up to six CE hours without leaving your funeral home, while gaining practical knowledge about the rapidly changing disposition landscape,” said Laura Sear, NFDA Director of Education. 

Sessions Include: 

Day One – Tuesday, February 17

• “The Importance of Proper Paperwork” presented by Michael Nicodemus, vice president, cremation services, NFDA: An essential review of documentation practices that protect funeral homes from liability and ensure compliance with cremation and disposition requirements.
• “The U.S. Navy Burial at Sea Program” presented by Dr. Jennifer Lares, CFSP, founder, Mulling Mortician: A detailed look at eligibility, preparation guidelines and ceremonial elements of this meaningful veteran tribute, featuring video footage from an actual ceremony onboard.
• “Meeting Families Where They Are: Alkaline Hydrolysis in Practice” presented by Thomas Tierney, owner and funeral director, John F. Tierney Funeral Home: An accessible walkthrough of water cremation including the science, environmental benefits, common family questions and real-world insights from Connecticut’s first facility to offer it.

Day Two – Wednesday, February 18

• “Green Light on Green Funerals” presented by Darren Crouch, president, Passages International: Explore the growing demand for green alternatives and learn how funeral homes, cemeteries and cremation providers can meet consumer needs while expanding revenue opportunities. Crouch was recently named to the 2025 TIME100 Climate list, recognizing 100 global leaders advancing meaningful climate action through innovation and business leadership.
• “Natural Organic Reduction 101” presented by Mandy Stafford, preplanning and partnerships manager, Return Home: A clear, science-based overview of natural organic reduction, including process details, environmental advantages and guidance on confidently discussing it with families.
• “Understanding the Legal Landscape of Alternative Disposition Methods” presented by Chris Farmer, general counsel, NFDA: A timely examination of the regulatory, statutory and compliance issues shaping both traditional and alternative disposition offerings in the U.S.

“Disposition Demystified” will include live discussions and Q&A opportunities with presenters and fellow attendees. The conference will be emceed by Gabe Schauf, a licensed funeral director, program director and instructor with the Milwaukee Area Technical College Mortuary Science Program, and host of the NFDA podcast “A Brush With Death.” 

Funeral service professionals appreciate the high-quality of NFDA’s virtual events. Said one attendee at the 2024 virtual conference, which focused on consumer trends, “This had the same energy, flash and excitement as the Convention. I didn’t think you could make me feel like I was at a national convention while on a webinar, but this was a grand slam!” 

Register Today 

Registration for “Disposition Demystified” is now open. Fees include presentations, handouts and up to six CE hours.

• First registrant from an NFDA-member firm: $285
• First registrant from a nonmember firm: $330
• Additional registrant from the same organization: $215
• Student (accredited mortuary science program): $55

Participants can register at NFDA.org/Virtual or by calling 262-789-1880. Registration closes at 12 p.m. CT on February 16, 2026. 

NFDA is the world’s leading and largest funeral service association, serving more than 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 www.nfda.org.

Disposition Options Still Limited for British Columbia Families and Funeral Homes

Deathcare professionals in the westernmost Canadian province of British Columbia have found themselves firmly ensconced between the proverbial rock — rigid government restrictions — and a hard place — loud public opposition — when it comes to the disposition options they can offer families. 

Many BC funeral directors and residents have expressed interest in newer, alternative disposition methods of alkaline hydrolysis (AH) or natural organic reduction (NOR). However, Consumer Protection BC, the authority that enforces the province’s Cremation, Interment and Funeral Services Act, allows BC deathcare facilities to offer residents only traditional burial or flame cremation services — as the authority reportedly reminded providers via email recently. 

Amid changing consumer preferences, increasingly overloaded crematoriums, and consistently rising burial costs, some BC funeral professionals feel “handcuffed” by the act’s limitations.

Nowhere to go

According to the Cremation Association of North America’s (CANA’s) 2024 Annual Statistics Report, the cremation rate across Canada is just over 75%, while in British Columbia, specifically, more than 80% of dispositions are conducted via flame cremation. Current deathcare facilities, which are limited by the number of cremations their equipment can handle per year, are struggling to meet this still-growing demand.

Logically, expansion or relocation would be a valid option for these providers. This isn’t as easy as it seems, though. Residents in several communities where new crematorium construction was proposed have rushed to sign petitions in opposition, while in other areas local governments have actually amended their bylaws to restrict new facilities.

“Nothing unites a community like a threat of a crematorium,” Tyrel Burton, director of Alternative Funeral & Cremation Services, recently told reporter Stefan Labbe of Glacier Media Group. “But it’s a service everyone needs.”

Labbe added that some funeral homes are sending remains to Washington State for flame cremation, while one provider has opted to build a crematorium on Vancouver island, regularly shipping deceased individuals from the funeral home to the crematorium and back. Although not specified in Labbe’s article, it makes sense that these outside-the-box solutions could easily add to the bottom line of cremation costs that necessarily must be passed on to families. 

Burial in British Columbia is also becoming more expensive as physical space becomes more scarce. In 2024, one BC cemetery estimated that casket spaces in Vancouver-area cemeteries could cost over $30,000 each, with one Burnaby burial plot selling privately online for $54,000 in 2023.

More becoming eco-aware

Much of the opposition to new crematoriums stems from residents’ awareness of the carbon footprint from the unavoidable fuel consumption and emissions from flame cremation. Even traditional burial is at risk of negative environmental impact from potential soil and water contamination and the costs of maintaining cemeteries.

The National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health in Vancouver, BC, recommends “more environmentally-sustainable end-of-life options” like green burial, alkaline hydrolysis, and human composting — the last two being alternatives that more BC deathcare providers cannot legally offer under the current Act.

