Everstory Partners aims for more of the “Upper K”

August 14, 2026/Business, Cemetery, Cremation, Products/

Not every consumer is looking for the $999 direct cremation service. And, the good operators in the Death Care space know that.

There are plenty of ways to buy a burger in many different price points — White Castle, McDonald’s, Shake Shack, and Capital Grille all offer burgers. However, one would probably agree that the taste and experience you recieve from your purchase is very different at each of the locations.

That thought process is the same. . . even when it comes to Death Care services and cemetery memorialization.

Just last week we learned of Everstory Partners’ newest brand, Evermark. According to this press release from Everstory Partners, Evermark is “new family estate brand to custom design private family estates that reimagine how families preserve their stories, honor loved ones and create a lasting legacy for generations to come.”

According to the press release, “Evermark “builds on Everstory Partners’ long-standing family estate offerings through the Memorial Planning network of more than 460 locations across the United States. Evermark brings renewed focus to custom estates while helping families better understand the memorialization options available to them.”

Again, according to the press release, each Evermark Family Estate is custom-created and may include:

– Private walk-in or walk-around mausoleum
– Multigenerational burial and cremation estates
– Custom architectural monuments and memorial structures
– Premium granite, bronze and natural stone elements
– Personalized stained glass, family crests, inscriptions and artistic features
– Gardens, gathering spaces and landscaping designed for reflection and remembering

LIlly Donohue Everstory President and CEO

LIlly Donohue
Everstory CEO

In a prepared statement in the press release, Everstory Partners CEO Lilly Donohue made this comment, “Evermark represents the highest expression of personalized memorialization. Every estate is uniquely designed to tell a family’s story through exceptional architecture and craftsmanship.”

Funeral Director Daily take: The “Premium-ization” of cemeteries is something that has not really been understood by the non-cemetery populous over the years. Instead of just buying a routine grave space, prospective clientele has the option to buy premium locations, masuoleums, monuments, and more. . . . . . And, if given those options, many of those prospective grave space purchasers do so.

Everyone in Death Care knows of the “low-price” cremation shopper clientele. But a great secret is, that in the cemetery business there are those client families that are searching for a premium purchase. . . . .And, in today’s society where many have gained wealth with home real estate and retirement plans, the means to make these purchases are available more than ever before.

I’m also of the opinion that “Legacy” is of growing importance to a certain group of people. Just as “Legacy” was important to the Pharoahs in Egypt in Biblical times, I think “Legacy” was important to many who became wealthy or successful in the building of America. Think of the Carnegie libraries or buildings on college campuses with a family name on them. Or, even in a more modest sense, the large cemetery monuments of first-generation American immigrants of the mid- and late 19th century. . . . . . My belief is that there is a large, and growing, group of first-generation success stories in America. . . . .and many may want to perpetuate their “Legacy”.

Service Corporation International (SCI) has recognized that. . . . so much so that about 15% of its cemetery purchases are what they deem “Large Sales” of $100,000 or more. Here’s what SCI CFO Eric Tanzberger said at the Bank of America Global Healthcare Conference earlier in 2026

“. . . that was a nice bump, but we had an easier comp in the first quarter of 2025, where large sales are about 15% of our total sales, defined as greater than $100,000 and they can ebb and flow with high net worth families and individuals and the things that you would naturally think would affect that particular behavior, which is more in line with is there — how is the real estate market doing? Is there a real estate bubble? How is the stock market doing? Is there a bubble there, perhaps? Those are the types of things that will continue to drive our large sales that we saw continue over the last 4 sequential quarters to be very positive, frankly.”

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

When you see results like that you look at Everstory Partners and wonder why this kind of thinking was not present earlier. However, Everstory Partners, with 460, mostly cemetery, properties in their control is in a great situation to profit from this thinking. It doesn’t have to be only mausoleums, but the premium-ization philosophy can move into premium locations of grave spaces in cemeteries, premium markers in cemeteries, premium columbariums and niche spaces, and more.

The K-Shaped Economy has helped this level of purchase. A lot has been written and said about what appears to be a “K-Shaped” economy that the United States has seen since the pandemic. The “K-Shape” moniker coming from the upper end of the “K” being those who have assets saved and put away that are growing at higher levels than their spending needs. The downward stroke of the “K” being those in our midst who are simply having trouble with their wages keeping up with inflationary pricing.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis says this about the realities of the K-shaped economy:

“The concept of a K-shaped economy is real in practice serving as a useful framework for how macroeconomic data shows a divergence between high-income and lower-income groups. Higher earners and asset-holders thrive on rising stock markets and home equity, while lower-income households face cumulative inflation pressures and debt burdens. However, Federal Reserve data indicates that actual retail spending gaps are more nuanced and less starkly bifurcated than popular anecdotes suggest.”

Final Thought: Preneed will be a key force for cemeteries that offer premium priced products. They need to get family clientele in to their sales offices to show them what is available. Thomas Ryan, CEO of SCI made several comments in the company’s First Quarter Report about how educating the consumer on the availability of cemetery products for cremation can make a big difference. Here’s an exerpt from those comments from Ryan:

“The other thing I’ll mention, and we talked about it earlier since you asked, the cremation cemetery strategy. I think we talked to you guys a while back that it’s our belief based upon some studies and surveys that we did with consumers that there’s a real lack of understanding of what we have to offer to the cremation consumer on the cemetery side. So we were good at the funeral side, but we weren’t getting the point across, at least consistently. So we worked really hard, and we actually piloted 10 markets in the first quarter. And I would tell you that it was very successful.

And again, it’s only 10 markets, so I don’t want to get overly excited, but it’s really focusing on communicating with the consumer through advertising, through in-lobby presentations, different types of media and presentation materials. And what we’re seeing was a real difference maker in those 10 markets versus what we saw in the other markets.”

An opportunity for cemeteries and what could be a negative effect on cremation providers in what I am beginning to see is what I call “Discounted Optionality”. That’s the term I use when I see some cemeteries that offer “complimentary cremation” when purchasing a premium priced columbarium or in-ground cremation location with monument.

It’s my belief that these cemeteries are making a large enough margin on the premium property that they take care of a direct cremation free of charge. If a family member really wants “Memorialization” and goes to the cemetery to look at a purchase, they may not care where they are cremated at. . . . . and that could be a headwind for a cremation provider in that cemetery’s market area. It’s the “Discounted Optionality” for that cremation that can give greater value to the premium product in the consumer’s eyes.

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