Preneed

Report: Headstone market hot

By Funeral Director Daily / April 27, 2021 /

A big part of our mission at Funeral Director Daily is to look around the death care industry and report what we see happening in the profession back to our fellow funeral directors.  Our thought is that those fellow funeral directors were much like I was in my 35 year front-line funeral service career —…

Pure Cremation unveils new advertising spots

By Funeral Director Daily / April 9, 2021 /

Only about a week ago Funeral Director Daily brought to our readers some new promotional spots by direct cremation start-up Solace.  We told you that we liked them and then linked them for you to view.  You can see that article here. We also told you in that article that we have been big fans…

Canada’s Eirene teams with Assurant for online pre-pay option. . more news to know

By Funeral Director Daily / April 8, 2021 /

Toronto based cremation provider Eirene announced last week in this announcement that they would be teaming up with Assurant Life of Canada (ALOC), an affiliate of Assurant Inc., to allow for Canadians to be able to pre-pay for cremations online as part of their estate planning.  Eirene bills itself, on their website as, “High quality,…

Assurant Preneed acquired by CUNA

By Funeral Director Daily / March 15, 2021 /

CUNA Mutual Group announced last week in this press release that it intends to acquire the preneed funeral business of global conglomerate Assurant.  We told you late last year, in this article, that Assurant was expected to move on from the preneed business as it concentrated on other business elements. The reported purchase price by…

Preneed is the answer

By Funeral Director Daily / March 10, 2021 /

This article picks up on yesterday’s discussion of what could happen as more crematories are built expanding the supply of crematories in the United States.  Yesterday’s discussion then went to the thought process and question of, “Will this excess capacity in cremation move cremation to a lower and lower retail cost as death care companies…

WilbertEDU a success. . . more CEU sessions offered

By Funeral Director Daily / March 8, 2021 /

Three months ago in December 2020 Funeral Director Daily told you of a program Wilbert would be offering to death care professionals that would help those professionals keep up with their Continuing Education Units (CEU) at the end of the year.  We concluded that it was a great venture by Wilbert that would be really…

Do we listen to the consumer

By Funeral Director Daily / March 4, 2021 /

Funeral home owners, cemetery operators, preneed professionals.  We’re the experts in the death care profession.  We know the business, we understand the clientele, and we know what is good for everybody.  Or do we? I’m guessing that is somewhat how the buggy whip manufacturers, horse livery operators, and sales reps in that industry thought of…

Assurant reports. . . . Preneed seems to be “up in the air”

By Funeral Director Daily / February 16, 2021 /

Worldwide insurance conglomerate Assurant reported both its 4Q 2020 and its Full Year 2020 results last week.  The company reports in three distinctive segments — Global Housing, Global Lifestyle, and Global Preneed. The total Earned Premiums of the entire company for the Full Year 2020 combined to $9.52 billion which is a better than 2%…

National Guardian Life to acquire Everplans

By Funeral Director Daily / February 1, 2021 /

According to this article National Guardian Life (NGL), a mainstay in the funeral preneed insurance market, has announced that it has acquired the company Everplans.  Everplans is described in the article as a digital life planning company that “helps consumers store, organize and share important documents online, and helps users get started with estate planning.”…

AOC says “Consumer funeral funding in current COVID relief package”

By Funeral Director Daily / January 29, 2021 /

New York United States Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced last week that it is her belief that consumer funeral cost relief is part of the $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill passed by both houses of congress and signed into law by President Trump in December. Here’s what Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez says in this article from Business Insider, …