Preneed

Preneed companies emerge as funeral home lending sources

By Funeral Director Daily / October 3, 2025 /

    Morgan Stanley, a global financial services firm that provides a wide range of products and services, including investment banking, wealth management, consumer banking, and brokerage services, recently made this comment in an article, “Life insurance companies have rapidly evolved into influential players in the credit markets.  Their growing footprint is not merely a function…

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Co-op Funeralcare increases “Funeral Plan” sales over 17% despite cyberattack

By Funeral Director Daily / October 1, 2025 /

  An April cyberattack which you can read about here probably cost the parent company of Great Britain’s largest funeral home operator, Co-op Funeralcare, about a US$ 107 million profit swing but didn’t seem to affect the number of funeral plans sold by the company as they increased over 17% from the previous year.  …

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Acquiring client families — “Any Which Way You Can”

By Funeral Director Daily / September 30, 2025 /

    As so often happens in my world I’ve had some real life and/or businesses experiences or discussions in the last week or ten days that has made me think about Death Care.  And, specifically to today’s article, about how the acquisition solicitation of client families to choose your specific Death Care operation for…

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Is your funeral home “Streaming” yet?

By Funeral Director Daily / September 24, 2025 /

    Okay — that headline is somewhat of a trick question.   I’m guessing that your funeral home is “streaming” services. . . . . but, are you “streaming” in your advertising and branding strategy?   As of March 2025 “streaming” represented 43.8% of overall TV watch time in the United States.  And, it is…

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Arkansas lawsuit questions “Denial of Claims” with “Burial” policies

By Funeral Director Daily / September 23, 2025 /

      As you can read in this recent article from the Insurance NewsNet a plaintiff in Arkansas is alleging that Globe Life “routinely canceled small life insurance policies when confronted with claims”.  The article goes on to say that “The small policies, generally $5,000 to $20,000, are sometimes known as “burial” policies and…

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What is the “Data point” for Preneed?

By Funeral Director Daily / September 9, 2025 /

    It’s s question that I have a hard time answering or getting an answer to.  The question being, “What is the number of preneed policies a funeral home needs to write to move market share forward?”  Or even more basic, “What is the average ratio between going-concern funeral homes as it comes to…

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Report: Record number of preneeds sold in 1st half of 2025

By Funeral Director Daily / August 27, 2025 /

    It’s the end of summer in Minnesota and lots of our friends get ready to embark on the journey to warmer climates soon.  So, it is a good time to say good-bye to our summer Minnesotans and wish them well until we see them again next Spring. Angie and I did that last…

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Pennsylvania funeral home acquires “down and out” operator

By Funeral Director Daily / August 26, 2025 /

    There’s always a risk when a funeral home firm acquires another location.  There’s even more risk when a funeral home acquires a location that has had its license suspended by a state board of funeral directors.   However, as you can read and view in this report from Pennsylvania’s WTAJ-TV News that’s exactly…

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Regions Bank: It’s like having an expert on staff

By Funeral Director Daily / July 28, 2025 /

  When I was operating my funeral home most of my energy went to taking care of the families I was serving, taking care of the staff I was leading, and taking care of the budget I was trying to meet.  Doing all of that didn’t always leave enough time to thoroughly look after the…

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The “Guaranteed” preneed philosophy — is it working in high inflation times?

By Funeral Director Daily / July 22, 2025 /

    I think that there still is a discussion about “Guaranteed” vs. “Non-Guaranteed” preneed funeral contracts.  Although, I would argue that for the past decade or so the vast majority of preneed accounts sold by funeral homes are “Guaranteed”.  By that I mean that the services and merchandise is picked out at pre-arrangement time…

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