Death is not a life event you can skip - and the cost is rising

By Jessica Hall

'People end up going into debt while also trying to grieve'

Dying is expensive.

Whether you opt for a formal burial or direct cremation, there are unavoidable costs involved in dying.

The median cost of a burial in 2023 was $9,995 - a 6.1% increase since 2021, according to the National Funeral Directors Association. That figure included the costs for everything prior to burial, including a casket, but did not include the cost of a cemetery plot or of a monument or gravestone marker.

The median cost of cremation, with a container and urn, in 2023 was $6,280, up 8.1% from 2021. That does not include the cost of a cemetery niche and marker. Over the same period, the U.S. inflation rate was 13.6%, the NFDA said, citing the U.S. Department of Labor.

If you add in the cost of a cemetery plot, which varies widely by city and state and also depends on the size of the plot, along with the costs of opening and closing the grave, burial permits, grave liners and perpetual care or groundskeepers fees, the bill for dying starts to add up. Obituaries or death notices and flowers are additional expenses.

"Everyone has to pay something to handle the body. It's a consumer cost that you can't opt out of. It's not like a life event like a wedding that you can skip. You don't have to have a huge [funeral] service, but you have to do something," said Suelin Chen, chief executive of Cake, an online platform for end-of-life planning and bereavement support.

Empathy, a company that offers grief support and assistance in settling estate matters, cited other expenses that loved ones face after a death. Legal matters, such as lawyers' fees and court-filing fees, cost an average of $2,788, and the cost of hiring a real-estate agent and preparing a home for sale come to an additional $2,724, on average.

"Costs - and individual preferences - are causing people to make different decisions," Chen said. "Cremation is less expensive, and that's one of the factors that's driving growth."

In 2015, the national cremation rate surpassed the casketed-burial rate for the first time in U.S. history. Cremation was the choice for 60.5% of all deaths in 2023, according to the NFDA. By 2045, the cremation rate is projected to grow to 81.4%.

The shift toward cremation also has been driven by other factors such as a transitory population, a decline in organized religion, changing consumer preferences and environmental concerns, according to an NFDA report.

Randy Anderson, funeral director of Radney Funeral Home in Alexander City, Ala., said cremation represented about 60% of the deaths the business handled over the past year - the highest rate he's ever seen for his funeral home.

Anderson said that in his experience, the decision to cremate is not driven by cost as much as by personal or family preferences. Most families still opt for some sort of ceremony or service to remember and honor the life of the deceased, even if the loved one is cremated, he said.

"You have to find funerals at any cost for any budget," Anderson said. "The community still expects a service. People still ask. We'll still get the phone ringing asking when the service is. A lot of times we forget that the community wants to pay their respects and start on the grief process."

While Anderson's client base tends to opt for more traditional services - whether it's a formal burial or cremation - some customers do ask about alternative burial methods, often simply so they know what their options are, he said.

Most Americans (60.5%) would be interested in exploring green funeral options because of their potential environmental benefits, cost savings or for some other reason, according to the NFDA.

There are a variety of environmentally friendly or alternative options for funerals, including planting a tree with cremated remains, creating soil out of human remains or even creating a tattoo with ink infused with cremated remains.

Read: What should I do with my body when I die? The options go way beyond burial and cremation.

Such options remain niche, however. The green-funeral market globally is only $572 million, according to Emergen Research. That's a small figure compared with the U.S. funeral industry alone, which takes in about $20 billion per year, according to Marketdata LLC.

"There's a big gap between people's wants and what's happening. If you don't plan ahead, the knee-jerk reaction is to call the funeral home, which is not the full service of options available to you," Chen said.

Comparison shopping or finding prices can be difficult, however, because funeral homes aren't required to post their services and rates online.

The Federal Trade Commission has collected public comment and is reviewing whether to require funeral homes to post their prices online. No decision has been made. The original funeral rule, which went into effect in 1984 and was amended in 1994, predates broad consumer use of the internet and currently only requires price disclosure when a consumer visits or telephones a funeral home.

Read: Do you want your funeral to be a Porsche or a Hyundai? Funeral homes may have to post prices online for the first time.

Given that half of Americans have less than $500 in savings, according to GOBankingRates, a funeral can be a burdensome expense.

"People are crowdsourcing for funerals, draining IRAs, going into debt. People are hit with a little sticker shock. Some people expect to get some money back from the estate, but that can be less than what's expected, or there's a delay in getting the money," Chen said.

There are things that consumers can do to lower funeral-related costs, such as hosting the funeral at home, buying a casket online directly from a manufacturer, having a direct cremation or doing a green burial, but awareness is slim, Chen said.

"So people end up going into debt while also trying to grieve," Chen said.

-Jessica Hall

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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01-27-24 1337ET

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