The question posed in the headline is interesting.  What is happening in Great Britain may be a precursor of what could happen in North America about the billing amount to consumers for the growing trend of Direct Cremations.  A recent 2025 survey of 200 funeral directors and 6,000 adults showed that Direct Cremations without services are now chosen by 15.3% of Brits — up from 12% just last year.  You can read about the survey in this article from Funeral Service Times which may, however, put up pay a wall for you.

The survey also showed, however, that  Great Britain’s independent funeral directors have “reduced the cost” of Direct Cremations 0.6% in the past year with the average price now being US$ 2,524.  The survey and report, conducted by Funeral Solution Expert (FSE) and the National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors (SAIF), noted that “. . .Market leader Pure Cremation charges £1,495  (US$ 2,014) for an at-need direct cremation – £378  (US$ 510) less than the independent average, but its prepaid plan has climbed 25% in three years to £1,995 (US$ 2,688), higher than many local (funeral home) equivalents.”

Declan Maguire, immediate past president of SAIF made these comments on the pricing situation, “While on the face of it national operators still appear cheaper, the final cost of a direct cremation with a big brand can work out the same or even more than an independent funeral director. This is because small firms tend not to disaggregate their prices, meaning the advertised cost is exactly what a consumer will pay.”

When you couple that thought with the FSE finding that “most bereaved families prefer their loved one to be cared for within 15 miles of home” you begin to see some of the challenges national online cremation providers face.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  I’ve been in tune with branding and building brands since the 10th grade when a speaker who owned a used car business named “Sun Auto” came to our business class to discuss how he built his business.  I distinctly remember this person telling us when he came to town there were other family-owned automobile businesses and he had to forge a market for his cars.  He successfully did so with billboards with a simple “Sun logo” all over town while the other dealers just used their names such as Smith Autos, Johnson Autos, etc.

That story is one of the reasons that upon becoming the manager of our funeral home I immediately visited with an advertising agency about adopting a logo for our funeral home.  Up until that time all the funeral homes just operated as family names with no other identity.  We continue to use the same logo and marks today with some simple up-to-date changes.  And, I think the identity played a more than casual role in our success.

I continue to wait for a true national cremation provider in America.  There are some “wannabees” and some of them are with very big companies who have cremation provider businesses under a separate consumer brand (name).  However, in my thought process, none of these entities have a true national profile.

I recently read the following in a Senior Note Prospectus from Service Corporation International (SCI):  “We are well known for our Dignity Memorial^® brand, North America’s first transcontinental brand of deathcare products and services.”

I don’t agree with that statement because I really don’t see “Dignity Memorial” known as a house-hold brand name.  Maybe I’m wrong but I think that is a stretch.  Quite frankly, I don’t think SCI has put enough of an effort into the branding of their funeral homes with this name as in most cases it is still the “acquired local name” that has pull in the local markets.

And, I think that “acquired local name” pull is one reason that there is no true national brand for funeral homes or direct cremation providers in North America at this time.  I think that same reasoning proves to be a headwind for those that want to establish a national network of cremation centers.

Another headwind to these “wannabee” providers is the vast amount of “flyover” country in America.  While the density-rich urban areas of our country are perfect for the high-volume, low-margin direct cremation operators there is no such opportunity in flyover country where volumes will be low because of the population density issue.  Pure Cremation may be finding that their costs are rising as they move from serving London to serving the all of England.

So, maybe this “cost realization” of serving larger geogrpahic areas to those that want to be identified as a “national brand” will raise the price of online direct cremation operators.  And, if it does, then the ability of local independent operators to compete on price will be coupled with most families desire to be served by a company within 15 miles of home and be a well-needed shot-in-the-arm for local operators . . . .  and another obstacle for their online direct cremation competitors.

