Will cost of dying rise too?

As John Prine sings in his hit song Dear Abby: “Every side I get up on is the wrong side of the bed, if it weren’t so expensive, I’d wish I were dead.”

Turns out it is pretty pricey to die in the United States.

According to the National Funerals Director Association, the median cost of an adult funeral with viewing and burial in 2017 was $7,360, and that only covers fees for a casket (the single most expensive item in a funeral service), removal/transfer of remains to a funeral home and service cars.

If a vault is included, something often required by cemeteries, the price tag could reach as high as $8,508.

And as US-China trade disputes escalate, Americans might face even higher prices for burying their loved ones.

“In my opinion, this is a tax that the consumer pays,” said Jim Malamas, owner of ACE Funeral Products in Las Vegas, which sells metal and wood caskets as well as urns to funeral homes across North America.

The initial round of tariffs between China and the US resulted in the imposition of 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion worth of products from both countries.

The United States trade representative on July 10 announced proposed tariffs of up to 25 percent additional duties on $200 billion worth of products. That list targets everyday products from CD cases to candles and coffins.

Malamas, whose company is one of the biggest importers of Chinese caskets in the US, said customers could save between $500 to $1,000 on caskets imported from China, because the Chinese manufacturers usually have cheaper labor costs compared to American companies’.

“Their marketing program is larger, more involved, they have significantly more staff, they have more sales people on the ground,” Malamas said of American casket makers. “As a consequence, they have to charge more, so that they can cover their costs.”

The price for an imported Chinese casket might run between $500 to $700. A similar US-made coffin could be as high as $1,500 to $2,500.

Malamas expects funeral homes, which buy caskets from manufacturers, to be the first ones to feel the effects of the tariffs, if they go into effect. The funeral homes might then pass the cost increase along to customers.

“You need a gross profit margin to make sure you pay your bills and pay your overhead costs and your variable costs,” Malamas said, “and if your costs go up, you have to increase your pricing for your customers, so that you can cover your costs and still maintain some kind of profitability, otherwise you go out of business.”

This is the same situation Douglas Chen finds himself in. The owner of Centennial Casket Corp based in Plano, Texas, Chen wrote a letter to the USTR to protest the inclusion of caskets on the tariff list.

“We sell caskets wholesale to funeral homes locally and in different states throughout the US. We have very low margins and if we are subject to the 10 to 25 percent tariff it would cause a great loss to Centennial Casket Corporation to have to increase the cost of our caskets,” Chen wrote in a letter posted on the USTR website on Aug 17.

“The increased cost would also affect our funeral homes who deal directly with grieving families purchasing caskets for their loved ones at one of the worst times of their life,” he added.

In an interview with China Daily, Chen said a small number of large companies control a big percentage of casket sales in the US. The rest of the industry is made up of small and modest businesses such as his.

Chen said the existence of smaller enterprises like his that import products from China prevents these larger corporations from dominating the market and driving up costs for consumers.

Jessica Koth, public relations manager for the National Funeral Directors Association, which represents nearly 11,000 funeral homes in the US and 49 other countries, said she has yet to see any effect of the tariffs on the industry.

“We’ve heard from our funeral director members that the cost of caskets has increased in recent years, but that has been attributed to increased costs for materials and production,” she told China Daily. “We’ve not heard anything during the last couple of weeks specific to the recent tariffs.”

Dan Isard, funeral home consultant and president of the Phoenix, Arizona-based Foresight Cos, echoed that sentiment. He said caskets imported from Asia make up less than 5 percent of the $18 billion total revenue of the industry, and he doesn’t expect the tariffs to have a significant impact on the industry at this point.

“There will be more costs to importing Asian caskets, but it won’t be that much more,” Isard said, “and it still won’t position the Asian caskets to be equal in cost, or higher in cost, than the US or North American manufactured products.”

Isard anticipates the tariff to increase American funeral costs by $50 if it goes into effect.

Malamas said the tariffs might force changes in burial choices.

“If people are looking at saving money, that might have an effect on the actual burial rate and overall burial rate because of the cost, and an increase in the cremation rate,” he said.

If people are looking at saving money, that might have an effect on the actual burial rate.” Jim Malamas, owner, ACE Funeral Products of Las Vegas