EP117: Funeral Industry

<p>Death, dying and the funeral business are all inevitable parts of life that we will all deal with at some point - either for ourselves or someone we love. </p> <p>I had a fascinating conversation a few months ago with someone who had been training to become a mortician. As someone who has helped families navigate end-of-life care for nearly my entire career, I hadn’t really ever thought about what happened when my job ended. Much of what this person shared with me bothered me but was also eye-opening – so I wanted to share some of that information with you.</p> <p>Thousands of people have dealt with funeral costs in light of the pandemic, and today I’ll share some things I learned about the funeral industry in this week’s episode of This is Getting Old: Moving Towards an Age-Friendly World.</p> <p>Key points covered in this episode: </p> <p>✔️ The Funeral Industry Pulls In Big Bucks</p> <p>The costs for burial and cremation are skyrocketing. Most funeral homes are privately owned, but large corporations are starting to own more and more funeral homes.<br />  <br /> Here’s a fun fact…funeral homes pull in $20 billion dollars a year in the United States.  Yes, BILLION.<br />  <br /> The largest death-care corporation in the country, Service Corporation International, has nearly 2,000 locations. In 2018 alone, they brought in $3B in revenue. The second largest funeral company, StoneMor Partners, pulled in $316M in the same year.<br />  <br /> We also have a growing monopoly on our hands due to fewer large, corporate parent companies. These large corporations have bought up the trusted, well-known family-owned businesses. They typically keep the name of the original business but bring in new staff and salespeople, and often increase prices. These large corporations can do this because there isn’t a lot of competition. This means fewer wealthy and powerful corporations manage this industry.<br />  <br /> ✔️ The Funeral Industry Is Poorly Regulated</p> <p>This big, wealthy industry has been largely left to regulate