Here are some Direct Cremation operators with large (but not as yet national footprint):

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There is no doubt that while many investors (and President Trump) have waited for the Federal Reserve to set lower interest rates going forward and negotiated tariff rates lots of other investors have simply stayed invested and have found gains in the stocks of the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and Nasdaq.  Those indexes have returned gains of 10.4%, 7.1%, and 12.6% respectively year-to-date (up to September 5) in 2025.

And, of course, if you had invested in the Morningstar Global Next Generation Artificial Intelligence Index, that you can read about here, your investment would have grown 26.4% year-to-date up to September 5.

However, if you had put your money into the four stocks that comprise the Funeral Director Daily Death Care Index (DCI) from January 2 to September 5, 2025, you would be sitting on a negative return of just less than 1% for the same time period.  The unscientific Death Care Index is comprised of owning one share of stock of each of four public companies that have at least a portion of their revenues coming from Death Care.

Those stocks are Service Corporation International, Carriage Services, Matthews International, and Security National Financial Corporation (SNFC).  The DCI had a cumulative value on January 2, 2025 of $155.13 and on September 5, 2025, virtually two-thirds through the calendar year, the DCI rests at a cumulative value of $153.88  —  for a decrease in value of just under 1%.

Here’s a graphic of the information contained above:

Carriage Services bucks the trend — Carriage Services stock value increased in the time period from $39.02 per share to $42.74 per share, an increase of 9.53%.  As you can see from the chart above they were the only DCI stock to have a measurable gain for 2025’s first eight months.

This article from Yahoo Finance reports keys that management mentioned in their 2nd Quarter 2025 remarks that led to that increase.  Included among those key factors were:

• Funeral Segment volume growth
• Strong Preneed sales momentum
• Overhead Cost reductions
• Portfolio repositioning — The divestiture of non-core assets (presumably funeral home and cemetery facilities) coupled with the acquisitions of “higher growth, high-margin properties” (presumably funeral home and cemetery facilities).

Disclaimer-– The author of this article for Funeral Director Daily is a shareholder of Service Corporation International, Carriage Services, and Security National Financial Corporation.

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Haggling, Negotiating, and Price Matching: Are These Strategies Right for Deathcare?

Last month, a deathcare company in Australia announced via press release the country’s “First Funeral Price Match Policy” so they can be sure families “Never Overpay Again!” The service, dubbed FuneralSmart, is offered by EziFunerals, an online platform that helps families “connect and collaborate” with independent funeral homes. In the release, FuneralSmart promises to “try and match” the lowest prices consumers may find so they get the “best deal.”

Here in the States, terms like “deal” and “price match” are common, if not expected, in conversations on car lots and grocery checkout lines. Although funeral pricing has been a point of contention since the 1963 publication of Jessica Mitford’s The American Way of Death called attention to the subject and the Funeral Trade Commission’s 1984 Funeral Rule sought to mitigate any issues, haggling for lower prices for deathcare products and services just hasn’t really caught on. But should it?

Jargon and culture

The majority of purchasers — of anything — want the best price they can possibly get … but that doesn’t mean they’re all comfortable asking for it, or that haggling is appropriate in every setting. Price negotiation is just part of the process of buying a car or house, and plenty of grocery or retail stores will keep copies of their competitors’ ads on hand at the checkout counters so shoppers can easily compare prices and ask the cashier to match a deal.

However, sales are rarely, if ever, the primary goal, nor the most polished skillset, of a funeral director. You’re not stuffing full-color ad inserts in the weekly shop-and-save paper or slapping neon “deep discount” promos on your caskets. And you’re certainly not pushing a contract across the table and telling a family, “Well, I talked to my manager and this is the lowest I can go,” expecting them to fire back a counteroffer. 

If deathcare has learned anything since 1984, it’s that price is important to consumers, even those making funeral arrangements. And of course, the latest FTC guidelines strongly advocate that prices be posted online to allow families to shop around, if they prefer, and they can always call for a quote. But comparing prices is still a different animal than price haggling or matching, and the at-need arrangement meeting or selection room still don’t seem like the right place for these negotiations.

