DeadHappy, the United Kingdoms technical insurance startup that recently received about US $ 5 million in Series A funding, announced in this  article from Techcrunch, that they hope to get more involved in the wishes of their insured, including making sure that your funeral is the way you want it.

The company was founded in 2017 and claims to be the United Kingdom’s first fully digital pay-as you-go life insurance provider.  According to the Techcrunch article that means that their policies are designed to be “cheaper, easier, and better” than existing providers.  They believe that they can price insurance more competitive by doing so with the insured having the options of adding and removing coverage on a “rolling basis”.

According to DeadHappy co-founder Phil Zeidler, “Despite death being the one certainty humans face, it remains for many a taboo subject, and the failure to talk about it and plan for it is both counterintuitive and leads to significant further trauma at the most difficult of times for family and loved ones.”

Because of those thoughts by Zeidler, the company will now be developing what it calls its “Deathwish” platform.  That platform will work something like a will, but will also help the insured “achieve something meaningful in their lives”.  In addition, the Deathwish platform will also allow “practical Deathwishes, such as making sure your funeral is the way you want it.”

Here is a link to the DeadHappy web-site.

Funeral Director Daily take:  So, I’m no expert on DeadHappy, but I am a licensed life insurance agent, and what I see with DeadHappy is just another creative way to sell highly lucrative life insurance.  In my opinion, their real message and goal is to sell life insurance in a low cost manner through the internet.  There are companies in America doing the same thing and raising venture capital money to do so just as DeadHappy is in the UK.  There is a whole new industry growing up around this phenomena called “InsureTech”.

That’s not to say that companies such as DeadHappy don’t have some good ideas and, quite frankly, by cutting out agent representatives, they may be able to offer a lower cost alternative to current life insurance providers, even those in the preneed market.

My expertise on DeadHappy really only consists of reading articles (some which you can tell are public relations pieces) about them and perusing their web-site.  I find their web-site creative and interesting whereby they ask the prospective consumer what they want to fund with the insurance purchase. . . . and one of the categories is “Fund you Wake Party”.

So, with that simple idea I think it behooves all who have a vested interest in preneed to just take heed of these kinds of companies who may be out there to siphon some of your business as part of their business plan.  I’m of the opinion that as we move forward and transparency gets better and better about funeral pricing, many consumers may look to the internet sellers, rather than the traditional funeral home providers, to purchase their preneed products . . . .if they can find the same benefits at a lower cost.  We have found that “at home shopping” is only growing in all segments of consumer goods and I believe death care products will eventually see more and more of that trend.

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