"The Unspoken Future of Funeral Services"

A conversation exploring the changing future of funeral services and how modern society is reshaping the way we honor loved ones. From the rise of cremation and green burials to evolving family traditions and personalized memorials, this discussion takes a thoughtful look at where the funeral industry may be heading in the years to come.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Where do you see the funeral industry heading to the next 10, 20 years from now? Sure.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Um I I honestly don't know. Um, as we've kind of talked about lack of um services, things like that. Um it almost seems like death is an inconvenience to a lot of people. Um we have families that uh they call us, they live in California, my dad just passed away. Um if you can pick up cremate, send the cremates to me, I'll sign the paperwork online. And I understand situations where that happens, but uh a lot of times death is an inconvenience. Um I've had families that you know delayed services because they were going on a cruise or they had a vacation planned or things like that. And I understand there are instances where plans can't be changed, but death doesn't come at a convenient time for any of us. Yeah. And um even with, as I mentioned, families not staying together, you have children, brothers, and sisters that are scattered all over the country and all over the world, and the service or celebration of someone's life isn't viewed as necessary or as important as it used to be. Um course, cremation is still going up. Um there is the uh thought as far as green burial, um where there are green cemeteries, uh no metal, no uh man-made products. It's all natural, uh, where the body um just goes back into the ground naturally. Um so that is something that people are starting to do. Um you even have with cremanes um water soluble urns and biodegradable urns where they can be placed um into the water or uh buried and just go back naturally into the ground. So that's something that people are are like looking at, um, even as far as um you can take cremanes and make them a part of a reef um off the coast. And so there's so many different things that people are looking at, and people are looking for something different. Yeah. And um as far as a funeral home, a funeral home, of course, is necessary to uh complete death certificate, paperwork, um filing documents, things like that. But uh another thing people are looking at is as far as um catering, things like that. Um that's kind of becoming more of a of a um request for families. Um so there's just so many different ways. So not so much a large uh spacious funeral home that may not be what is is needed in the future, maybe something smaller, a very small uh chapel or family room, um, things like that. So I feel like the the buildings and the structures will change um as time goes on.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

I want to go back to a few points you made. Okay, so with the green cemeteries, what's the legal process with that? I mean, that's pretty that's pretty vast differently, the way it's it is.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

It definitely is different. We have one that is uh about 30 minutes from our funeral home, and uh we've done uh quite a few burials there. And so uh what happens is um you still can have embalming, but there's no chemicals. It is a um eco-friendly type of fluid. Um so embalming can still take place, but just not the traditional fluid. Um and uh the caskets uh they have to be completely wood, um, no metal uh parts, and also um you can use a burial pouch that's biodegradable, a shroud, um no vault is used, and um that person is placed into the ground. Um they have two options. You can either buy a space where you have that uh forever, or you can actually purchase a space that you have for 75 years, and after 75 years, and after that person has gone back to the earth, then it can be resold. And so that is another thought as far as land. Uh, because of course cemeteries, you know, depending on how large they are and what they have as far as expansion options, they'll eventually run out of space. Yeah. And so um, that is something with green burial that you can have reusable uh spaces. Aaron Ross Powell Now, what's the cost cost difference with that? It's it's about the same price, uh, because that sometimes is a thought, well, if we're going for green burial, is that cheaper? Is that gonna cost me less? Well, it not necessarily is. It's still about the same cost, it's just a different method of disposition. And this cemetery they use uh natural rock um for the uh monument. So it's not a traditional headstone, they use natural rock.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Um Wow. That's amazing. Now, uh one thing I want to touch on is what about the embalming fluid? So you said it was eco-friendly. Explain that a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

It's it's basically just natural natural types of ingredients. Really? Um so as far as the preservation of of an individual, that's not going to be there because chemicals obviously are different than natural ingredients. Um but it's almost um more like what the Egyptians did um with their embalming and use um you know natural ingredients like that.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Um that's amazing. Yeah, that's that I have not heard that method yet, but uh I'm sure as time comes on that will be more popular. There's almost a business sense to it. 75 years? Yes. You really could uh whoever owns that could be making some good money if they're young.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Yes, yes, and it takes time because uh it is definitely different. So that's not something that everyone is going to want to do. Yeah, so it's gonna take time, but I think eventually that will become uh more and more of the mistake.