Not unheard of

Even though it’s not common for families to ask for a better price, it’s not altogether unheard of. Several discussions on the Reddit and Quora platforms tackled the issue, with several current or former deathcare professionals weighing in alongside consumers. Here are some of the comments:

• “Most funeral homes will price match one of their caskets to match Wal-mart or Costco if you tell them you intend to take that route.”
• “Contrary to popular belief, most funeral directors are willing to give discounts to families that ask in an appropriate manner.”
• “I occasionally saw it happen; but those tended to be the clients who we wished we had let walk away instead. As a rule, they were the most demanding – and when you were done, the least satisfied – of all our clients.”

Some of the most helpful replies from funeral directors, though, reveal the ways they made funerals more affordable for families without making it obvious that they were price matching or participating in negotiations. They explained that, basically, they listened to the families, and if price was a concern, they would simply and subtly introduce or suggest similar, yet lower-priced, alternatives for consideration, whether that was a cheaper version of a product or a different package of services.

The bottom line

It will be interesting to see how well FuneralSmart’s price-matching service works in practice. The company makes no guarantees in the press release, clarifying that “If you get a lower price elsewhere, we’ll try and match it.” Plus, the offer is only good at participating EziFunerals partners. 

Perhaps something like FuneralSmart could catch on in America; maybe not. In the meantime, though, we like the advice this consumer, who stated that she had been involved in planning funerals on a budget, offered on Quora:

“So, in my opinion, a funeral home is not the place to haggle,” she wrote. “Just be honest about your budget and ask their advice.”

Matthews International, which provides memorialization products and cremation solutions among its multi-faceted business segments announced their Fiscal 4th Quarter and Fiscal Year End results last Thursday.  Matthews operates on a fiscal year that ends on September 30 of each year.

While the company had some positive attributes for the quarter such as reducing company debt by $53.8 million, Sales and Adjusted EBITDA for the company both declined for the quarter and the year end in comparison to last year for the same time periods.  As a company, 4th Quarter 2024 Revenues totaled about $446.6 million for the quarter as compared to $480.1 million for 4Q23 — that’s a decrease of about 7%.  For the Fiscal Year ending September 30, 2024, Total Revenues totaled $1.79 billion as compared to FY2023’s number of $1.88 billion — that’s a yearly decrease in sales of about 4.8%.

Total Adjusted EBITDA for the company dropped to $205.1 million for the year compared to 2023’s Fiscal Year total of $225.8 million — a drop of about 9.2% on the year.

Matthews operates in three segments — one of which is the Memorialization Segment which includes cemetery products, caskets, and cremation products.  That segment is the largest, by sales of the three segments and accounted for about 46% of company sales.  It did, however, see a reduction in annual sales from $842 million in FY23 to $829 million in FY24 — a drop of about 1.6%.  The segment’s Adjusted EBITDA almost kept up with last years and can be basically called “flat” for the year — it actually dropped by less than 1%. . . from $163.9 million to $162.5 million.

Here’s what Matthews International President and CEO Joseph C. Bartolacci said in prepared statements in the press release about the Memorialization Segment, “The Memorialization segment reported higher adjusted EBITDA for the current quarter despite lower unit volumes, which were related to a decline in U.S. deaths compared to a year ago. Ongoing cost control efforts combined with improved price realization were the key drivers in the improvement in operating margins. . . . .We expect another solid performance for our Memorialization business in fiscal 2025 as U.S. deaths appear to have generally normalized following COVID and we are projecting continued growth in our cremation-related products sales.” 

You can access the Matthews International November 21, 2024, press release here.

Stock Price Rises:  Interestingly enough, on the news of lower quarterly and annual sales and profits, Matthews International stock price jumped almost 21% on Friday after Thursday’s market closed press release.  Matthews International stock closed at $30.84 per share after opening that day at $25.49.

