If you have read Funeral Director Daily for any length of time you would know that I believe that there is an opportunity for increased revenues at funeral homes and cemeteries from what I term as the “Cremation Aftermarket”.  My point is that there is a large percentage of American consumers who believe in cremation as a means of disposition of the human body, but then don’t know what to do in the next step of memorialization.

Many of these consumers take the cremated remains home where they sit in a closet or some other place because, at least in my opinion, the thought process of memorializing their loved one ended with “cremation”, not “memorialization”.  And, I’m of the opinion, that the more consumers know about the “memorialization” options, the more they will select one of them.

Moving further on that thought process, I believe it is the funeral director’s duty to inform them of options and, quite frankly, it is probably a smart business decision to do that also as it may lead to increased revenue on the cremation case.  In many post-cremation memorialization sales a commission can be paid to the funeral home or the funeral home may be able to offer the service with some value added charges involved.

There are all kinds of options for cremated remains memorialization including the well known ones such as columbarium niche placement, cemetery burial, and newer options such as placement in Better Place Forests, or Parting Stone, or Eterneva and other cremation jewelry and more.

One that I’ve know about for some time but was not well versed in was that of the Neptune Memorial Reef™ placement.  I recently saw this article titled, “Explore the World’s First Underwater Cemetery” about the process that included a video description from the British Broadcast Corporation.  If you are not aware of the Neptune Memorial Reef™, I suggest you take a look at the article and video.

In essence, about 3 1/2 miles off the coast of Miami in the Atlantic Ocean a 16 acre reef is being established in the ocean.  Cremated remains are prepared to be placed in this area to restore reef so that the ocean is once again a habitat for marine biology.  As of today, there are about 1,000 cremated remains memorials placed in position and the entire 16 acres will have room for a total of about 250,000 memorials when completed.

The article makes this comment about the underwater cemetery,  “In addition to being a gorgeous cemetery, the Neptune Memorial Reef™ is also a green burial location, meaning it’s a resting site that benefits the environment. The human-made structure allows fish to hide from predators in nooks and provides a hard surface for coral growth. Once complete, it’s set to be the world’s largest artificial reef.”

• Click here for the Neptune Memorial Reef™ website which includes pricing packages.

• Click here for information from Dignity Memorial about the reef.

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