Oct 16, 2026 · 1 hr 8 min · 17 segments
Bobby is under the weather this week, so we're bringing back one of our favorite conversations. We are joined by Trevor Crean, owner of Heritage Gardens Cemetery in Surrey Canada. He started a…
So in the United States here, we basically have three different models for our cemeteries.
We have nonprofit, and I don't know if you even, if you have something like a nonprofit up in Canada, for-profit, or you have church-run cemeteries.
Um, so in the Twin Cities here in the, in Minnesota, many of our cemeteries are nonprofit.
Um, you may have heard like churches in the, in the United States are considered 501[c][3].
Um, so we're, we're actually, uh, exempt from property taxes, um, and certain other types of taxes.
Um, and the reason why they consider us nonprofit is because we're a public good.
Um, so they want us to be in, in the public arena so that, 'cause we're obviously a public good.
But however, with that being said, the ownership of us nonprofit cemeteries, I run one of them, um, goes to the lot owners, and we're run by a board of directors who are owners of the lots.
Um, and we have, you know, so many board meetings, and there's an annual meeting where they elect board, board members, and that's how, how these nonprofit cemeteries are run.
There's obviously laws on what we have to do for putting money into perpetual care funds and things like that for in the future.
You can be a for-profit cemetery, which we do have a handful of those in the cities as well.
Um, which means then, uh, you still are required to put so much money into these endowment funds or perpetual care funds.
Um, however, you can put the minimum, and the rest can go into the pockets of owners.
And, and a lot of those are funeral homes who own cemeteries at the same time.
They're basically, they're nonprofits as well since the churches are nonprofits.
Like they are exempt from ha- in the state of Minnesota at least from putting money into the perpetual care funds because they're assuming that the church is going to maintain the cemetery, uh, into perpetuity, that volunteers from the church or whatnot.
So in the United States here, we basically have three different models for our cemeteries.
We have nonprofit, and I don't know if you even, if you have something like a nonprofit up in Canada, for-profit, or you have church-run cemeteries.
Um, so in the Twin Cities here in the, in Minnesota, many of our cemeteries are nonprofit.
Um, you may have heard like churches in the, in the United States are considered 501[c][3].
Um, so we're, we're actually, uh, exempt from property taxes, um, and certain other types of taxes.
Um, and the reason why they consider us nonprofit is because we're a public good.
Um, so they want us to be in, in the public arena so that, 'cause we're obviously a public good.
But however, with that being said, the ownership of us nonprofit cemeteries, I run one of them, um, goes to the lot owners, and we're run by a board of directors who are owners of the lots.
Um, and we have, you know, so many board meetings, and there's an annual meeting where they elect board, board members, and that's how, how these nonprofit cemeteries are run.
There's obviously laws on what we have to do for putting money into perpetual care funds and things like that for in the future.
You can be a for-profit cemetery, which we do have a handful of those in the cities as well.
Um, which means then, uh, you still are required to put so much money into these endowment funds or perpetual care funds.
Um, however, you can put the minimum, and the rest can go into the pockets of owners.
And, and a lot of those are funeral homes who own cemeteries at the same time.
They're basically, they're nonprofits as well since the churches are nonprofits.
Like they are exempt from ha- in the state of Minnesota at least from putting money into the perpetual care funds because they're assuming that the church is going to maintain the cemetery, uh, into perpetuity, that volunteers from the church or whatnot.
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