In a follow-up to what Funeral Director Daily reported in March, this press release will inform you that Madison, Wisconsin, based CUNA Mutual Group has closed on its acquisition of Assurant Global Preneed.  The press release states that the purchase price was approximately $1.35 billion.

Assurant CEO Alan Colberg said this in the release, “This sale marks an important milestone in the transformation of Assurant, sharpening our focus on our market-leading lifestyle and housing businesses, and better positioning our company to capitalize on future growth opportunities emerging around the connected consumer.”

The press release also said that Assurant intends to invest the remainder of the net proceeds primarily in support of its connected world businesses, comprised of Connected Living, Global Automotive and Multifamily Housing, to enable long-term profitable growth and further strengthen its competitive position.  It has been noted that Assurant would be leaving the preneed industry and using those proceeds for their ever expanding warranty businesses.

According to this article from Think Advisor, Assurant’s Global Preneed division reported $48 million in net income on $491 million of revenue in 2020.  The same article notes that Assurant Global Preneed has 2 million insureds, $7 billion in net assets, and $6.5 billion of coverage in force.  If those numbers are correct, the average coverage in force would be approximately $3,250.

Here’s what CUNA Mutual had to say in this press release:

• Acquiring Assurant’s best-in-class prearranged funeral insurance and final expense solutions business enables CUNA Mutual Group to further serve the growing middle market.

• Like CUNA Mutual Group, Assurant’s preneed business is focused on protecting consumers and their families with simple, easy to understand products. The preneed business will operate with autonomy at its Rapid City, South Dakota location with limited integration into CUNA Mutual Group’s other business lines or operations. Since preneed solutions are provided to consumers primarily through funeral homes, the company has no plans at this time to offer these services through financial institutions, such as credit unions and banks.

• The acquisition provides the opportunity to add a business already at scale as CUNA Mutual Group enters new markets to protect even more consumers. The business brings $6.5 billion of face value in-force. Assurant’s distribution model for preneed and final expense solutions includes a longstanding partnership with the largest funeral home provider in North America and many other funeral home partners and distributors across the U.S. and Canada.

CUNA Mutual’s other areas of business — Click Here

Related–With Assurant leaving the Death Care business world, they have been dropped from the Funeral Director Daily proprietary Death Care Index (DCI).  The DCI is a measurement of the value of the public companies in the death care realm.  It will now consist of seven companies — Service Corporation International, Hillenbrand Industries, Park Lawn Corporation, Security National Financial Corporation, StoneMor, Inc., Matthews International, and Carriage Services.

More news from the world of Death Care:

• Funerals will hit 100 million a year by 2060.  Here’s how to make them more sustainable.  The Conversation
• Meet Anthony and Matt Young.  Brothers and founders at Tyde:  The first completely online funeral booking platform.  Tech Round
• Carriage Services is a great choice for “Trend” investors.  Yahoo Finance
• Defensive stocks at the right price.  (Propel Funeral Partners).  Financial News Arena (Australia)

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