You can’t read the newspaper or hear the television news without hearing of some new technology that is moving Artificial Intelligence forward.  Well, if you are keeping up with Death Care on a daily basis, you will also notice that technology is moving forward fast and furious to help funeral service professionals everyday.

The latest news that I heard was livestream technology company OneRoom and its innovation to solve “long-standing music copyright risk” during recorded services.

You can learn of OneRoom’s new innovative technology here.

According to a press release from OneRoom that we received this week, “For years, funeral homes have faced a legal risk when recording and sharing services that include copyright music. It’s a well-known issue within the industry, one with no clear solution, until now. OneRoom’s new built-in Music Copyright Protection feature removes the exposure entirely, making recorded services safe to share while preserving the integrity of the experience.”

Again, as noted in a statement in the press release, International Cemetery, Cremation, and Funeral Association (ICCFA) General Counsel Poul Lemasters says this about the issue, “Once the live event and stream are over, then the licenses no longer cover any additional publication if the music is part of the service. This means that if you choose to record the service and post it on your site, the music must be muted, because neither license allows a recording and playback of copyrighted music”.

The press release from OneRoom goes on to say, “OneRoom’s Music Copyright Protection solves that. Music plays in full during the livestream. Then, in the recording, only copyrighted songs are muted, everything spoken remains untouched. Guests watching the service can see a discreet on-screen message showing the song title and artist, with a link to listen on YouTube.”

Brady Cox, CEO of OneRoom made this prepared comment in the press release, “This has been a known risk in the industry for years, but no one had solved it.  We’ve built a solution that’s respectful to the experience, no effort for the funeral home, and includes a playlist with links that keeps the experience whole for guests, so they can still listen to the music. It’s compliant, and it takes the worry off the table.”

The feature will roll out to existing OneRoom customers over the coming months. There’s no setup required and no extra cost.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  As I alluded to in the first paragraph of this article, technology is rapidly moving forward in the Death Care space.  As a provider of Death Care news, I get press releases almost every day of some new technology feature available for Death Care providers.

I find myself thinking that the disposition of the dead human body is pretty much the same — burials and crematations, with a few other options now available.  However, the technology to help funeral service professionals handle the different tasks of caring for that person and also for providing the services and communication that survivors find necessary is changing every single day.

I’m a firm believer that the way funeral homes and cemeteries acquire, serve, and retain future clientele is changing drastically.  And, technology will be a big factor in how you do those things. . . . . it might even be that those that can capture the “technology savvy” consumer will have a leg-up on the competition when it comes to market share.

My advice, especially for the older, more traditional funeral directors like myself. . . .is that you cannot afford to put your head in the sand when thinking about technology.  My hunch, is that if you do, your competitors may zoom right past you.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

As you can read in this recent article from the Insurance NewsNet a plaintiff in Arkansas is alleging that Globe Life “routinely canceled small life insurance policies when confronted with claims”.  The article goes on to say that “The small policies, generally $5,000 to $20,000, are sometimes known as “burial” policies and commonly cover funeral costs, medical and other debts. They are popular in the South and Midwest, where funerals are a strong cultural tradition.”

In more information supplied from an Arkansas law firm the case was described in this manner:

“A class action lawsuit was filed against Globe Life in federal court in the Eastern District of Arkansas alleging that Globe Life routinely cancels or rescinds small life insurance policies—typically ranging from $5,000 to $20,000—when beneficiaries file claims. These “burial policies” are often purchased to cover funeral expenses, medical bills, and other final costs.

According to the complaint, Globe Life:

• Asks vague or overly broad health questions when selling policies.
• Later conducts exhaustive reviews of the insured’s medical history after death.
• Uses minor or unrelated health issues as a pretext to deny claims.

 

The compliant alleges these practices violate Arkansas law, which since 2011 has prohibited insurers from rescinding policies unless they can prove fraud or a material misrepresentation directly related to the cause of death.”

Funeral Director Daily take: From my perspective I’m under the assumption that policies that are known as “Burial” policies or “Final Expense” policies are not sold under the purview of what most funeral homes and funeral directors would label “PreNeed” policies.  That, however, does not mean that those types of policies are not sold by their companies for the purpose of paying for future Death Care expenses by general agents outside of the business of Death Care.

