Cremation Is Not Lost Revenue. It Is a Blank Page.
Oct 27, 2026 · @John Ashworth
The ground is vibrating. Can you feel it?
Day two on the floor at NFDA, and I keep noticing something that I think a lot of people here are missing.
The show floor is packed with memorialization vendors. Keepsakes, personalization, remembrance products, experience-based offerings. That side of the business is moving. You can see the energy at those booths. But step out into the hallway and you get a completely different conversation. Hearse and casket reps will tell you, quietly, that funeral homes are pulling back on capital spending. They are right. Owners are watching where the market is going and they are being smart about it.
Both things are true at once, and that gap is the whole story of where this profession is right now. Money is moving away from the traditional burial package and toward remembrance. The owners who feel that shift and act on it are in a very different position from the ones who are waiting for the market to stabilize back to where it was.
It is not coming back. And that is actually good news if you are willing to open your mind to it.
Your contract size does not have to shrink
Cremation is past 60% of US dispositions. Within five years the projection is close to 75%. A lot of owners read that number as a shrinking contract and they sell like it, which becomes a self-fulfilling problem. The move, and I genuinely believe this and will guarantee it to any owner I sit across from, is to build your own blend of memorialization that more than compensates for the absence of a traditional burial package. Nobody is going to hand you that offer. You design it. You brand it. You build it around what your community actually wants to remember and celebrate about the people they lose.
An owner who treats cremation as lost revenue designs around loss. An owner who treats it as a blank page builds something that no competitor, and no corporate consolidator, can easily replicate. That is where the opportunity is sitting right now, in plain sight, while most of the profession is watching the casket sales slow and worrying.
Your contract size does not have to shrink. That is the mindset shift I want you to carry home from this convention more than anything else you picked up on the floor.
Remembering A Life Week: April 24 to 30, 2027
Now, on the practical side. I want to make sure you know about NFDA’s International Remembering A Life Week, April 24 to 30, 2027. It is open to any funeral home regardless of whether you are an NFDA member. The toolkit arrives in early 2027, social graphics, event guides, press release templates, all of it ready to use. No reason to build from scratch.
Here is where I see the real opportunity for you. Memorialization is your product. Remembrance is the theme of the week. That alignment is about as clean as it gets. You now have a specific, calendar-anchored reason to invite your community in. A candlelight vigil. A remembrance walk. A community meal. Pick the format that fits your market and the relationships you already have.
The offer at the center of the promotion
The piece I am still working through, and I want to hear from you on this, is the offer at the center of the promotion. The hook that earns the lead. What do you give someone in exchange for starting a pre-need conversation at that event? What is the specific thing you hand them that makes them feel seen and served rather than sold? I do not have a single answer that works for every market. I have ideas, and I want to build the right one with you.
The opening: 57% and 36%
What I do know is that 57% of Americans now say society is more comfortable talking about death than it used to be. That is the opening. And the 36% who have insurance to cover funeral costs represents an enormous gap between what people intend and what they have actually done. The Remembering A Life Week format gives you a human, warm, community-first way to step into that conversation without it feeling like a sales pitch.
The owners who move now
The vibration I feel at this convention is real, even if the floor and the hallways are pointing in different directions. The profession is changing fast. The owners building their own memorialization identity right now, the ones who treat this week as a lead engine and a community relationship, are the ones who are going to look back at this moment and be glad they moved.
-John