Covid-19 Has Changed Funeral Business Forever 

Covid-19 has killed more than one million people in the U.S. As new Covid-19 cases drop, hundreds of people continue to die of the disease each day. The toll has generated a surge in business for funeral homes, along with challenges that morticians said prompted the industry to become more nimble and responsive. Many funeral directors added services including virtual events and outdoor gatherings. Others struggled to retain burned-out or traumatized staff. 

“Our profession has been very, very slow to change,” said

Randy Earl,

77, a veteran funeral director and former president of the National Funeral Directors Association. “Covid has taught us that we have to adapt and learn. We didn’t always think that way.” 

Some 40% of the association’s 20,000 members reported higher profits last year as a result of the pandemic, the association said, and every member reported serving a family whose loved one had died of Covid-19. Revenues across the funeral industry grew almost 8% in 2021 to $21.7 billion, analysts from market-research firm Marketdata have estimated. 

Service Corp. International,

which owns almost 2,000 funeral homes and cemeteries in the U.S. and Canada, said its revenue of $4.1 billion in 2021 was up almost 30% from 2019. Covid-19 could further boost business in coming years because of the pandemic’s indirect effects on mortality, the company told investors in May.

Not all funeral homes made more profits during the pandemic. Higher costs and sparer services stemming from Covid-19 restrictions hurt earnings for some.

Carole Jones Banks,

co-owner of Banks Memorial Funeral Home & Cremations in Alabama, said that suppliers raised prices for caskets and that many services were pared back, weighing on the bottom line. Customers also stopped asking for limousines, she said, which had generated significant revenue for her business. 

“I have limousines that haven’t moved at all in 2½ years,” Mrs. Banks, 57, said.

Banks Memorial expanded its offerings because of the pandemic, she said. The company built an outdoor pavilion and started live-streaming funeral services on Facebook. Customers have taken to the wider range of options including simpler services outside of chapels or churches, Mrs. Banks said.

“People no longer come dressed in their Sunday best, they come comfortable,” she said.

Hari Close,

owner of a funeral home in Baltimore, said the pandemic has compelled people to see his industry as part of the healthcare system. When hospitals and morgues were overwhelmed with the deceased, some funeral homes helped store bodies, Dr. Close said. He said he knew of many funeral homes that donated their own protective gear to hospitals when such equipment was in short supply. 

“Doctors and nurses are the front line,” said Dr. Close. “We are the last line.”

Early in the pandemic, some people worried that the bodies of people who died of Covid-19 could spread the virus. Public-health experts have said that the risk of a deceased person spreading Covid-19 is low, but that people involved in autopsies or embalming could be at higher risk of contracting the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that anyone handling the remains of someone infected with Covid-19 should wear protective gear and follow certain biosafety procedures. 

Some embalmers described how in the first few months of the pandemic, they would strip off all their clothes before entering their homes after work and isolate themselves from their families for months to prevent spreading the virus. 

Dr. Close, chairman of the National Funeral Directors & Morticians Association, said he has been urging its roughly 2,000 members to prepare for the next health emergency. He said he holds regular meetings to ensure his employees at Hari P. Close Funeral Service are up-to-date on health trends. In August, he said they discussed monkeypox and symptoms they should look out for on their own bodies and those of the deceased.

Dr. Close, 61, said the pandemic has hurt his mental health and accelerated his plans to retire after more than 30 years in the business. “I gave my all during this pandemic and now I need to save a little bit of time for me,” he said. 

Dr. Close said he lost family and friends including fellow morticians to Covid-19. At least 220 NFDMA members, who are predominantly Black, died of Covid-19, he said. Black people in the U.S. are 1.7 times more likely to die from Covid-19 than white people, according to the CDC.

“I spoke at a lot of funerals,” said Dr. Close, who is Black. “Who comforts the comforter?”

Mr. Myers, the owner of Myers Mortuary, said he took a weekslong break last fall because he was burned out. “There were so many people who died who I knew personally,” he said. “I had to take a breather.” 

As he works through the personal toll of the pandemic, Mr. Myers said he has been kept busy by his growing business. Extra revenue during the Covid-19 public-health crisis gave him the means in 2021 to buy a funeral home that included a crematory that had been closed since 2014. During the height of the pandemic, the wait for cremations in Columbia grew from a few days to as long as six weeks, he said.

“I’d been thinking about getting my own cremation unit,” Mr. Myers said. “When Covid happened, I knew I definitely had to get one now.”

He said he aims to acquire additional cremation equipment in the next three years and is considering opening more locations.

The pandemic was a devastating tragedy, Mr. Myers said, “but it helped us. It allowed us to do all this.”

