Pandemic Survey: Retirees emerge resilient. . . what does that mean for Preneed

April 14, 2022/Preneed/

Allianz Life recently published a survey that was taken of a representative sample of 1,000 Americans detailing how they were financially affected by the pandemic that we are showing signs of emerging from. You can access an article about the survey here.

In essence, the article states that there is a “significant gap in the financial experience of younger Americans and their retired counterparts“. Going further into the details the survey showed that “68% of pre-retirees (down from 2021’s 75%) said they feel confident in support of their future financial goals. . . . (while) 89% of retired respondents said they feel confident about funding their financial goals.”

And while “34% of non-retired respondents said they took money out of investment accounts and 39% of non-retirees said they reduced the amount of money they were putting into retirement accounts”, retirees seemed to be more relaxed about their financial futures. As a matter of fact, in comparison to the 2021 survey, retirees were less worried about market downturns, healthcare costs, and the rising cost of living in February 2022 than one year prior.

Funeral Director Daily take: The survey and ensuing article that is entitled, “A tale of two pandemics”, is an interesting observation. . . .especially when you look at it from a death care perspective and what it may mean for business going forward.

As for preneed sales I think the article reinforces what we wrote about a couple of weeks ago. I had read an article that quoted several Fortune 500 CEOs who believed that the balance sheet of the American consumer has never been in a better position. . . .meaning more assets and less liabilities that ever before.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

At that time, I suggested that this may be as good a time as there has ever been to be promoting preneed to consumers. . . especially when you think that coupled with better balance sheets and savings accounts, those consumers still have the memory of sudden death – caused by Covid-19 – in their memories and are how death can come rapidly. . .even to seemingly healthy people. That idea of unknown mortality timing, in my opinion, can be a major driver of preneed purchases.

I think today’s article about the Allianz Life survey gives us some additional information on who we should be targeting. I think it shows that death care purveyors should be targeting those newly retired or young retired people in comparison to those who are in the pre-retirement years and still worried about putting that nest egg together. Targeting the people that I suggest, in my opinion, will lead to a better sales conversion rate and build your business in faster fashion.

When I was in charge of our funeral home I led monthly seminars for potential preneed clients invited by mail invitation. We targeted a group that were homeowners and 55 years of age or older. One of my direct appeals to them was when they decided to receive Social Security — some at age 62 — or when they applied for Medicare at age 65, that was the appropriate time to think about their mortality and set up and finance their funeral preneed fund. It made sense to them and worked for us.

If you are not actively going after preneed business. . . there’s never been a better time to start than now.

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