Golf courses, in this day and age, are incredibly expensive to build.  It’s not only the land acquisition costs but you have the costs involved in shaping the fairways and the greens, building a clubhouse and equipment garages, and, of course, the holding costs while the landscape grows into a playable course.

I don’t exactly know what it costs to build a cemetery.  You’ve got acquisition costs and you have the build-out of columbariums and mausoleums, so I’m sure it is not inexpensive either.  And, like a golf course growing into playing shape, you also have a holding costs for certain forms of revenue such as interment costs until deaths have occured.

There is a debate going on right now in Australia’s largest city about turning the Carnarvon Golf Course into a “modern memorial park“.  It turns out that about 10,000 people are buried in Sydney each year and the Metropolitan Memorial Parks (MMP) CEO Denise Ora claims that there is a “pressing need” for more burial space.

One of her suggestions is to take over the Carnarvon Golf Course and turn it into a cemetery.  Ms. Ora is quoted in this article from ABC News Australia as saying, “Our vision for the Carnarvon site is to create a modern memorial park that not only meets essential burial needs but provides a public space for the whole community.”

As you can imagine, not everybody is excited about the Metropolitan Memorial Parks’ plan for Carnarvon Golf Course.  Local Member of Parliament (MP) Lynda Voltz described the plan as “lazy and short-sighted“.

Voltz continued with these comments in this article that appeared in Australian Golf Digest, “To look at any golfing facility and other sporting facilities as just land that they can make alternative plans for… this is the sixth golf course that we’ve seen under attack in Sydney, and it won’t be the last, but the fact is Carnarvon is our busiest sporting precinct.   Between Carnarvon and the soccer fields at Coleman Park, they are full all the time. Every single day of the week, it’s packed with cars. There’s 2,000 members, there’s a waiting list. There are 1,500 booked rounds a week, and then there’s walk-ins on top of it. . . . . .You’re talking about working class people here [who enjoy] this cheap, public golf course. . . . . ”

According to the Australian Golf Digest article, a round of golf at Canarvon Golf Course is priced at AUS $49 which is the equivilent of US $30. . . .

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  I find this controversy interesting.  While I understand that people want cemeteries near where they live, I had not thought that a country as expansive as Australia would have worries about running out of cemetery space. . . . especially when they have a 70% cremation rate at this time.  And, space for cremation memorialization is less than would be necessary than for full-body burials.

I also find it interesting, and I question that in a finite area such as a city limits if a cemetery would have a majority of citizens choose it over the other options of having a golf course and/or other recreational facilities available for the residents.  It will be interesting to see what happens with this situation as it moves forward.

A Not So Serious Take on This Subject:  I’ve been a big fan of the 1980 filmed comedy movie “Caddyshack” over the years.  It is one of my all-time favorite movies and in the day of video movie rentals and/or purchases, I’m guessing that I had watched it over 20 times.  One of the favorite lines of the movie is spoke by comedian Rodney Dangerfield playing a wealthy real estate developer when he says, “I tell ya, country clubs and cemeteries, the biggest wasters of prime real estate.  Dead people, they don’t want to be buried nowadays. Ecology, right?”

Related — Here is an archived article about cemeteries, golf courses, and the use of water.  It actually refers to the Dangerfield line in the article.

More news from the world of Death Care:

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

OneRoom, the trusted funeral streaming provider, has appointed Justin Whatley as Chief Revenue Officer.

With more than 15 years in the profession and a family legacy in funeral service, Whatley brings deep industry knowledge and senior leadership to OneRoom’s work with funeral homes throughout North America.

“Justin knows the profession, and a lot of the people in it,” said Brady Cox, CEO of OneRoom. “He’s respected and understands what matters to funeral homes. As our platform continues to evolve, having someone of his calibre leading in the US gives us the senior focus and direct support our customers deserve.”

“OneRoom offered me the opportunity to give something truly valuable back to families,” said Whatley. “It allows people to attend remotely, but more importantly, it offers families the ability to go back and hear the poignant moments that reflect a loved one’s life well lived. That’s transformative.”

Based in Colorado, Whatley will lead OneRoom’s work with funeral homes across the United States and Canada He’ll focus on helping funeral homes reduce operational workload and provide families with a high-quality record of the service. With tools that work and leadership grounded in the profession, OneRoom is here to back funeral homes in doing their best work.

“COVID created this space, and for better or worse, it left some funeral homes unsure about how streaming fits,” Whatley added. “OneRoom has made it their mission to take the complexity out of it. I hope to show homes that this can be simple to offer, meaningful to families, and genuinely profitable. Profitability and serviceability do not have to be mutually exclusive.”