It’s difficult for one to read into why the value went up over 20% in one day, but the company’s earnings press release did show the SGK Brand Solution Segment gaining sales and the situation of retiring over $53 million of debt.

It could also have to do with the Industrial Technologies Segment of the company and opportunities there.   Here’s an interesting statement that President/CEO Bartolacci included in the earnings press release, “Lastly, as growth opportunities for the Industrial Technologies segment continue to emerge, the Company has been exploring strategies with respect to its portfolio of businesses.   Accordingly, we have retained J.P. Morgan to support the evaluation of potential strategic alternatives.”

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  This is total speculation on my part but, it’s interesting for me to see the stock price jump to over $30 per share on Friday after not closing at that level since March 2024.  I think the terms “potential strategic alternatives” lead to speculation by many that there could be acquistions on the horizon by Matthews or there could be a divestiture of one of the Matthews segments to come.  Again, from my point of view there is plenty of money in the private equity circles looking to invest.

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The business news last week was centered on the Producer’s Price Index (PPI) rising 0.6% in the month February, which equates to an annual 7.2% inflationary rate.  That reading, after being lower and even negative for a couple of months prior,  has caused many pundits to opine that getting rid of inflation in America may be a “stickier problem than once thought”.

Here’s a definition of the PPI and why it may have an effect on the products that funeral homes sell:

“(The PPI) is a collection of indexes economists use to measure the average change over time in domestic producers’ prices for their products or services. This information provides a picture of the marketplace from the perspective of sellers.

So, from my point of view, it indicates what the cost of producing goods will be from the suppliers who sell to funeral homes. . . such as casket companies, vault companies, urn companies, paper goods companies, chemical companies, and so on.  Again, from my point of view, the reason it is so important to funeral homes is that it indicates, with all other things being equal, that in time your costs for those wholesale products will be going up and unless you can mark the retail price of those products up to at least match the increase in the wholesale price rise, you risk going backwards on profitability.

And, in a world where the consumer is very conscious of “costs” for what they are purchasing, that increased mark-up gets harder and harder to accomplish.  Combine that with the Death Care consumer’s thought process of potentially reaching a limit on what they will pay for an earth burial service and you can see the consumer having a greater propensity to choose a lower cash-margin alternative such as cremation with services or Direct Cremation as a result of these price increases.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  I’ve been involved in many businesses in my day, including owning and operating a funeral home for about 35 years.  In all of those businesses when you see input prices, such as products and labor, rising it makes for difficult decisions on how to move forward with your pricing.

There are options, especially if you are profitable at the time, to simply stand pat and absorb those costs without raising prices for the sake of retaining clientele. Or, you can raise prices to retain your margins. . .but you do that with the knowledge that the pricing may drive off some customers or,  in funeral service,  change them to a lesser cost and lower margin service.

That is the “between a rock and hard place”, as is the expression that many funeral homes find themselves in.  In today’s environment, holding on to customers and on to margins is especially critical if you are a business that has debt that has been in an adjustable rate loan environment.

Another factor that may weigh in an owner’s mind is “What is the consumer’s position”?  For instance, if they believe that their consumer is in a very good financial position — which many American retired people, who are a funeral home’s base customer have traditionally been in — the ability to raise prices is probably there.

However, the University of Michigan Consumer Confidence Survey also came out last week and that shows that consumers are slightly less confident about their situation than they were a month ago.  In contrast to a year ago, however, they are much more confident.

One thing I do know is that funeral director independent owners are very skillful and knowledgeable about their businesses.  They are on Main Street virtually everyday and, because of their interaction with local people, have a great feeling how their communities are doing.  When it comes to these types of decisions on pricing, I’m pretty certain that each funeral home owner has a great instinct on what to do.

I was like that.. . . .I took in all information, input, and data that I could, but then let my instincts take over.  And, I never did anything in a hasty manner. . . always making slow, thoughtful decisions.  That’s the best advice I can give to owner/operators on on these type of “between a rock and hard place” issues

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