Write to Dominique Mosbergen at dominique.mosbergen@wsj.com

Covid-19 has killed more than one million people in the U.S. As new Covid-19 cases drop, hundreds of people continue to die of the disease each day. The toll has generated a surge in business for funeral homes, along with challenges that morticians said prompted the industry to become more nimble and responsive. Many funeral directors added services including virtual events and outdoor gatherings. Others struggled to retain burned-out or traumatized staff. 

“Our profession has been very, very slow to change,” said

Randy Earl,

77, a veteran funeral director and former president of the National Funeral Directors Association. “Covid has taught us that we have to adapt and learn. We didn’t always think that way.” 

Some 40% of the association’s 20,000 members reported higher profits last year as a result of the pandemic, the association said, and every member reported serving a family whose loved one had died of Covid-19. Revenues across the funeral industry grew almost 8% in 2021 to $21.7 billion, analysts from market-research firm Marketdata have estimated. 

Service Corp. International,

which owns almost 2,000 funeral homes and cemeteries in the U.S. and Canada, said its revenue of $4.1 billion in 2021 was up almost 30% from 2019. Covid-19 could further boost business in coming years because of the pandemic’s indirect effects on mortality, the company told investors in May.

Not all funeral homes made more profits during the pandemic. Higher costs and sparer services stemming from Covid-19 restrictions hurt earnings for some.

Carole Jones Banks,

co-owner of Banks Memorial Funeral Home & Cremations in Alabama, said that suppliers raised prices for caskets and that many services were pared back, weighing on the bottom line. Customers also stopped asking for limousines, she said, which had generated significant revenue for her business. 

“I have limousines that haven’t moved at all in 2½ years,” Mrs. Banks, 57, said.

Banks Memorial expanded its offerings because of the pandemic, she said. The company built an outdoor pavilion and started live-streaming funeral services on Facebook. Customers have taken to the wider range of options including simpler services outside of chapels or churches, Mrs. Banks said.

“People no longer come dressed in their Sunday best, they come comfortable,” she said.

Hari Close,

owner of a funeral home in Baltimore, said the pandemic has compelled people to see his industry as part of the healthcare system. When hospitals and morgues were overwhelmed with the deceased, some funeral homes helped store bodies, Dr. Close said. He said he knew of many funeral homes that donated their own protective gear to hospitals when such equipment was in short supply. 

“Doctors and nurses are the front line,” said Dr. Close. “We are the last line.”

Early in the pandemic, some people worried that the bodies of people who died of Covid-19 could spread the virus. Public-health experts have said that the risk of a deceased person spreading Covid-19 is low, but that people involved in autopsies or embalming could be at higher risk of contracting the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that anyone handling the remains of someone infected with Covid-19 should wear protective gear and follow certain biosafety procedures. 

Some embalmers described how in the first few months of the pandemic, they would strip off all their clothes before entering their homes after work and isolate themselves from their families for months to prevent spreading the virus. 

Dr. Close, chairman of the National Funeral Directors & Morticians Association, said he has been urging its roughly 2,000 members to prepare for the next health emergency. He said he holds regular meetings to ensure his employees at Hari P. Close Funeral Service are up-to-date on health trends. In August, he said they discussed monkeypox and symptoms they should look out for on their own bodies and those of the deceased.

Dr. Close, 61, said the pandemic has hurt his mental health and accelerated his plans to retire after more than 30 years in the business. “I gave my all during this pandemic and now I need to save a little bit of time for me,” he said. 

Dr. Close said he lost family and friends including fellow morticians to Covid-19. At least 220 NFDMA members, who are predominantly Black, died of Covid-19, he said. Black people in the U.S. are 1.7 times more likely to die from Covid-19 than white people, according to the CDC.

“I spoke at a lot of funerals,” said Dr. Close, who is Black. “Who comforts the comforter?”

Mr. Myers, the owner of Myers Mortuary, said he took a weekslong break last fall because he was burned out. “There were so many people who died who I knew personally,” he said. “I had to take a breather.” 

As he works through the personal toll of the pandemic, Mr. Myers said he has been kept busy by his growing business. Extra revenue during the Covid-19 public-health crisis gave him the means in 2021 to buy a funeral home that included a crematory that had been closed since 2014. During the height of the pandemic, the wait for cremations in Columbia grew from a few days to as long as six weeks, he said.

“I’d been thinking about getting my own cremation unit,” Mr. Myers said. “When Covid happened, I knew I definitely had to get one now.”

He said he aims to acquire additional cremation equipment in the next three years and is considering opening more locations.

The pandemic was a devastating tragedy, Mr. Myers said, “but it helped us. It allowed us to do all this.”

Write to Dominique Mosbergen at dominique.mosbergen@wsj.com