Dying in America is getting so pricey that families are changing long-held wishes about what happens to their remains. NBC News reports on families who wanted traditional burials but ended up with cremation instead—not for religious or personal reasons, but because a burial service can easily soar past $10,000 to $15,000, roughly in line with what many Americans have in the bank. Even stripped-down options are straining budgets: A no-frills cremation, sans service or urn, typically runs more than $2,500. NBC traces how rising funeral-home expenses, costlier fuel (hearses need gas), and tariffs on imported caskets have pushed funeral and burial prices up about 77% over two decades.
The squeeze lands hardest on middle- and lower-income households, who aren’t as likely to have a huge inheritance fall into their laps and so turn to GoFundMe campaigns, high-interest credit cards marketed for funeral costs, or loans from friends just to reclaim a body from the morgue. Meanwhile, wealthier families tend to focus less on funeral bills and more on estate taxes, with Trump-era changes helping shield multimillion-dollar inheritances. MarketWatch breaks down funeral, cremation, and burial costs even more and offers advice on how to save. Quartz, meanwhile, offers some alternative end-of-life options, including water cremations and human composting.