A new employee perk: Help navigating the funeral home maze

• Key Insight: Learn how employer-sponsored D2C casket benefits are changing funeral procurement strategies.
• Supporting Data: U.S. funeral homes generate $16.3B; cremation rate currently 63.4%.
• Forward Look: Cremation projected to reach 82.3% by 2045—prepare service and pricing strategies.
• Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review

A direct-to-consumer casket company is partnering with employers nationwide to offer benefits that help people save money when planning funerals. 

Boston-based Titan Casket was founded in 2016 with the mission of "helping families not take an emotional loss and turn it into a financial loss," says CEO Scott Ginsberg. "Our goal today is really just to help people with choices because it's a broken experience."

Traditionally, most people work with a funeral home to buy a casket, says Ginsberg, who has worked in the funeral business for more than 20 years. The market is highly concentrated with a handful of manufacturers accounting for most of the caskets sold.

Because of this, consumers generally pay a large markup fee. Titan Casket helps people save money by selling directly to consumers and bypassing the markups of funeral homes, Ginsberg says. 

"When someone passes, you go to the same funeral home you've always gone to," Ginsberg says. "But if you want to buy a car today, what would you do? You look to see what the prices are. People don't do that when it comes to funerals. And that's why we [founded] Titan Casket."

How it works

Titan partners with employers, insurers and associations to offer funeral concierge services as an added benefit. Ginsberg could not say how many employers Titan works with but added that their clients include both small and large businesses. 

When there's a death, clients call the concierge service and are walked through the funeral process. A field director will ask questions like: Will this be a cremation or burial? Will there be viewing? When will the services take place? 

If the body needs to be transported to another state, Titan can also help with the logistics. 

Read more: Beyond health benefits: Growing need seen for estate planning services

"We really don't tell them what to do," Ginsberg says. "We listen to them, give them a lot of education and let them know when they walk in that front door that they are the boss. The field director works for them."

Ginsberg, who previously worked as CEO of Northern Craft Casket, started the company as a vendor on Amazon. He works with two co-founders — Joshua Siegel and Elizabeth Siegel — who have an e-commerce and technology background. 

Besides Amazon, Titan has also partnered with several other big-name retailers including Costco, Walmart and Sam's Club. 

Disrupting the industry

With the rise of new technologies and a shift toward cremation, the funeral industry has undergone some significant changes over the last few decades but it is still a huge business. 

According to a 2025 fact sheet by the National Funeral Directors Association, funeral homes generate $16.3 billion in revenue in the U.S., while crematories and cemeteries take in nearly $4.3 billion. 

There are more than 15,000 funeral homes nationwide, employing around 105,000 people. A growing number of people are choosing cremation over burial because of the lower cost and environmental concerns.

Read more: Three days is not enough: 4 things employers should know about bereavement

The current cremation rate is 63.4%, according to the funeral directors association, and that figure is expected to reach 82.3% by 2045. 

"It's really a regional thing," Ginsberg says. "Certain parts of the country tend to be more traditional than other parts."

Titan Casket

Ginsberg declined to disclose his sales numbers, but says that Titan is the largest direct-to-consumer casket company in the U.S. 

"We're here to disrupt the industry," Ginsberg says. "We're here to normalize conversations around death and dying. No one wants to talk about it, but it's going to happen."

Read more: 83% of employees say better benefits makes them more productive

Something else Ginsberg would like to normalize is the inclusion of funeral benefits in the workplace. Benefits such as health, dental insurance and life insurance are critically important, Ginsberg says, but it's also important to have support when there's a death in the family. 

Even when that death involves an extended member of the family, the impact on an employee is significant. 

"What better way to help than at the worst time in someone's life," Ginsberg says. "All of those other benefits are wonderful and they're important, but this strikes at the core of an employee. Why not be there for them?"