The National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) is proud to announce that Lesley Witter, MPA, CAE, Senior Vice President, Advocacy, has been named one of the 2025 Top Lobbyists by the National Institute for Lobbying & Ethics (NILE).

This prestigious, merit-based honor recognizes 100 government affairs professionals nationwide who have demonstrated exceptional legislative success, innovation, integrity and a commitment to ethical advocacy.

While the award celebrates an individual, it also reflects NFDA’s powerful leadership and unwavering presence in Washington, D.C., as the only funeral service association with a full-time presence dedicated to representing the profession on Capitol Hill

“For decades, NFDA has served as the strongest and most trusted voice for funeral service in our nation’s capital,” said NFDA CEO Christine Pepper, CAE, MBA. “Lesley’s recognition as a Top Lobbyist underscores the strength and credibility of our advocacy program. Her expertise, dedication and integrity make her a force in our Nation’s Capital. I am honored to work alongside Lesley as we ensure that the needs of funeral service professionals and the grieving families they serve are represented with compassion, integrity and impact.”

Witter has led NFDA’s advocacy efforts for nearly 19 years, shaping federal policy on behalf of thousands of funeral homes, funeral directors and grieving families nationwide. Her recent achievements include securing protections for embalming under the EPA’s final Risk Evaluation of formaldehyde; driving awareness of the need for oversight of the body donation industry; and advancing bipartisan legislation to honor and protect veterans and their families

“Lobbying and government affairs are essential to democracy because they give everyone a voice,” said Witter. “I chose to advocate for funeral service because I believe every voice deserves to be heard, not just the loudest or most powerful. This profession is about service, and lobbying in this space allows me to combine strategic advocacy with purpose-driven work. It’s about fairness, representation, and ensuring that those who serve others are not forgotten in the decisions that shape their ability to do so.”

Funeral Director Daily take:  As a person who enjoys the dynamics of politics, understands the intricacies and art of compromise, and has worked with legislators, I immensely enjoy Ms. Witter’s annual recap of her efforts on behalf of the NFDA membership.  It is presented each year at the NFDA Convention and while it is over for this year — it was on Sunday — make sure you take it in at future NFDA events.

ObituaryShare.com has partnered with Tribute Technology to make it easier for funeral homes to share obituaries online and connect with more people in their communities.

Through this new partnership, funeral homes using Tribute Technology websites can now link directly to ObituaryShare. The integration lets staff automatically post obituaries to Facebook and other social channels with no extra steps or technical work required. Each post leads readers back to the funeral home’s website, helping more families find services, send flowers, and show support.

“As obituaries continue to move online rather than being printed, it’s important that they still reach the people who care,” said Bob Arrington, President of ObituaryShare. “We built ObituaryShare so families could get the word out in a way that connects. Working with Tribute Technology makes that even easier for funeral homes.”

The connection between the two platforms is simple to set up and available now for Tribute Technology customers. Those who activate the feature will also receive special partnership pricing on ObituaryShare services.

“Families often turn to Facebook to remember a loved one and share memories and support,” said Courtney Gould Miller, President of Commercial Markets at Tribute Technology. “Our partnership with ObituaryShare makes that process effortless for funeral homes by helping bring those stories to where people are already connecting.”

Parting Stone, the pioneering company transforming cremated remains into solid, touchable stones, has announced the launch of their new Pre-Need Plans, making it possible for individuals to plan their memorials in advance and choose stones instead of ashes for their loved ones.

Justin Crowe, Founder and CEO of Parting Stone, says that Pre-Need planning with Parting Stone provides both emotional relief and a sense of legacy. This empowers individuals and their families to no longer wonder what will happen with their ashes. With Parting Stone, they can create a lasting tribute that is comforting, shareable, and tangible.

Since launching in 2019, Parting Stone has served more than 12,000 families across the United States and Canada. The addition of Pre-Need Plans makes the company’s innovative solidified remains service more accessible, empowering individuals to take control of their memorial choices.

Accessing and creating a Pre-Need Plan is simple and can be done entirely online through Parting Stone’s dedicated website. With just a few straightforward steps, individuals can secure their legacy and give their families lasting peace of mind.

Tribute Technology is partnering with Homesteaders Life Company to make it easier for funeral homes to manage preneed policies.

The planned integration, coming in 2026, will connect Homesteaders’ policy data directly with Tribute Management Software, allowing funeral directors to see and link matching preneed policies right from a case. Policy information will update automatically each night, so directors always have the most current details without sorting through paperwork or entering data twice.

“At Homesteaders, we’re committed to offering financial support, expertise, and partnerships that bring value to funeral professionals and the families we serve together,” said Steve Shaffer, Homesteaders President, CEO and Board Chair. “This planned integration with Tribute Technology helps simplify the preneed management process, giving funeral providers easier access to the information they need so they can focus more fully on designing meaningful experiences for the families they serve.”

