Boomers bring in big bucks to funeral industry

Looking forward to a huge boom in their industry, funeral directors are “just sort of waiting for the baby boomers to start dying off.” Tara Olson, owner of AllPoints Research, a marketing research firm that has worked with funeral homes to develop business plans, tells Associated Press staff writer Matt Sedensky, “It sounds kind of morbid, but they are looking at boom times.”

The “boom times” will mean $11 billion (yes, billion) annually for funeral homes alone. The death rate of about 8.1 per 1,000 people is expected to go up in the next decade. Dan Isard of Phoenix-based The Foresight Companies, which consults with funeral homes, tells the AP he expects the average funeral home to go from serving 120 families a year to 165 before the death rate drops again around 2040.