Service Corporation International operates as a provider of deathcare products and services in North America, with a network of funeral service locations and cemeteries unequaled in geographic scale and reach.
The company operates various funeral service locations and cemeteries (including funeral service/cemetery combination locations), which are geographically diversified across 44 states, eight Canadian provinces, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
The company is well known for its...
Service Corporation International operates as a provider of deathcare products and services in North America, with a network of funeral service locations and cemeteries unequaled in geographic scale and reach.
The company operates various funeral service locations and cemeteries (including funeral service/cemetery combination locations), which are geographically diversified across 44 states, eight Canadian provinces, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
The company is well known for its Dignity Memorial brand, North America's first transcontinental brand of deathcare products and services. The company’s other brands include Dignity Planning, National Cremation Society, Advantage Funeral and Cremation Services, Funeraria del Angel, Making Everlasting Memories, Neptune Society, and Trident Society. The company’s funeral service and cemetery operations consist of funeral service locations, cemeteries, funeral service/cemetery combination locations, crematoria, and other related businesses, which enable the company to serve a wide array of customer needs. The company sells cemetery property and funeral and cemetery merchandise and services at the time of need and on a preneed basis.
Funeral and Cemetery Operations
The company’s funeral service and cemetery operations consist of funeral service locations, cemeteries, funeral service/cemetery combination locations, crematoria, and other related businesses.
The company has the largest number of combination locations in North America. Funeral service/cemetery combination locations are businesses in which a funeral service location is physically located within or adjoining a cemetery that the company owns.
Funeral service locations provide all professional services related to funerals and cremations, including the use of funeral home facilities and motor vehicles, arranging and directing services, removal, preparation, embalming, cremations, memorialization, and catering. Funeral merchandise, including burial caskets and related accessories, urns and other cremation receptacles, outer burial containers, flowers, online and video tributes, stationery products, casket and cremation memorialization products, and other ancillary merchandise, is sold at funeral service locations.
The company’s cemeteries provide cemetery property interment rights, including developed lots, lawn crypts, mausoleum spaces, cremation niches, and other cremation memorialization and interment options. Cemetery merchandise and services, including memorial cemetery markers and bases, outer burial containers, flowers and floral placement, other ancillary merchandise, graveside services, merchandise installation, and interments, are sold at the company’s cemeteries.
The company also sells cemetery property interment rights and funeral and cemetery merchandise and services whereby a customer contractually agrees to the terms of certain products and services to be delivered and performed in the future. The company defines these sales as preneed sales.
As of December 31, 2024, the company owned approximately 90% of the real estate and buildings used at the company’s facilities, and the remainder of the facilities were leased under both financing and operating leases. As of December 31, 2024, the company’s cemeteries contained a total of approximately 35,800 acres, of which approximately 66% was developed. Interment rights for approximately 2,000 acres of the developed acreage are unsold.
Regulation
The company’s funeral operations are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (the ‘FTC’) under the FTC’s Trade Regulation Rule on Funeral Industry Practices (the ‘Funeral Rule’), which went into effect in 1984.
The company’s operations are also subject to regulation, supervision, and licensing under numerous federal, state, and local laws and regulations, as well as Canadian provincial laws and regulations. For example, state laws impose licensing requirements for funeral service locations and funeral directors and regulate preneed sales, including the company’s preneed trust activities. The company’s facilities are subject to environmental, health, and safety regulations. The company takes various measures to comply with the Funeral Rule and all laws and regulations. For example, the company has established and maintains policies and procedures around its business practices; the company provides training of its personnel; and the company performs ongoing reviews of its compliance efforts. The company is in substantial compliance with the Funeral Rule and all laws and regulations.
Strategies for Growth
The company is the largest consolidated deathcare company in North America and is well positioned for long-term profitable growth.
The key elements of the company’s strategy include remaining relevant to the customer; growing preneed sales; developing its sales organization; optimizing its network and deploying customer-facing technology; growing its preneed backlog; and investing in acquisitions and building new funeral service and cemetery locations.
History
Service Corporation International was founded in 1962. The company was incorporated in Texas in 1962.