Yesterday I was active in our Minnesota Funeral Director’s Association (MFDA) Fall Continuing Education meetings.  The MFDA puts these on over about 10 days in the fall in different locations in an effort to tell all death care professionals what is going on in the industry.  It is always a great source to go to, not only to get an idea of what is going on, but to visit with colleagues as well.

Invited guests for yesterday were the general group plus an undercover law enforcement officer who gave us an update on the opioid problems and how it may affect funeral directors.  In general the speakers were our endorsed insurance carriers – Federated Insurance from the property/casualty side and Funeral Director’s Life (FDLIC) from the pre-need space -, our Minnesota Department of Health, a legislator and our MFDA lobbyist, and the Director of the University of Minnesota’s Mortuary Science Department.  Here is a synopsis of what I took away:

• Property/Casualty Insurance —  We all know that any business needs to be insured for the basics — fire, liability, etc.  However, today’s topic was about the ever increasing liability we all have as small businesses when it comes to data breaches.  Think about it, we have access to some identity information such as Social Security numbers that could be hacked from our systems.  More and more insurance companies will be including data breach coverage in their policies — and there will be a charge for it.

• Pre-Need Insurance — FDLIC is the Minnesota endorsed product and we heard from them, that after 20 years of growing policies and premiums statewide, 2017 looks like it could end with a net premium dollar decline in Minnesota.  They have grown their business in Minnesota by growing agents and also the number of policies.  While no indication was given for the potential decline I might suggest two scenarios.  Number one is that as Baby Boomers age – many have adequate resources in 401k accounts, etc. and believe that they don’t need a specific policy for death care expenses.  The second thought that I have is that with the advent of cremation becoming so popular that the face value of the policies sold is actually declining after many years of growth leading to a premium revenue number than is less than the year before.

• Minnesota Department of Health — i.e. regulations.  First of all, in their annual report they reported that cremation disposition continues to climb in Minnesota.  End of year 2016 statistics were that over 62% of all deaths in Minnesota ended with a cremation disposition.  As to regulation, because of the continuing increase in cremations, the MDH will ask the legislature to institute a rule that a crematory operator must be certified as a Crematory Specialist to operate the crematory.

• University of Minnesota Mortuary Science Department —  The department continues to be one of America’s top Mortuary Science programs granting Bachelor’s Degrees in the profession.  I graduated from there in 1980 when 60% of the graduates were from funeral service families.  It was reported yesterday that less than 10% of the graduates are now from funeral service families.  Also, while it may be just a dip on the radar, more men are enrolling after years of women leading the way.  And, as is usually the case, there is a disconnect on what graduates believe that working conditions and pay will be with what the reality of the situation is with employers when they graduate.

So, all in all, a great day of education and a chance to catch up with some tremendous colleagues as well.

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