For funeral homes, this will mean fewer errors, faster workflows, and peace of mind knowing every available fund is captured and applied correctly. Families will benefit too, with less back-and-forth over documents and a smoother, more professional experience.

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

I operated a crematory at our funeral home and one of the tasks I very much disliked was transfering cremation remains into the very popular “vase-shaped” urns.  You see, while the vase-shaped urn has a curvature to it that widens out, it also has a very small opening at the top of the urn where one fills the urn from.

However, thanks to the patented “Easy Turn Urn” from Titan, which was just introduced last week, filling those vase-shaped urns will be much easier in the future.  This new patented product has a “Dual Opening” design that makes transfering the cremated remains into the urn very simple.

Here’s a short 45-second video on the product introduced by Titan Casket brand ambassador actor David Dastmalchian:

Funeral Director Daily take:  I wish I would have had this “Dual opening” urn available to me on the hundreds of vase-like urns I prepared filled with cremated remains.

Titan Casket is proving to be much more than just a casket supplier to consumers and funeral homes.  The three founders have the ideal combined backgrounds to build a company that takes advantage of technology and customer service innovation and that is exactly what they are doing with Titan Casket.

Their combined expertise and experience from the casket business, the web-based sales business, and the Direct-to-Consumer start-up business form a nexus that, in my opinion, will not only build a successful casket sales business both for consumers and as partners for funeral homes but will become a major e-commerce force for Death Care in general.

And, it looks like the “Easy Turn Urn” will be their next successful product.

Here’s a little info on the three founders of Titan Casket:

To learn how to partner with Titan Casket at your funeral home click here.

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

If Your Funeral Home Isn’t on Video, You’re Basically Invisible (Here’s the Proof)

If you’re a funeral home still debating whether video content matters, here’s your wake-up call: video isn’t optional anymore. It’s the game.

In August 2025, we watched five simple, human, story-driven funeral home videos blow up on Facebook and Instagram. They weren’t Hollywood productions. They didn’t need massive budgets. What they did have was authenticity, empathy, and consistency—and that’s exactly why they worked.

Let’s unpack why video content is the single most powerful tool for funeral homes to build trust, grow reach, and stay top-of-mind in their communities.

Best-Known > Best

Here’s the truth: the “best” funeral home doesn’t always get the first call. The best-known funeral home does.

Think about it—when a family is hurting and making decisions quickly, they don’t stop to Google who has the nicest chapel or most advanced technology. They remember the brand they’ve seen before. They remember the faces they’ve watched in short videos on their feed.

Video is the fastest way to be known before you’re needed. It creates familiarity, builds recognition, and transforms strangers into future calls.

Meta Is Betting Big on Video

If you think video is just a trend, take it from the people running the platforms. In Meta’s Q2 2025 earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg revealed that AI-powered recommendation systems increased time spent on Facebook by 5% and Instagram by 6%. What fueled those extra minutes? Video. Viewing time for video content is up 20% year-over-year.

Translation: Facebook and Instagram are actively pushing video harder than ever. If you’re not producing it, your funeral home is invisible in the very feeds where your audience spends their time.

Older Demographics Are Watching

“But wait, my families are older.” Exactly.

Facebook’s strongest demographic is 55+. And here’s the kicker: videos on Facebook generate 135% more reach than photos. That means when you post a static picture, you’re leaving more than double the exposure on the table compared to posting a video.

Add in the fact that 85% of video views happen without sound (so subtitles are critical), and you have a clear blueprint: short, captioned, mobile-first videos that put your people front and center.

August’s Top 5 Funeral Home Reels 📊

1. Wagner-Elfner and Burg Funeral Home: Overhead Mortuary LiftViews: 1,041,950Reach: 712,767Watch Time: 1,957 hours
2. French Funeral Home: A Trip Down Memory LaneViews: 55,501Reach: 19,623Watch Time: 91 hrs
3. Crosby and Neal Funeral Home: Why I Became a Funeral DirectorViews: 45,280Reach: 13,800Interactions: 105
4. Birdsong Cremations: Behind the ScenesViews: 34,664Reach: 24,556Interactions: 138
5. Finch & Finch Funeral and Cremation: Unpacking Unique UrnsViews: 31,777Reach: 20,085Watch Time: 75 hrs

Out of the Box = Outperforming

Two of the biggest surprises last month weren’t “traditional” funeral home Reels at all. They went beyond expected content—and that’s why they crushed it.

These weren’t your “typical” funeral home Reels—and that’s exactly why they crushed it.

