Orlando, Florida, based Foundation Partners Group (FPG) caught some by surprise when it announced in a news release on Monday,  “a transformational milestone in its growth journey, including new ownership, increased investment in its people and facilities, and a strategic reorganization to strengthen field operations and support care teams.”

The news release did not disclose the name or names of the new owners.

You can read the entire press release from Foundation Partners Group here

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  As sometimes happens, I started getting phone calls last week wondering if I knew about anything happening at Foundation Partners Group.  One caller told me that he knew of several employee changes or loss of positions.  Another caller told me that Access Holdings, an institutional owner/investor for some time no longer had the company listed among its current portfolio of investments on their website.  Another caller wondered if I thought they would be putting some of their brands up for sale.

I made a couple of phone calls and learned that there would probably be an announcement of some sort soon.

From my point of view, Foundation Partners Group has, at least since Access Holdings became involved, been an experiment on the feasability of high propensity cremation businesses being able to follow the successful path of building a national organization through acquisition much like Robert Waltrip pioneered with Service Corporation International (SCI) and traditional funeral homes back in the 1960’s.  Waltrip’s method has proved a successful modus operandi, not only for SCI, but for other national, regional, and local funeral home consolidators who have emulated the recipe for over half a century.

The jury may still be out on the question of building a profitable consolidated national company based on high cremation percentage businesses.  It will be very interesting to see what path FPG takes from here on.

While I have no insight into the profitability or non-profitability of the company the CEO John Smith is quoted, “This is a vote of confidence in our team, our strategy and our future.  Our investors believe in what we’re building—and their investment gives us financial flexibility to grow, improve facilities and invest in our people.” 

Again, from my point of view, the difference that I see between the traditional funeral home consolidators and what Foundation Partners Group has done with a cremation-heavy business is that the historical financial margins for traditional funeral homes were enough to allow for acquisition payments as well as the build-out the supporting network of “corporate” employees and management.

The question that I have is “Is that service margin enough to do the same roll-up and build-out with a cremation-centric national company”?  I’ve always believed that the margin may be there for  an online Direct Cremation “only” business, but not necessarily with a more costly bricks-and-mortar “cremation-centric” operation.

Time will tell and time will tell on the next moves of Foundation Partners Group.

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New Foundation Partners Group CEO John Smith didn’t waste any time in forming a group of former owners to learn more about the Death Care business.  Smith, with lots of management experience but none in the Death Care realm was hired by Foundation Partners Group (FPG) earlier in 2025.  Here’s a Funeral Director Daily article on that news.

The advisory group which this press release from Foundation Partners Group says will “enhance strategic growth and community impact” will also be used to “guide the company’s leadership team during a pivotal time of growth and transformation”.

The following three individuals have been asked to join the advisory group according to the press release:

• Mark Krause, a fourth-generation funeral director and former president of Krause Funeral Homes & Cremation Services in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Krause is a nationally recognized leader and educator, who built an innovative portfolio of businesses designed to provide services to families across a wide spectrum of needs from high-touch, traditional services to simple direct cremation.
• Kevin Waterston, a recognized cremation pioneer who, along with his brother, founded the Cremation Society of Minnesota in 1980 to complement the services of his family’s Minneapolis funeral home. Over the next 30-plus years, the Waterston’s grew the business to five locations, becoming the leading provider of cremation services in Minnesota.
• Rick Tuss, a licensed funeral director and former co-owner of Charlotte Memorial Funeral Home, Cemetery & Crematory in Punta Gorda, Florida. From 2012 to 2019 Tuss and his partner modernized and grew the business based on a culture of caring with a strong emphasis on community involvement.

Again, according to the FPG press release:

“Winter Park, Florida-based Foundation Partners Group is one of the industry’s most innovative providers of funeral services and the second-largest funeral home group in the country based on the number of families served. Foundation Partners owns and operates a network of over 250 funeral homes, cremation centers and cemeteries across 21 states. . . . Visit www.foundationpartners.com to learn more.”

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  I think this is a really smart move by CEO Smith and FPG management.  As a company that grows by acquisition Foundation Partners Group acquires many entities that have grown greatly because of their home-ownership knowledge and expertise in their individual market.

I’m also under the impression that acquisition built companies tend to lose some market share shortly after they acquire a family-owned Death Care operator.  In my opinion, some of that loss is justified by the larger acquisition company’s long-term focus and the adjustments that culture might have on the local acquired entity that will win market share in the future.

However, there is also a great deal of “local knowledge” and local operational expertise lost when the founding family members of a firm leave following the sale of their business.  Many of these owner/sellers are ready to retire and want to leave the business.  In a case such as that there can be difficulty with “local business culture” and there is little that can be done by the acquisition company in learning local expertise from the owner/seller while the new operations of the business are set to the acquisition company’s modus operandi.

On the other hand, their are many owner/sellers who, even if they want to leave the business, are greatly concerned with the on-going performance of the business that bears their name.  Nobody has more local knowledge about their former business and, at least it appears to me, that many acquisition companies simply don’t grasp the fact that it was these owner/sellers that built the business that the acquisition company coveted.  Many of these acquisition companies don’t seem to engage the former owner to learn local expertise that could stem some of the post-acquisition problems that they will face.

In any case you probably already understand that I think Smith’s idea of an advisory group is a great idea.  He’s not the first to do it. . . but it is a solid idea.  In my opinion, building on the local knowledge and expertise of how a certain Death Care business was built is certainly an acquisition business best practice that is many times ignored in favor of regional or national upper management perceived know-all.

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It’s been over eight months since cremation oriented funeral home and cemetery operator Foundation Partners Group (FPG) has been without a permanent CEO at their Orlando, Florida, offices.  We received news this week that FPG has now named and hired their new Chief Executive. . . and with this decision the company reached across occupational industry lines by hiring John D. Smith.

Smith, as this press release from Foundation Partners Group indicates, comes to FPG after serving as CEO of “New York City-based Icon Parking, where he garnered the National Parking Association’s Innovator of the Year Award in 2023”.

The press release continues with this information about Smith, “Prior to joining Icon, he was chief operating officer at Aaron’s Inc., a leading omnichannel provider of lease-purchase solutions. Smith has dedicated his career to building innovative consumer experiences across multiple industries, including chief executive roles in retail, hospitality, restaurants, entertainment and board positions at the Atlanta Convention & Visitor’s Bureau and Carrolls Corporation, one of the largest restaurant franchisees in North America.”

Chris Blackwell, Foundation Partners interim CEO who led the search to find the new CEO, made these prepared remarks of Smith and the company’s search process, “In a competitive search, John emerged as the candidate uniquely suited to inspire our funeral directors and the entire team to deliver on our mission to bring ease and comfort to families.“

According to the press release, “Smith holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Temple University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.”

Foundation Partners Group owns and operates a network of over 250 funeral homes, cremation centers, and cemeteries across 21 states.

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