Americans Embrace Digital Funeral Planning While Still Seeking Professional Guidance, New NFDA Consumer Awareness and Preferences Study Reveals 

Brookfield, Wis. – The National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA), the world’s leading and largest funeral service association, has released its 2025 Consumer Awareness & Preferences Study, revealing significant shifts in how Americans approach death and funeral planning. The comprehensive research shows consumers are increasingly embracing digital solutions while simultaneously demonstrating growing reliance on funeral directors’ expertise. 

The research continues NFDA’s ongoing effort since 2012 to track evolving consumer attitudes and help funeral service professionals better serve families. 

Key findings include: 

● Digital adoption surges: Nearly 30% of families now complete all funeral arrangements online, while 40% of consumers have used the services of a funeral home they found on Facebook—nearly doubling from 21% in 2023. 

● Professional expertise increasingly valued: 44.4% would feel not very confident or not at all confident planning a funeral without a funeral director’s help—up 7.1% since 2024, despite growing digital adoption. Additionally, of those consumers who planned a funeral online, nearly 48% still needed the assistance of a funeral director and more than 15% felt the online planning process was either impersonal and lacked the level of compassionate service they would have received had they planned with a funeral director. 

● Religion remains central: 75.7% consider religious components very important or somewhat important in funeral services, while nearly 64% would arrange livestreaming for distant relatives. 

● Green options gain appeal: More than 61.4% of consumers are interested in exploring “green” funeral and natural burial options. 

● Economic pressures shape choices: 55.4% of respondents earned less than $50,000 annually, compared to 38.5% in 2024, influencing demand for value.

● Pre-planning preferences evolve: While 19.4% have pre-planned and prepaid for arrangements, primarily to guarantee prices and relieve survivors of financial burden, 31.8% prefer a hybrid approach combining online planning with direct funeral director consultation. 

“This research demonstrates that while technology is transforming how families access funeral services, the fundamental value of professional guidance remains irreplaceable,” said Dutch Nie, NFDA Immediate Past-President and Nie Family Funeral Home & Cremation Services owner, CEO/President and funeral director . “Funeral directors are successfully adapting to digital expectations while maintaining their essential role as trusted advisors during families’ most difficult times.” 

The study also reveals that consumers increasingly view funeral directors as valuable experts, with growing recognition of their professional expertise in navigating complex arrangements and providing essential support during grief. 

About the Study 

The 2025 NFDA Consumer Awareness & Preferences Study continues NFDA’s ongoing research tracking consumer attitudes since 2012. The study is designed to help funeral service professionals better understand and serve evolving family needs while maintaining the highest standards of care and professionalism. Conducted in the spring of 2025, 1,126 Americans age 40 and older were surveyed. 

About NFDA 

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

Inspection Reveals 20 Decomposing Bodies in Colorado Coroner’s Hidden Room

Less than two years after nearly 200 decomposing bodies were found in a Penrose, Colorado funeral home, state inspectors have discovered a heartbreakingly similar situation in a facility privately operated by the Pueblo County, Colorado coroner. After noticing a foul odor during an annual inspection of Davis Mortuary in Pueblo on August 20, Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) authorities opened a hidden door and found at least 20 bodies — some of which have been in storage for up to 15 years.

License has been suspended

According to multiple reports, three-term Pueblo County coroner and Davis Mortuary owner Brian Cotter has not yet been arrested and seems to be cooperating with authorities. He has admitted that some of the bodies have been in the room, the door to which was concealed by a cardboard display, since 2010 — five years before Cotter was first elected to the position of coroner.

“Upon entering the room behind the display, the inspectors found several bodies in various stages of decomposition,” DORA officials told The Pueblo Chieftain. “The appointed designee for the funeral home, Brian Cotter, told inspectors that the bodies were awaiting cremation and admitted that some bodies had been in the room for approximately 15 years. He also admitted that he may have issued next-of-kin fake cremains.”

DORA’s Office of Funeral and Mortuary Science Services suspended the license of Davis Mortuary on August 21, announcing that although DORA and the Pueblo Police Department will remain involved in the investigation, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will take the lead — just as they did with the Penrose Return to Nature Funeral Home case in October 2023. 