1. Armstrong, Garcia & McKenzie Mortuary: Grandma’s Wild Night in Vegas
   Views: 29,727
   Reach: 21,960
   Watch Time: 84 hrs

   Why it worked: Unexpected content → unexpected engagement. People love unexpected humor from a funeral home.

2. Pray Funeral Home: Tony Stark’s Pre-Arrangements
   Views: 13,977
   Reach: 9,729
   Watch Time: 40 hours

   Why it worked: Relevant. Entertaining and expanding the mind of the consumer.

These videos grabbed attention because they broke the mold. They didn’t look like funeral home marketing, and that’s exactly what made people stop scrolling.

Momentum Is Everything

Video isn’t a “one-and-done” play. Success comes from consistency and strategy. Here’s how to keep the momentum rolling:

• Go vertical, mobile-first, and always use subtitles.
• Keep it short. The sweet spot is 21–30 seconds.
• Post consistently. Two to three Reels per month is the minimum to stay top-of-feed—and top-of-mind.
• Track what matters. Engagement and inquiries beat vanity views every time.

The Bottom Line

Video isn’t about going viral. It’s about building recognition, trust, and relationships in the places families already spend their time.

The funeral homes who commit to showing up consistently with short, authentic video content will be the ones their communities recognize—and call—first.

So the question isn’t should you be creating Reels. It’s how soon can you start?

👉 Ready to make your funeral home impossible to ignore? Let’s plan your next set of Reels. [Schedule a Demo]

Is Your Workplace Culture Toxic? Here’s How to Find Out — and How to Fix It

It’s a well-known fact that deathcare professionals are some of the kindest and most compassionate people on the planet. You could not possibly do what you do and deal with what you deal with if you weren’t. One might imagine that a workplace full of such exceptional people would be quite harmonious, stressless, and problem-free. However, for years, Connecting Directors readers have consistently listed “dealing with difficult coworkers and/or employees” as a top-rated ongoing workplace issue or their least favorite part of the job in our annual deathcare surveys. 

Sometimes, these work environments go beyond unpleasantness. When a workplace culture is truly out of control, it can become what’s known in the human resources world as “toxic.” According to the American Psychological Association, a toxic workplace is “an abstract term to describe infighting, intimidation, and other affronts that harm productivity.” This could be instigated by a bad supervisor, an unhappy employee, or rules or behavior encouraged by nameless executives. And, based on the responses to a 2024 Reddit post, funeral homes aren’t immune.

Do you know that you’re toxic?

“This industry can take ‘toxic work environment’ to a new level,” said one Redditor in response to the question “Why do we treat coworkers so poorly in this profession?” on the Ask a Funeral Director subReddit. Others offered their own answers:

• “Ego. Bitterness. Lack of professional mobility. Human nature. Venting frustration. Take your pick.”
• “There is also a lot of ‘well that’s how I was treated’ attitude. It wasn’t right when it was done to you and passing it forward makes you a big part of the problem.”
• “From the bottom up 90% of them treated their colleagues like wanting to be paid for the work you do is ‘uppity.’”
• “People that have only ever worked for family often lack the perspective of a typical workplace environment and how employees should be treated.”
• “Funeral directors are not trained to be managers, yet they fill the role.”

Some of the same characteristics that make someone an incredible funeral director (e.g. empathy) can make them a terrible manager or coworker. And some of the attributes that endear a community to a funeral home (e.g. family-owned) can be the source of workplace issues. 

Indications of issues

Is your deathcare workplace toxic? If you’re not sure, here are a few issues you might recognize:

Other indicators are that employees are scared to speak up about issues, their hard work isn’t acknowledged or appreciated, or there’s a lack of transparency — they aren’t told why a decision or change is being made. 

Areas of focus and how to take action

Recognizing the symptoms of a toxic workplace is important, but even more crucial is finding the root causes of the issues and implementing a cure. Because these cultures are becoming more and more prevalent across all sorts of industries, plenty of business, human resources, and mental health experts are offering advice on fixing these problems — and they can definitely work within your deathcare space.

Tools to temper toxicity

Here are some specific, concrete suggestions that could be easily implemented:

• Review your formal workplace policies — or establish some — and share them openly with your team.
• Encourage employees (especially managers) to treat their coworkers like they treat the families they serve — with empathy, emotional intelligence, and active listening.
• Tell someone when they do a good job — either formally with a recognition or reward system or with just a simple word of thanks.
• Sincerely explore opportunities for flexible schedules, wellness and mental health programs, and other options to prevent burnout.
• Address employee issues immediately and consistently, documenting and filing all conversations, counseling, or disciplinary actions. If toxicity persists beyond control, prioritizing your mental health and seeking a better environment may be the best option.

