What is the “Data point” for Preneed?

September 9, 2025/Business, Preneed/

It’s s question that I have a hard time answering or getting an answer to. The question being, “What is the number of preneed policies a funeral home needs to write to move market share forward?” Or even more basic, “What is the average ratio between going-concern funeral homes as it comes to annual preneed contracts sold in relation to at-need services held?”

There is a lot written about Preneed and how to increase your numbers but I don’t know if I ever have seen a percentage listed that would indicate a funeral home is doing well or doing poor in relation to other funeral homes.

What caught my interest on this subject is information that Funeral Director Daily wrote about in this article on British preneed sales. The first half of 2025 produced record sales for the companies that report to Great Britain’s National Association of Funeral Plan Providers (NAFPP). And, in the numbers provided one could calculate that the number of preneed policies sold in Great Britain in a year, on the current rolling rate, would equal approximately 39% of all deaths in Great Britain for the year. . . . .So, I would call the ratio of preneed sales to at need deaths in Great Britain a 39% rate.

Just for comparison sake, I know that Service Corporation International, in their quarterly reports lists Preneed Contracts sold as well as a term they use called “Funeral Services performed”. I then took the liberty to go back four years and look under their “Comparable Funeral Revenue” report. Here’s the data that I found:

At first look at this data, you would have to say that Service Corporation International Preneed/AtNeed ratio would be about 60%. . . . 20% higher than Great Britain is reporting.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

At our funeral home we became what I call “subtly aggressive” with preneed sales early on. My brother was in charge of Preneed and did a great job at it.. . . . There were years when our ratio was at 100% and that was always our goal — One preneed for every At Need. At that rate we felt very secure that we were increasing market share.

We did that number with seminars, mailings, walk-ins, Medical Assistance, partnerships with fraternal agents, and simply always talking about the benefits of PreNeed.

Over the years one of the facts that occured to me is that when there is an at-need death it involved one individual. Preneed, in most instances, involved the sale of policies to two individuals (married couples) at once. . . .. . . which is one reason the 100% ratio was attainable.

About the SCI Numbers: In the table above you will notice that in general Preneed policies sold went up every year and Total Funeral Services went down every year. The exception to this was the Preneed sales in 4Q2024 where Preneed contracts sold also went down. I believe that the simple explanation for Preneed sales going down is that SCI has changed their Preneed modus operandi and they now have an agreement with Global Atlantic as their provider. They have made no secret that some of the training is taking longer than expected which is probably why Preneed sales have lagged.

As for the Total Funeral Services performed number going down for SCI I’m a little perplexed. This number comes from their “Comparable Funeral Revenue” and you would think that they have more facilities today than they had in 2021.

However, there is no explanation for this line item on the report and without all the data and explanations we can only theorize. It could be that 2021 deaths included increased deaths from the pandemic. Deaths from later years could explain what has been called a “pull-forward” effect of the pandemic where older people died earlier because of the pandemic (2020 and 2021) and they would have been deaths in later years like 2022, 2023, and 2024, had they not died during the pandemic. . . . leaving lower death numbers in these succeeding years.

Other possible explanations are that SCI is losing market share or that they have less funeral homes today than they had in 2021. The reduced numbers could even be caused by the calendar — maybe there was more “reporting” weeks via the way the calendar fell for the 4th Quarter in certain years. In any regard, it is my assumption that the data is too limited to really tell what might be at play with these reduced “Funeral Services Performed” number.

Final Thought — If you do want a comparison for Preneed sales over the past couple of years. After reading the above linked article that appeared on August 27 in Funeral Director Daily one of my friends, and FDD subscriber, who operates a preneed agency for several funeral businesses reported to me that 2024 was “a record year” and 2025 year-to-date is up 15.7% over that 2024 number.

More news from the world of Death Care: