Despite management upheaval, Park Lawn acquisitions keep rolling along

May 19, 2026/Finance/

It was only a month ago, on April 15, that Funeral Director Daily published this article titled “Park Lawn Corporation update: Dodds also reported to be leaving”. The sudden departure of Park Lawn Corporation executives that included President Jennifer Hay, Chief Operating Officer Matt Forastiere, and company executive Jay Dodds was a shock to many in the Death Care business world.

However, it does not look like Park Lawn Corporation missed a beat in that time as former Chief Financial Officer Markus Sturm was swiftly promoted to President and last week we recieved a press release announcing another Park Lawn acquisition in Oklahoma — where many of their latest acquisitions have been domiciled.

You can read in this press release that Park Lawn Corporation “acquired substantially all of the assets of Palmer Marler Funeral Homes located in Cushing, Perkins, and Oilton, Oklahoma. This transaction further strengthens Park Lawn’s presence in the Oklahoma market through the addition of three (3) stand-alone funeral homes.”

According to the press release, Riley Castor, the former owner of the acquired properties made this comment, “Watching these businesses grow and thrive in their communities has been the journey of a lifetime. I’m extremely happy to have secured their future with Park Lawn and am eager to continue contributing to our shared success as we move forward.”

And new CEO Markus Sturm made these prepared comments regarding the first acquisition for Park Lawn under his leadership, “We are thrilled to increase our operations in the State of Oklahoma through the strategic acquisition of the Palmer Marler businesses. These businesses have provided outstanding service to their communities for many years, and we are very pleased to welcome each of the Palmer Marler businesses and their esteemed staff members into the Park Lawn family.”

Here is the website for the Palmer Marler Funeral Home of Cushing, Oklahoma

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take: In the past month since the departures of the three high-level business executives at Park Lawn Corporation there has been a lot of talk in the industry about the ownership interest in Park Lawn Corporation by Homesteaders Life insurance company. Much of that talk has been around the synergies created for a funeral home/cremation/cemetery company with that of a well-financed preneed insurance company.

In my opinion that combination and synergy will allow Park Lawn the ability to finance acquisitions with “inside” money and once those acquisitions come on board there is great opportunity, thru preneed, to enhance the profitability of Homesteaders Life.

While many in the funeral home/crematory/cemetery may not like the synergy of the combination, it is simply now a reality that those other funeral home companies looking to buy funeral homes that fit Park Lawn’s profile acquisition category will have to deal with.

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