Morrell Funeral Home | Boyertown, Pennsylvania (2024)

FAQs

Who is the largest owner of funeral homes? ›

Service Corporation International is proud to be North America's leading provider of funeral, cremation and cemetery services. Since 1962, SCI has been serving families during their most difficult, personal and challenging times.

Three large corporations now own 15% of the 23,000 homes in the funeral home industry. Service Corporation International (SCI), based in Houston, is the largest of the three, followed by Loewen Group Inc., based in Vancouver, Canada and Philadelphia, and Stewart Enterprises Inc., based in New Orleans.

Bucktrout Funeral Home is the oldest funeral home in America, and it is still functioning even today! It was first started in 1759, and originally operated as a cabinet-making business.

Pennsylvania has some 1800 funeral homes, around 1000 cemeteries and memorial parks, and some 500 crematories. So, it can be quite a task to choose a funeral home or cremation provider.

The most expensive part of a funeral is typically the basic services fee of a funeral home. The median cost of basic services fees is about $2,300. If you choose a traditional funeral and burial, your highest cost will likely be a metal casket. Metal caskets can cost around $2,500.

Sale of Casket: Funeral homes also sell caskets to make money. The sale of caskets happens to be one of the most profitable ventures that funeral homes engage in. Usually, they make the caskets necessary for each family. And to say the least, the coffins are priced to make a profit.

Funeral homes' profit margins and Average annual business

The average gross profit margin in the industry is approximately 62.5 percent, though, like in many other industries, scale can improve gross margins, and smaller or independent funeral homes may often have a gross margin of between 10 and 30 percent.

A funeral home is a 24-hour, labor-intensive business, with extensive facilities (viewing rooms, chapels, limousines, hearses, etc.), which must be factored into the cost of a funeral. A majority of the expense is typically in the funeral home professional fees and merchandise for the funeral or memorial itself.

Instead of preparing the body with chemicals, morticians will store it in a fridge that keeps the body at two degrees Celsius. However, like embalming, it's important to remember that this merely slows the decomposition process – it doesn't stop it. A refrigerated body will last three to four weeks.

What did funeral homes used to be called? ›

This American tradition of hosting funerals in the family parlor is the genesis of the term “funeral parlor.” In more wealthy homes, a false (death) door was place off the parlor. It led outside to remove a deceased family member.

Funeral homes have been around for centuries, but they didn't become a formal business until the late 1800s. Before then, funerals were typically held in the home of the deceased, and families were responsible for preparing the body for burial.

There are no state laws in Pennsylvania prohibiting home burial, but local governments may have rules governing private burials. Before burying a body on private property or establishing a family cemetery, you should check with the county or town clerk for any zoning laws you must follow.

Pennsylvania Funeral Costs: Pennsylvania has some of the highest average funeral costs in the country at $8,100 and $7,500, respectively.

The cost for cremation can vary depending on the funeral home providing the services and the type of cremation service option selected. According to funeral price surveys in Pennsylvania, the average cost of a full-service cremation is $6,515, and the average cost for a direct cremation is $2,456*.