We were notified in late October by this press release that Landmark Funeral Group had acquired the Funeral Excellence Group (FEG) that consisted of nine locations.  All of the locations are located in Kentucky or Indiana and according to the press release are led by FEG’s Luke Denslow and the company was originally founded by John Horan.

 

The press release states that Denslow “will remain with Landmark as a key member of the Executive Leadership Team, focusing on Strategic Initiatives, Business Development and Partnerships.”

 

The funeral homes and locations listed on the press release as being acquired by Landmark Funeral Group in this transaction include:

 

• A.F. Crow & Son Funeral Home in Glasgow, KY
• Butler Funeral Home in Edmonton, KY
• Caneyville Funeral Home in Caneyville, KY
• Hartford Funeral Home in Hartford, KY
• Leitchfield Funeral Home in Leitchfield, KY
• Goodwin-Sievers Funeral Homes in Vincennes and Washington, IN
• Huber Funeral Homes in Tell City and Cannelton, IN

 

According to the website of Brenton Point Capital Partners, that you can access here,  “Landmark Funeral Group was launched by Brenton Point Capital Partners along with industry veterans to acquire and consolidate funeral homes, crematories, and cemeteries, targeting businesses across Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.”  

 

According to the website of Landmark Funeral Group, which you can access here, “Seb D’Appolonia is the President and CEO of the Landmark Funeral Group. . . . “.  The website continues with this biographical description of Mr. D’Appolonia, “Prior to his role at Landmark, Seb entered funeral service in 2021 as one of the co-founders of Milestone Funeral Partners, where he served as the Chief Growth Officer.”

 

This page from the Landmark Funeral Group website will show you a map of their current locations as well as a listing of what they number as 38 current locations.

 

Funeral Director Daily take:  There is probably going to be lots of funeral homes changing hands in the next 3-5 years.  According to the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA), there are currently 15,401 funeral homes in the United States.  The Foresight Companies suggest that about 46% of owners will “sell or transition” their business within a 5 to 10 year time frame.

 

Just using those two data points that computes to a whopping 7,084 funeral businesses that may be up for sale in that time frame.  In a 2021 article, retired funeral home business and finance expert Dan Isard made this prediction on who will be the buyers of those funeral homes:

 

• About 35% will be bought by Public or Private Equity Investors
• About 33% will be next family generational buyers
• About 25% will be key people
• About 8% will be shut down and liquidated for their real estate value.

 

I’m not in the mix to buy or sell any of those funeral homes, but I find it fascinating to look at the apparent strategies of companies in the business and how they interpret the data that includes more United States projected deaths, the geographic movement of the United States population skewing towards the urban cores and the South, the issues of “revenue per case” as cremation and direct cremation continue to rise, the advent of the “niche operators” such as Natural Organic Reduction and Green Burial companies potentially affecting business numbers, the evolving consumer reality of “Death Care” vs. “Memorialization” as to where their dollars will move, the recent erosion of margins in the traditional funeral home business model, the continuing evolution of funeral service professional staff, and how technology advances will play into the profitability and future of Death Care. . . . . . Wow!!!  That’s a lot of data to plug into the equation.

 

The one thing that appears certain to me is that the process of growth through acquisition is more complicated and probably more risky that it has ever been before.

 

I think that makes it more important than ever to have an expert on your side whether you are the buyer or the seller.  If you are in that boat, or going to be boarding it soon, I might suggest that you give the people at Johnson Consulting Group  a call to help steer the rudder.

 

Related Article:  “Who gets your funeral home”.  funeral.link blog  (August 2026)

 

More news from the world of Death Care:

• What’s the environmental cost of death.  Think Landscape — Global Landscape Forum
• Louisiana works to protect soldier’s grave and ownership questions.  The Center Square – Louisiana (LA)
• The 17 most beautiful cemeteries around the world that are spellbounding stunning — including 4 in the U.S.  Architectural Digest
• Park City Film Festival discussion unearths rituals of death and grieving.  The Park Record (UT)
• Montgomery County breaks ground on facility for unclaimed cremated remains.  CBS News via CBS Philadelphia (PA)

 

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