There are some cultures that are so toxic, they can’t be fixed, and the healthiest option, sadly, is to find another place of employment. However, in an industry that prides itself on compassion, honor, ethics, and the celebration of human life, it’s definitely worth a try to address issues, reduce toxicity, and make your funeral home a place your employees can truly feel free to do their best work.

Here’s Why There’s No Perfect Policy for Snapping Pics at Funerals

How many photos have you taken with your smartphone today? Well, if you’re an “average” American, you’ll go to bed tonight with approximately 20.2 more photos on your phone than you had when you woke up this morning. The convenience and quality output of the cameras on mobile devices (not to mention the irresistible urge to post pics to the socials on an hourly basis) means pretty much anything is fair game for a photo. And, like it or not, this includes photos being taken at funerals.

Plenty of firms have created policies about taking photos during visitations, funerals, graveside services, and cremations. Some even use strong language like “extremely poor taste” and “invasion of privacy” to deter the practice. Most of these guidelines stop short of spelling out potential penalties for disobedience, too, because, really, what are you going to do when the daughter who’s paying for the proceedings starts snapping selfies with the deceased? 

Crafting a photo policy is a challenge — and enforcing one is even harder. There’s just no single right answer to what should be allowed (except selfies with the deceased — that’s a flat no) … but that doesn’t mean that the internet isn’t offering plenty of opinions. Here are just a few of the issues you might run into, and some feedback from both sides of the argument.

The gang’s all here

Like a wedding, a funeral often brings together family members and friends who haven’t seen one another since the last wedding or funeral. This might be the only opportunity to get a pic with that long-lost cousin or a group photo of the last remaining sorority sisters! But someone who has just tearfully shared a touching story about the deceased may not appreciate their red nose and streaky mascara being caught on camera. Others may not want to be memorialized in a photo that makes them recall a sad or traumatizing day. Should people be posing for pictures with other guests? And if one does take that pic, should they smile or look serious and somber? 

YAY: “Not trying to be disrespectful, but a funeral or memorial isn’t all sadness and grief,” one responder posted to a Quora question on the topic. “Smiling in photos is fine as long as you want to smile. Being somber is also fine. For some families, this is the only time they ever get together. Celebrate what you can when you can.”

NAY: “No,” answered another person in the same post. “People are entitled to grieve without worrying about appearances. However discreet, it is a violation of privacy. It would be ok to say take pictures of the flowers or have the funeral stream for absentee family but from the point of view of a congregation member not showing mourners’ faces.”

Pics for posterity

This one’s tricky: Should anyone take photos of the deceased in the open casket? Thanks to your team’s care, grandma looks beautiful; why wouldn’t a family want to preserve her likeness for future generations? It wasn’t that long ago (ok, yes, it was the Victorian age, but still …) that families propped up their beloved deceased loved one for a family photo, as that may be the only image ever taken of that person. 

YAY: “I took some of my Dad at his viewing,” wrote someone on the Ask a Funeral Director subreddit last year. “My family got there first so I did it before my sister and her family arrived so I didn’t creep them out. He looked so good, though, I had to do it. He’d been bed bound and sick for three years and they made him look like himself again. 💜 I was so relieved.”

ALSO YAY: “My grandmother has a collection of framed viewing photos of her closest family, like her sister and her husband. Those were so important for her to have,” wrote another respondent to the same Reddit thread.

NAY: A morning radio show shared this anecdote from a recent on-air discussion: “During the visitation, Morgan saw multiple different people over the course of these funerals take pictures of the deceased in their casket. She didn’t quite understand why someone would want to hold onto that type of memory, she prefers to remember those individuals when they were alive.”

ALSO NAY: “I took pictures of her lying peacefully in her casket and forwarded them on to my brother-in-law,” one woman wrote to an advice columnist last week. “I got a scathing email from my brother-in-law saying that he had specifically asked not to send pictures of her dead. He only wanted to remember her healthy.”

Leave it to the professionals?

Sometimes the question of whether photos should be taken at a funeral depends upon who’s holding the camera. Maybe it’s ok for a son to take a photo of his dad lying in state, but what do you do when the granddaughter’s coworker or a neighbor from 30 years ago pulls out their iPhone when they get to the casket? Some professional photographers have found success offering tasteful funeral photo packages (again, just like they do for weddings). So, does it matter who is taking photos, and why they’re doing it?

YAY: “I treasure the photos we have from my father’s funeral,” wrote a respondent to a question on a photography subreddit last year. “A sensitive photographer can capture tender moments between family members and friends who, in many cases, haven’t seen each other in years. Kudos to those who provide this service.”

