Preneed

Presenting Pre-Need — Part 1

By Funeral Director Daily / February 5, 2018 /

I did an article last Tuesday about the Krause Funeral Home and their low-key approach to Pre-Arrangement presentations with their “Pizza and Pre-Need” get-togethers.  It made me think about how I’ve presented Pre-Need in a seminar format and how my approach has been refined over the years as both the consumers and the product (death…

Pizza and Pre-Planning

By Funeral Director Daily / January 30, 2018 /

More than ever, in our transitionary society, funeral homes are depending on pre-arrangements, at a younger age,  to get families to choose their funeral home over a competitor.  People just don’t seem as loyal as years gone by and the thought is that the idea of getting some future business on the books can’t do…

Great Western Insurance Company to be Acquired

By Funeral Director Daily / January 9, 2018 /

In an article from the Think Advisor which you can read here it was reported that Ogden, Utah based pre-need life insurer Great Western Life Insurance is going to be acquired by American Republic Insurance of Des Moines, Iowa. Great Western is a privately held life insurance company, specializing in Pre-Need funeral insurance started by…

Pre-Arrangement Operations in the Cremation World

By Funeral Director Daily / December 15, 2017 /

Back in the 1990s as our State of Minnesota began allowing insurance policies to be a repository for pre-need funeral arrangement funding, many funeral homes, mine included, started insurance agencies in order to profit from the decision.  Since, Minnesota is a 100% trusting state, prior to that decision if a family gave you $5000 to…

What’s Happening in the Pre-Need Market

By Funeral Director Daily / November 16, 2017 /

It is interesting for me to speculate on what is happening in the Pre-Need insurance market.  While I have access to some statistics – it is by all means when considering the national perspective – a small sampling size.  However, I do see a couple of things trending that I would indicate that the Pre-Need…

A.M. Best Upgrades Great Western Insurance Credit Rating

By Funeral Director Daily / August 9, 2017 /

A press release from BusinessWire has indicated that the Great Western Insurance Company (GWIC) of Ogden, Utah, has had  A.M. Best upgrade their Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating to “bbb+” from “bbb”.  The outlook of the Long-Term ICR has been revised to stable from positive while the outlook of the Financial Strength Rating is stable. The…

Get to know Assurant

By Funeral Director Daily / June 16, 2017 /

As you are probably aware of we at Funeral Director Daily have built up our own index of public stocks which reflect six companies with, at least a part of their business entity in the Death Care profession.  Our hope is that by watching this index, and how the companies operate, we can learn something…

Here We Go Again

By Funeral Director Daily / May 24, 2017 /

As we move up on Memorial Day next Monday and want to honor those who have went before us, it seems that there is always something in our industry that casts a pall over the business of funeral directors and cemeterians.  I discovered a recent article in the Record-Courier of Ravenna, Kent and Portage Counties…

Shaffer to Lead Homesteaders Beginning in 2018

By Funeral Director Daily / May 12, 2017 /

A recent press release by Homesteaders Life Company, a funeral industry pre-arrangement company,  announced that a succession plan for the leadership of the company was recently passed at their May 2017 meeting.  Using forward thinking the board accepted CEO Stephen Lang’s pending retirement in March 2018 and approved the plan to have COO Stephen Shaffer…

Kentucky Funeral Home Investigated for Fraud

By Funeral Director Daily / May 8, 2017 /

A Benton, Kentucky funeral home has had his funeral home searched as allegations of fraud have been leveled against him.  According to the West Kentucky Star.com article, the Kentucky Department of Insurance is investigating complaints from customers who allegedly paid Filbeck-Cann & King Funeral Home owner Tim King to buy insurance policies that he never…