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Funeral homes undertake change |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Tuesday, 28 March 2006 |
New trends have some morticians doubling as party planners
Denise Goolsby
The Desert Sun
March 25, 2006
Eventually, everybody dies.
That one true thing has made the funeral business and its finances relatively consistent. Everlasting. Eternal.
However, several social trends are shaking the somber profession by the lapels of its navy pinstriped suit.
More people are choosing cremation, fewer people want to be embalmed and an increasing number are planning their memorial services well before the final event.
All told, these trends are changing the way funeral professionals operate.
Although Coachella Valley funeral directors contacted declined to say how much is lost financially when clients cremate instead of embalm and bury, the two tend to compress income and profits.
To compensate, funeral directors are offering a greater variety of products and services from novel cremation urns to champagne toasts at graveside.
"There was a time when we embalmed just about everything that walked in the back door," said Wiefels and Son funeral director John Caranci. "Well, not walked in the back door," Caranci self-corrected.
However, the rate of embalming has decreased over the years, Caranci said.
There's no law saying you have to embalm. The process of preserving a corpse is done for viewing, open-casket funerals and shipping.
Bodies that are not embalmed are kept refrigerated until the day of the service, said Wiefels' President Mark Matthews.
Larry Davis, vice president of Forest Lawn-Cathedral City, said Coachella Valley cremations run substantially higher than at any of Forest Lawn's other five memorial parks and mortuaries - mostly located in the Los Angeles area.
According to the Cremation Association of America, the number of cremations in the U.S. jumped to 28.71 percent in 2003 from 9.72 percent in 1980.
California is among the top 10 states in terms of cremation as 52.61 percent of all bodies are cremated instead of having full-body burials.
Davis said a demographic study, completed before Forest Lawn took over operations at the former Palm Springs Mortuary in July, showed 60 percent of the people who died were cremated instead of having a traditional burial.
In Los Angles, those numbers hover at about 18 percent to 20 percent, he said.
"It's the resort atmosphere. It's the area. The desert. There is a natural awareness about the environment," reasoned Davis about the valley's high cremation rates.
At Wiefels and Son, cremations have gone up about 2 percent a year for the past decade and account for about 65 percent of its disposition of bodies, Matthews said.
Bring on the champagne
With cremation numbers on the rise, the average cost of a funeral is declining, said Matthews.
A basic cremation costs about $1,800.
"You can do it on the cheap for $1,200," Matthews said. In contrast, a basic funeral runs about $4,500 to $5,500, he said.
More cremations can mean directors get about $3,000 less on each client that chooses cremation over interment, a definite squeeze on profit margins, said Mark Musgrove, past president of the National Funeral Directors Association in Brookfield, Wis.
"With a high cremation rate, you have to serve more families," Musgrove said.
"If we provide more, different kinds of services, it will help everyone. (So people) don't have to go to multiple places to get what they want."
This means funeral homes have to offer more products and services. This includes catering banquets following the service, providing flowers, conducting champagne toasts at graveside, and offering audio-visual equipment for videos and slide shows complete with a pop music score.
Clients "are kind of moving away from traditional, religious services," Matthews said.
"It's simple, dignified, more about celebrating a life lived," said Matthews.
Because of this, many morticians are doubling as party planners.
"That's just reacting to what the public wants," said Musgrove, also co-owner of Musgrove Family Mortuary in Eugene, Ore.
"It's really driven by the baby boomers, the same people that bucked tradition in their day. The hippies. That generation has matured and has changed burial tradition," he said.
Funeral homes also are helping clients preplan their funerals.
People are taking a more active role in planning for life's final event, said Wiefels' Caranci.
Elaine Day said she preplanned her funeral for her own peace of mind. She also didn't want her children to have to wonder, "What would Mom want," at such a difficult time, she said.
"I just think it relieves your own mind to have it done. It definitely makes it easier for your family," said Day, 66.
"I don't want to leave people unprepared."
And there's the financial factor.
"I'm sorry I didn't do this a few years ago, it would have been cheaper," she said.
Day said she is paying about $2,000 for her arrangements through Wiefels and Son. She said she made a $500 down payment and will pay $30-a-month payments for about five years.
She said she is going to be cremated, but if her family wants it, she has also paid for a viewing and a memorial service.
Day has two sons, Michael, 42, and Jeff, 36. She said she'll leave it up to them to decide how they want to celebrate her life when she dies.
"I want it to be what they want," she said.
She said they can also make the ultimate decision about where - or if - to scatter her ashes.
She said if it was her, she wouldn't be comfortable with an urn sitting on her counter. "I would feel it was not finished. I think it's better if it's out here in nature."
No matter, she said, it only depends on what her family wishes.
"They have complete freedom (to decide)," Day said.
http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060325/BUSINESS06/603250304/1003 |
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