NAY: “I was once asked by the parents [… of an …] 18 year old to take photos at the funeral,” someone shared on another subreddit. “[T]hey wanted photos of the hundreds of people that showed up, as a positive reminder ‘look how many friends he had’ kind of thing. […] It was the most awkward shooting I’ve ever done. I constantly felt like I should be explaining to everyone what I was doing and why, which I practically could not do.”

ALSO NAY: “I wished people would have not taken photos, every second of that time is etched in my brain,” wrote a mother on Quora about her 20-year-old firefighter son’s funeral. “I had to bite back anger when people ‘gifted’ me a collection or album of the day. I know it was an intention of kindness and I was as gracious as possible. But the whole thing left me very much against photos or video at funerals, period unless the family asks for someone to capture the event.”

It’s best to be prepared

Ultimately, most directors simply follow the family’s lead and respect their wishes on the subject, and every family will have a different take on what they think is ok. Some may think photos are fine as long as they don’t include the deceased, or only if they’re taken outside the viewing room, or if the person taking the photo is immediate family and/or asks permission. Photos may be ok for the funeral of one family member, but absolutely inappropriate for the services of another member of the same family. 

You may choose to post your firm’s recommendations or guidelines on your website. These don’t have to be hard-and-fast rules with harsh penalties; as much as you might like to treat visitors like eighth-graders who have to put their devices in “phone jail” as they enter the classroom, that’s just not going to fly at the funeral home. Many funeral homes simply reiterate that photos should be taken only with the family’s permission. Others detail when picture-taking can seem most disrespectful, such as selfies with the deceased or using a flash or not disabling shutter sounds when taking photos during a service. 

To avoid surprises (like your funeral home being tagged on Instagram alongside a face-swapped selfie with the deceased), the best practice would be to talk to the family about their preferences before the services and keep an eye out for folks who aren’t following the rules. You know better than anyone how to tactfully handle the situation. 

If you read Funeral Director Daily and listen to me when I have a chance to be a guest on an industry podcast you know that I believe that there is a great, and growing, potential market in what I call the “Cremation Aftermarket”.  My take on the the “Cremation Aftermarket” is that many people who become the guardians of cremated remains don’t know what to do with those remains.

Because of that those remains end up in closets or on shelves in homes and as time passes the guardians of such remains question what they are going to do with them, but never get around to doing anything.

It’s because of that that I think a great opportunity that is available to funeral homes is to let these guardians know — during preneed, at need, and even well into post-need — that there are options to memorialize those remains and take the responsibility of being the guardian off of their shoulders.  It’s especially important when you realize that a funeral home can not only help a guardian make a decision but the funeral home may also profit off the sale of many of these cremation aftermarket products and memorials.

As a matter of fact, on this episode of Podcasket, I bring up the “Cremation Aftermarket” and the host, Tukios CEO Curtis Funk makes the comment about a built-in market for such when he comments, “. . you can market to (these guardians) and they want you to market to them. . . . .Reach-out again. . . (think of it as) Life-cycle marketing”.

Podcasket Episode #6:  Cremation Aftermarket discussion begins at the 39:06 mark and lasts for about six minutes.

With that comment CEO Funk is acknowledging the great amount of people who have cremated remains within their guardianship and probably are wondering how to relieve themselves of that responsibility of guardianship in a tasteful fashion.

Late last week I learned of a great promotion to do just that.  My friend Kelly Roberts, founder of funeral service alternative Sendoff, sent me an email about his upcoming “Ashes among the Oaks” event.

You can learn about the event here, but what it is is an opportunity to learn, in a gentle way, how to “let go” of those remains.  Roberts and the Minneapolis metropolitan-area based Sendoff have teamed with Better Place Forests of the St. Croix Valley for an afternoon in the local Better Place Forest.

My guess is that Roberts, Sendoff, and Better Place Forests hope to make some sales for Better Place Forests with this event, but reaching-out and giving these guardians an opportunity to realize that some type of memorialization can be probably should be done for the cremations remains that they brought home yesterday or decades ago is great public relations on its own.

Sendoff, which sub-titles itself “Funerals Reimagined” is, in my opinion on the right track to capture tomorrow’s Death Care consumer.  In a world where that consumer will make choices about Disposition, Celebration, and Memorialization, a company offering what Sendoff does, especially in the Celebration and Memorialization modes, may capture much of the business from consumers that traditional funeral homes no longer appeal to.

Take a look at this page from the Sendoff employee profiles and read the bios to get an idea of some of the celebrations that many might prefer for themselves.

Here is the website for Sendoff.