New regulations in action

It was the horrific Return to Nature discovery, which was precluded by several other high-profile funeral home and crematory scandals across the state, that finally led Colorado lawmakers to review their deathcare regulations, which had long been considered the most lax in the country. 

On May 24, 2024, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed House Bill HB24-1335 into law, giving DORA the authority to conduct scheduled routine inspections, even outside of business hours, in addition to strengthening licensing requirements for deathcare professionals and regulating relationships with body brokers. 

The August 20 inspection of Davis Mortuary was the first ever conducted at the facility.

On August 22, Gov. Polis declared a “disaster emergency” to mobilize the state’s mitigation and investigation resources to support the authorities in Pueblo County. He also openly called for Cotter’s resignation from his coroner position.

“I’m sickened for the families of the loved ones who are impacted by this unacceptable misconduct,” said Gov. Polis in a statement on the Colorado.gov website. “It is clear public trust has been lost and Mr. Cotter must resign as the Pueblo County Coroner immediately. He should be investigated and if warranted, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. No one should ever have to wonder if their loved one is being taken care of with dignity and respect after they’ve passed, and Mr. Cotter must be held to account for his actions.”

Families are distraught

The exact number of bodies being stored in the unrefrigerated room has not been positively ascertained, nor have identifications been determined or shared with the families who entrusted their loved ones to Cotter and his employees over the last 15 years. Of course, those families are now questioning every aspect of their interaction with Davis Mortuary.

When former pathologist Patty Emerson lost her husband, Mel, in 2011, she selected Davis Mortuary to handle his cremation because of her longstanding working relationship with Brian Cotter and his brother. Emerson told CBS News that she is now “fearing the worst.”

“He could be one of those identified that’s been in this room decomposing all these years, and that is absolutely horrifying to me,” she said. “My second biggest fear is that the remains I have aren’t even his.”

PlotBox Reveals Expanded Range of Financial Management Tools for Deathcare Providers

March 2024: Leading deathcare management solutions provider PlotBox has unveiled its new suite of financial tools and applications, designed specifically to meet the unique needs of cemetery, crematory, and funeral home operators.

From payment processing to trust fund management, this complete financial platform is accessed from within PlotBox’s existing solution, boasting direct financial API integrations with an ever-growing library of up to 20 leading accounting platforms, including QuickBooks, Xero and NetSuite.

With PlotBox Pay, customers will have access to the industry’s most innovative payment technology with simple, secure, and reliable payment processing that includes automated ACH and card payments to streamline and enhance customer service.

PlotBox CEO Sean McAllister said, “PlotBox’s digital financial management offering has grown.  We all know how challenging month-ends and audits can be, and with the PlotBox Financial Management Suite, we’re helping to take the headache out of finances.

In listening to our customers, it was clear that there was a real need for an all-encompassing solution that would help them to overcome the complexities of their financial processes.  We were hearing loud and clear, the pains of manual workarounds, the risks and liabilities associated with errors and inaccurate data, and of course, time lost due to the lack of a dedicated finance system to bring everything together.

Our aim was to provide a means of streamlining and simplifying financial processes, along with the flexibility to integrate the PlotBox solution with their current accounting platforms.  And we’re not finished here, this is a key focus of our product roadmap and we will continue to innovate, creating new financial management products that will allow deathcare operators to provide the best possible service to their families.”

Click here to learn more.

About PlotBox

PlotBox is the innovative cloud-based digital deathcare management solution that enables cemeteries, crematories, and funeral homes of every size to serve better, save time, increase revenue, reduce risk, and sustain long-term growth.  The essentials of deathcare management seamlessly integrated into a single, easy-to-use platform for more streamlined processes and increased efficiencies, with exceptional customer support local to you.

Our financial management suite provides seamless financial API integrations with a growing library of up to 20 leading accounting platforms, including QuickBooks, Xero and NetSuite.  Fully scalable and with a range of pricing and package options, PlotBox can grow as you do, ensuring you get the best value right from day one, all while investing in your future.

Headquartered in Northern Ireland, with on-the-ground representatives in the United States and Australia, our 100-strong multidisciplinary team of experts provides the same professional levels of service and satisfaction across the globe.