It also doesn’t meant that consumers don’t buy those policies with the idea that they will have their family use at least some of the insurance proceeds for Death Care expenses.

There are some big differences though between what I would suggest as proper PreNeed policies and some types of policies offered by companies as “Burial” or “Final Expense” policies.

In a nutshell I would look for a PreNeed policy to be of the “whole life” variety where it is not canceled because premiums got too expensive as a policyholder’s age increases.  Preferably for PreNeed policies it is my opinion that “Single Premium” whole life policies are best  —  there is no possibility of one of these ypes of policies lapsing for lack of premium payments.

Secondly, I would look to align with a company where once the policy was accepted under the terms of the contract the reason or cause of death would make no difference as to the claim payment.

Funeral Director Daily will watch this lawsuit play out and inform our readers what happens.  In the meantime I think it is imperative that consumers get life-time protection and assurances from the PreNeed policies sold through funeral homes.  It might be a good time to check on the policies and provider that your funeral home teams up with.

Related Article —  Arkansas lawsuit filed over canceled “Burial” life insurance policies sold by Globe Life.   Cision PR Newswire

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

Sometimes I find my inspiration for these writings in the oddest of places. . . Yet, I seem to have this ability to relate things that I see in everyday life to the funeral profession and funeral business.  It happened again this past weekend.

On Friday I received a phone call from a great friend in the funeral home business.  We see most things from the same point of view and we both happen to be college basketball fans.  As you are probably aware the college basketball season was in high gear culminating Sunday and Monday with the Women’s and Men’s Championship games.  And, while not wanting to bore this death care audience let’s just say we talked about all the changes happening not only with the college transfer and renumeration issues but the huge popularity of the women’s games being brought about by emerging national stars Caitlin Clark and Page Bueckers.

It’s interesting and arguable. . .but, the Men’s college game no longer has the stars like the women’s game does. . . Preliminary indications suggest that for the first time ever the national championship game for the Women had more TV viewers than the championship game for the Men.  Yes, “the times they are a -changin”.

We got around to talking about death care, too.  We talked about rising expenses and lower per case revenues and discussed how that is crippling profitability for operators who don’t have a certain scale to their business.  And, we discussed a statement we both had seen that at least one industry expert expects almost 50% of the independent firms to change hands in the next few years. . . . some after over a century of continuous family ownership — like my former firm.  Yes, “the times they are a-changin”.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

We talked about employee issues, the difficulty to procure great professional help and the fact that most of the new employees entering funeral service are now female. . . according to this 2017 Associated Press article, 74% of funeral directors were men at that time, but 65% of the students in mortuary science were female – and I’m guessing the percentage of female students is only growing at this time 7 years later.  As a matter of fact, according to this 2022 article, which quotes the National Funeral Directors Association, it says 79% of today’s students are female.  Yes, “the times they are a-changin”.

Then on Saturday as I was at the local coffee shop reading the Minneapolis paper cover to cover — I call my Saturday mornings “Starbuck Saturdays” because I reward myself for six days of workouts with this behavior — I read that six weekly Minnesota community newspapers were going out of business.  This situation would leave those communties without a local hard-copy news source.  Two of the newspapers had been published for 160 continuous years – that goes back to the days of the Civil War – and one for 140 continuous years.  Yes, “the times they are a-changin”.

It just made me think that we live in a “continually changing world”.   Think of funeral service. . . ten years ago would we have looked at natural organic reduction (human composting) as a threat to some of our market share?  Would we have looked at the high, and increasing, percentage of deaths without some type of service as cutting into our revenue streams?  Would we have thought that many people would prefer to stream a service online rather than be there in person?

It brings me to the point I now take that in simply thinking about how our profession and its services do change, it is probably a very good policy to look within your business unit and try to understand the changes taking place and how you can prosper from them.  And, change and trends happen faster in today’s connected world so it is probably a good idea to take that initiative a couple of times a year and visit with your staff to make sure you are offering the services that your clientele expect and want.

If you want to stay relative with what you are doing for those who suffer loss, I think it is imperative to stay on top of those changes and be proactive.  By the time you are reactive, your competitor may already be serving those families.

The Headline – Bob Dylan:  Bob Dylan was the first American musician to win a Nobel Prize for Literature, based on the lyrics of his songs.

Bob Dylan’s 1964 hit  – “The times they are a-changin“ from YouTube

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”