Related — “Lost in a sea of ash – When wildfire destroys a home – and a loved one’s urn – the search begins.  Los Angeles Times (CA)

Here is a short video from KARE TV – Channel 11 NBC Minneapolis about “Sendoff – Funerals Reimagined”

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

Facebook is Deleting Your Funeral Live Streams – Here’s How to Save Them

As of February 19, 2025, Facebook has implemented a policy change that affects all users who utilize Facebook Live, including funeral homes that stream services for remote attendees. Live videos will now be automatically deleted 30 days after their broadcast. This change underscores the importance of promptly managing and preserving your live-streamed content to continue serving families effectively.

Why This Matters to Funeral Homes

Live-streaming services have become an essential offering, enabling friends and family who cannot attend in person to participate virtually. With Facebook’s new policy, these meaningful recordings will no longer be accessible after 30 days unless proactive steps are taken. This could impact families who wish to revisit the service or share it with others who couldn’t attend live.

Recommended Actions

To ensure your live-streamed services remain available for families, consider the following options:

• Download Individual Live Videos: After your stream ends, download the video directly from your profile or page within 30 days.
• Bulk Download Past Live Videos: Utilize Facebook’s bulk download tool to save multiple videos simultaneously. This can be done through the “Download Your Information” feature on your profile or business page.
• Transfer Videos to Cloud Storage: Facebook allows direct transfers of your live videos to cloud services like Dropbox or Google Drive, providing a secure backup and easy access.
• Request a Six-Month Deferment: If immediate downloading isn’t feasible, you can request a six-month extension before deletion occurs.To initiate this, open the notification from Facebook regarding video deletion, tap “Learn more,” and select “Postpone.” Instructions: about.fb.com
• Create Short Clips for Reels: Before downloading or transferring, consider creating short clips from your live videos to share as Reels. This not only preserves key moments but also aligns with Facebook’s emphasis on short-form, engaging content.

Next Steps

It’s crucial to act promptly to prevent the loss of valuable content. Establish a routine process for downloading or transferring live videos after each service. Communicate with families about the availability window of these recordings and offer assistance in preserving them.

At DISRUPT Media, we specialize in helping funeral homes navigate changes in digital platforms and enhance their online presence. If you need assistance adapting to this new policy or developing a comprehensive digital strategy, we’re here to help.

Contact us today. Most funeral home marketing looks like someone just gave up. That’s not us. We provide full creative marketing solutions…with the effort.

ObituaryShare WILL Grow Your Business — And Here’s the Proof

Strong analytics skills may not be a requirement to become an incredible deathcare professional, but you don’t have to be a data geek to appreciate metrics like these:

• 16,000 website visits from one obituary post
• 13% Facebook-to-website click-through rate (the average is around 4%)
• 370% increase in flower sales over nine months
• $853 per-contract increase in preneed sales
• 8% increase in market share over five years

These are the actual, proven numbers that Bob Arrington and his team have driven with their extremely easy to use yet intriguing powerful tool, ObituaryShare. ObituaryShare strategically shares and boosts your obituaries on Facebook, effectively directing specifically-targeted traffic to your funeral home’s website. The results, as evidenced above, speak for themselves.

ObituaryShare has received a lot of attention. Since the NFDA convention they have onboarded 49 funeral homes in eight states and 10 regions with many, many more in conversation to get started.

ObituaryShare is expanding quickly because more and more directors are realizing the power of ObituaryShare, and the exposure is leading to big gains for their business.

Meet Bob Arrington

Chances are you’ve heard of Bob Arrington — not just because he’s an all-in funeral service visionary, but because of his reputation as a highly respected funeral director, funeral home owner, and industry leader. Arrington began his career more than 50 years ago, and founded Arrington Funeral Directors in Jackson, Tennessee in 1995. He has served as president of the Tennessee Funeral Directors Association and the Tennessee State Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers, and is the only Tennessean to be elected president of the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA).

In other words, Arrington is a man who knows, lives, and breathes the funeral home business, and most certainly a man other deathcare professionals can trust.

About six years ago, Arrington partnered with his friend and colleague Roy Heatherly, a Gannett media executive with an impressive 30-plus-year career in newspaper publishing and advertising to create ObituaryShare. Since then, Arrington, Heatherly, and their small but mighty team have leveraged their combined experience and first-hand feedback from the deathcare community to continually refine and improve their platform.

Tests for success

“From where we started to where we are now, we’ve done a 180,” Arrington says. “With any startup, you test things for four or five months, then you stop and you test things again. We attended two, maybe three, NFDA conventions to do nothing but listen […] and gather data. And then, because I owned a funeral home, I was the test junkie from day one.”

One of the first tests conducted at Arrington Funeral Directors demonstrated the unbelievable capabilities and the powerful potential of ObituaryShare. As Bob Arrington recounts, it’s the perfect way to explain how ObituaryShare works.

