Homesteaders Life partners with Gather’s case management platform

June 27, 2024/Business, Preneed/

Homesteaders Life Insurance Company of Iowa has been in the news a lot lately. The preneed company that issued its first policy for final expenses in 1906 most recently announced in this press release that they have formed a partnership with Gather’s case management platform.

According to the press release, “The new partnership will enable Gather’s funeral home and cemetery users to access their Homesteaders preneed policy data directly through the platform”.

Lyndon Peterson, Homesteaders Life EVP of Sales and Marketing made this prepared comment in the news release, “Case management is a significant component of day-to-day funeral home operations for many of our customers. Integrating our preneed data into leading platforms like Gather makes it even easier for current and prospective funeral home partners to do business with Homesteaders.”

In another prepared statement from the press release, Gather CEO and Founder Zach Chatterton made this comment about the partnership between the two companies, “Funeral providers have had limited options for integrating their case management platform with their preneed program. In partnering with Homesteaders, we’re bringing a new option to market that offers complete and seamless integration between preneed and at-need data.”

Here is the website for Gather case management

Here is the website for Homesteaders Life Company

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take: It is really interesting to me, in the Baby Boomer age bracket, how technology is transforming what we do. Every funeral arrangment that I made was done on a hard copy folder. . . . then, in the later years, I transfered all information by keyboard to computer forms that I was able to use for Death Certificates, Burial Permits, Cremation Authorizations, billing statements, and the like. . . . . I never took the information and put it directly into digital format — it was always transfered from a hard copy.

However, when I stop at our funeral home today I wonder if anybody ever uses a pen anymore. . . it seems to all be done in digital format. That has given rise to all of the case management systems of today.

It also reminds me how things change as business needs change. . . .For instance, I often comment that in the small community I grew up in we had only two banks in town but a local gas station on every corner. In my community today, we have a couple of large chain convenience gas stations, but a bank on every corner. . . . It’s just the difference in how consumers operate today as compared to yester-year. . . . and, guess what? Your funeral home’s consumers act differently today in what products they want and how your service is delivered to them.

In the funeral business I used to go to the national convention and see many casket, vault, and livery companies displayed on the exhibit floor. . . .Today, I see few of those items but many cremation products, many preneed providers, and many case management systems trying to gain favor with North America’s funeral and cemetery providers.

I talk to funeral directors every day and right now there is a desire to find a case management software system that is easy to use and can be operated from a mobile phone system. More and more funeral directors tell me that having “everything” at their fingertips that used to be found in the office files is a must.

There is no shortage of case management systems out there. . . Just off hand here’s a few that come to mind — Funeral365, Osiris, PlotBox, Obit, Tribute Management, Nexus, SRS, and Passare. They probably all have some valuable features, but the one that can do the most in a simple sort of way, provide all the office file information, and be accessible at all times will, in my opinion, grab valuable market share going forward.

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