The funeral industry will explode when large numbers of baby boomers die.
Is the funeral industry about to explode? Or are Funeral Homes in the USA imploding, falling apart from the inside? The answer is quite surprising. Both are happening at once.
Some Funeral homes that have embraced a lower cost funeral model business are booming even exploding. For many Traditional Funeral Homes including the big corporations business is off big time due to the “great recession” (or whatever we are in). Funeral Home numbers indicate an implosion.
As mentioned here Funeral Home profits are down Latest example, Funeral Corporation Stone Mor.
On Monday, StoneMor reported a fourth-quarter loss and said its revenue declined, in part because of a lower death rate. The company lost $3.3 million, or 27 cents per share. It reported a profit of $1.5 million, or 13 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. Revenue fell 5 percent to $44.2 million from $46.3 million.
Many Funeral Homes are continuing to sell guaranteed preneed, even though they know they cannot guarantee a lock in of today’s prices(through a guaranteed investment ). in the present enviroment no investment is guaranteed. Funertal Directors have history of taking the folks preneed money both on the local level and in big organizations (Illinois Funeral Directors Association, NPS-national prearranged services). It is quite possible that funeral directors will have to dig into their own pockets to cover funerals (as in the case with the IFDA Preneed Trust in Trust-Illinois) This would indicate a future implosion.
At the 2010 International Cemetery, Cremation & Funeral Association (ICCFA)Convention in San Antonio, demographer Kenneth Gronbach, president of KGC Direct, , author of the best-selling book “The Age Curve — How to Profit From the Coming Demographic Storm,” said the great baby boomer die off will happen soon.
Now when I went to Mortuary school the great Baby Boomer Die off was predicted for 2005, it did not happen. In 2007 the great baby boomer die off was predicted for 2010, now it is predicted along with funeral industry profit explosion for 2014. At some time the explosion will occur. But when that happens I predict by then funeral industry will look much different then it does today.
Funeral Industry|Funeral News|Funeral blog by Your Funeral Guy
Back in the 1990′s your industry paid a lot of money to a famous demographer that could not count. He forecast the Baby Boomers deaths TWENTY years ahead of schedule. This bad information cost many of you a lot of money. You should sue him.
Boomers are 46 to 65 at this writing. Most Americans die between 70 and 80 years old. This simply means that Boomers will begin to die en mass in about 2015, crest at about 2025-30 and finish up about 2035-45. The average age Boomers will die is still up for grabs and could go low because of health and obesity issues. Hang on because your industry is going to go for a ride. It is simply not ready to handle the volume that is headed its way.
Kenneth W. Gronbach, Author of “The Age Curve, How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Storm”.