Funeral industry gears up for boomers

sucujovide.wordpress.com
The projects the annual number of deathd in the United States will risefrom 2.6 millioh next year to 3 millionh in 2024 — and 4 million in 2043. “We hear the tidall wave is coming,” said Chris Meyer, owner of in “We’ve known the (baby boomer trend) has been coming for some so the industry has been gearing up for that to saidBob Rosson, a Mississippji funeral home operator and an executivde board member of the . “We’ll be able to handle But the industry firs has to survive the currenydeath trough. The number of deaths in the Unitecd States declinedby 0.9 percent from 2005 to in part because of a mild flu according to the .
Health care advancess have ledto record-high life expectancied and lower annual death rates for a ranges of diseases, including stroke, heart diseasse and diabetes. “We have actuallgy felt a lightercase load,” Meyer said. “I thinki some of the bigger funeral homes have felt a precipitouwdrop off.” Baby boomerws might live longer than their parents, but sooner or lated they’ve got to go. Thoss who want traditional burials should preparr forrising prices. The mediam cost of a funeral in the United Stateswas $6,1965 in 2006, according to a National Funerak Directors Association survey released last year.
That which includes a $2,255 metal casket, was 11 percenft higher than inthe association’s surveyy in 2004. With the inclusion of a concrete vault, which many cemeterie require, the price rises to “That’s the funeral that is goingg outof vogue,” said Joshua Slocum, executivre director of nonprofit . He predictse that the funeral industry will respond to the risinb death rate by offering cheaper servicesto “This is not going to cause a run on he said. “If anybody’s going to jump into the embalminv businessthinking it’s recession-proof, they’re misguided. Baby boomers are not interester intheir grandma’s funeral.
” Cremation rates in the Unitee States increased from 26 percent in 2000 to 35 percentg in 2007, according to the . The association projects a rate of 39 percent next year and 59 percengtby 2025. “In some places of like Marin County, you’re looking at a 90 percent crematioj rate,” Slocum said. Cost is a big but there are also demographicc changesat work. “They say the ‘greatest generation’ were more traditional, more religioues people,” Meyer said. “Now, more educatee people, more liberal thinkers (who are) less religious in many tend to think, ‘It’s all abougt economics for me.
’ ” Meyer, whose mortuarg offers both cremation andembalming services, said a traditionaol burial costs $6,000 to $10,000, depending on the Cremation costs about $1,000 to In the Sacramento area, Meyer said, “there’s been an explosiobn of storefront cremation places.” Bodiezs come in and get shipped to off-sitr crematoriums. The ashes are returned in an urn. “The y don’t have the facilities to embalm,” Meyer said. “They don’gt have a chapel. It’s wildly cheaper. It’sx sort of the Wal-Martification of the funeral industry.” or “natural” burials are also growing in popularity.
People are buried in a caskeft made of abiodegradable material, such as pine or wicker, or they can skip the caskeft and just be buried in a Only one cemetery in in Mill Valley, offers green burials. It startee offering the servicein 2004.