AH has been legalized in Saskatchewan, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, and in Ontario, although in some of these provinces, only a handful of providers have invested in AH equipment, which can cost more than $250,000. To date, no Canadian jurisdiction has legalized natural organic reduction. And although green burial has been a popular option in British Columbia for years, only 18 natural burial properties are available, with all but two being located in Vancouver and along the province’s southern border.

Work-arounds?

Just as some providers have created work-arounds to offer flame cremation to more BC families, others have been exploring creative ways to bring AH and NOR to those they serve — or, more precisely, to bring those they serve to AH and NOR.

NOR provider Return Home in Auburn, Washington, as well as Recompose in Seattle, welcome Canadian residents and will work with Canadian funeral homes to facilitate transport to their facilities. 

Labbe’s article, however, hints that the recent communications to funeral providers from the Consumer Protection BC authorities “also limit any plans local funeral homes may have harboured to work with partners in Washington state,” crossing the border “where British Columbians could have accessed the service and had the remains transferred back to Canada.”

A group of volunteers created an organization called NOR in BC to lobby BC authorities to update the Cremation, Interment and Funeral Services Act to allow NOR. “We believe that people in BC shouldn’t have to cross the border to access natural organic reduction (NOR) services as a funeral care option for themselves or their loved ones,” reads the group’s website. “That’s why we’re advocating for the legalization of NOR in British Columbia through public education and legislative action.”

It hit me the other day while I was in the process of reading a new book, “Meeting the Moment”.  It’s a story of how six United States Presidents “met the moment” and “Inspired Presidential Leadership that transformed America”.  

It’s also probably an odd place to get insight and inspiration for putting down a continuing change in American death care choices.  However, when I read of the scene that President Abraham Lincoln viewed as he arrived in Gettysburg for the famous Gettysburg Address on November 18, 1863, (the address, to dedicate the cemetery at Gettysburg, was presented on November 19) it struck me how trends slowly move forward and many times become societal mores over time.

According to the book, here’s what President Lincoln saw when his train pulled into Gettysburg, “. . .he couldn’t escape the solemness of the occasion, as spread out across the train platform were hundreds of coffins set for reburial, a reminder of the great human cost and sacrifice exhibited in this small community only months earlier.”

You see, embalming was something pretty new in 1863.  Up until that time it was mainly done in the United States for anatomical and medical study.  However, some say that under President Lincoln’s direction, embalmers were sent into the field to preserve deceased Union soldiers so they could be brought back to their home areas for burial.

Those coffins on the Gettysburg railroad platform were most likely intended for the eventual transport of Union soldiers back to their home community.  They were more than likely to be used for Union soldiers who lost their lives at Gettysburg and had been identified, embalmed, and eventually would be casketed (or put in coffins) for their trip home.

Up until that time in America, deceased citizens were hastily buried with no preservation. . . a preservation that eventually allowed for family visitations.

That change, to embalming for preservation, that is evident at Gettysburg is what probably started the movement that grew into the business of the modern American funeral home.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

It wasn’t long after that that the care of death in America became a profession and industry. . . and, it can probably all be traced back to the embalming of the body for preservation.  It sprouted embalming classes (my grandfather attended one in 1905), it sprouted the business of wholesale caskets (Batesville Casket was launched in 1884), and it was also in that time period that businesses dedicated to the soul purpose of taking care of the deceased were launched.  . . . . many funeral firms that date back farther than that date in the U.S. can trace their history to cabinet of furniture making and later morphing into the funeral business.

There is no doubt that the embalming for the preservation of the deceased lead to the building of “funeral homes” and businesses all across America.  And, for over 150 years, even with the advent of cremation as an alternative human disposition option, funeral homes have thrived.

However, things do change over time. . . .and America now is a nation in which only about 35-50% of all deceased are embalmed.  Direct cremation with no viewing prior to the cremation has led to that change. . . . .

And I think what we are now seeing in the small growth of other forms of human disposition will over time continue that movement.  There is no doubt that the American public has a desire for other options at this time and, in my book, that is or will become, the biggest driver of how American death care vendors will operate their businesses in the next 50 to 75 years.

According to this article, alkaline hydrolysis, or water cremation as it is termed, is legal in 28 states and, according to this article, natural organic reduction, or human composting as it is termed, is legal in 11 states.  And, both options are expected to grow legally as state legislatures convene in 2025.

Movements like this happen slowly, but once they pick up steam they are hard to stop.  I think that is the case with the growing human disposition options in America.  You know that they are somewhat reaching a mainstream of thought when America’s largest death care purveyor begins offering the options. . . . . This press release (which is already a year and a half old) from Service Corporation International tells of them doing just that.

Here’s what SCI Seattle Market Director at the time Keith Baumgardner said, “Our client families have been asking for different options to inter their loved one.  Human composting is a new way of returning our bodies to the earth.”

There are a lot of other issues happening in the greater death care world, but if I had to pick one issue or trend that I see materializing and affecting the way death care providers serve their clientele in the next 50 years it will be the continued legality and interest in these newer methods of human disposition.

Who knows when fully implemented and legal in the United States what percentage of deaths will use these methods. . . . I don’t think, at least for the foreseeable future, either of them will top cremation as the disposition of choice.  However, I’m pretty certain that both alkaline hydrolysis and natural organic reduction will continue to have some upward movement in the numbers and percentage of people who choose those methods. . . . and as they gain popularity funeral homes will have to find a way to put them into their menu of service options.

Related—“A Sacred Event:  Why interest is growing in natural burials.”  San Antonio Express-News (TX)

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