“[We handled the services for] the past president of the Tennessee Tire Dealers Association and was very, very active in the Boy Scouts,” Arrington explains. “His wife was a Realtor here for 30 years, and at the time of his death, his daughter-in-law was on the board of the Tennessee Bankers Association. So we promoted — boosted — his obit to each of those organizations on Facebook. And that one obit drove 16,000 visitors to our website.”

Arrington adds that in addition to those professional groups, the obituary post on Arrington Funeral Directors’ Facebook page was shared to people in the deceased’s hometown and alumni of the university from which he graduated.

How it works

The premise behind ObituaryShare is straightforward, and again, easy to use.

“Instead of waiting for people to come and find the obit, we send it to the audience that would have an interest in the obit,” Arrington says.

First, a funeral home copies and pastes an obituary as-is into the ObituaryShare portal, which is modeled after the newspaper obit portals you’ve been using for years. You can add notes about potential targets based on the deceased or the survivors’ careers, locations, involvement, interests, etc., if you’d like. Most posts to ObituaryShare take only minutes of your time.

From there, the digital marketing certified ObituaryShare team gets to work identifying all of the relevant and appropriate Facebook groups or demographics to which the obituary should be shared. Lastly, they share the post with those audiences, and the obituary appears in the news feeds of friends, colleagues, or acquaintances of the deceased or their family members.

When someone clicks the post, they are sent directly to your funeral home’s website where they can learn more about the services, leave a message, or purchase memorial products. Some funeral homes, including Arrington’s, have also added banners suggesting that visitors explore their pre-planning options — with amazing results.

“Our average preneed has gone up $853 per contract because people are coming to the website in a different mindset when they click the preplanning banner,” Arrington explains. “We put a banner at the bottom of the obit that just says, ‘Pre-planning makes sense.’ And so that’s usually the first page we found that they go to after reading the obit. So our preneed interest from our website has increased. For instance, we got five preneed requests yesterday.”

The best reasons to try ObituaryShare

While the metrics Arrington shares tell a compelling story in themselves, he believes that the best way to learn what ObituaryShare can do for you is to try it for yourself. And there’s one more number you’ll be interested to learn before you do: The price is only $139 per obituary.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s the first obit or the 51st obit, whether it’s 200 lines or 1200 lines, whether they include a picture or they don’t,” Arrington says, with his funeral director hat firmly in place. “And that’s the way it is for everybody, right? So that way, funeral directors are charging families the same. They know what the price is and you don’t have to limit the family. You can say, ‘Send me whatever you want and we’ll put it up there.’”

Although you’re free to test the power of ObituaryShare anytime, obligation-free, with only one obituary. Arrington suggested testing multiple obits for a more holistic view of the tool and the results it can provide, reports of which are provided to each ObituaryShare client on a monthly basis. And at $139, the cost is comparable to — if not drastically less than — today’s newspaper’s obit rates, and it’s a cost that most families are ready and willing to pay.

Arrington, as well as many of ObituaryShare’s clients, have included this service in an optional memorial package with memorial cards, video tributes, register books, temporary grave markers, thank you cards, and the like. In many cases, the total cost of this package for the families is less than they would pay for publishing an obituary in the local newspaper.

There’s no time like the present to try ObituaryShare! Reach out to Bob Arrington and his team today at https://obituaryshare.com/contact/ to get started. It is worth a try.

I learned long ago that there is no such thing as a free lunch and there is no such thing as a safe investment.  However, sometimes you can get pretty close to a free lunch (all you gave is time) as an attendee at a post-funeral lunch and pretty close with Treasury Bills backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government as well as certain savings accounts under $250,000 that fall under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) guarantee.

However, with most everything else it’s “Caveat Emptor” or “let the buyer beware”.

It’s with that preface that I tell you of an investment in debt held by the largest funeral home and cemetery operator in North America, Service Corporation International (SCI), that will mature in 2032.  That investment, what SCI calls their “Senior Notes Due 2032” pays a listed 5.75% interest payment on increments of a $1,000 bond that is currently (January 6, 2024) selling below par at $974.4 per $1,000 unit resulting in an effective yield of 5.9%.

SCI put these bonds on the market back in September 2024 and you can read about them here from a press release that SCI issued at that time.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily:  I bring this up today not to try and sell bonds for Service Corporation International, but rather as a way to look at the overall creditworthiness of the Death Care industry and profession.  Those bonds have been given a credit rating of “BB” by Standard & Poor’s rating services.

What I find interesting is that there are very few people in our profession who don’t think that SCI will be a going and viable enterprise seven years from now when that bond principal becomes due to be paid back to those that invested in those bonds.  Yet, they are rated “BB” by Standard & Poor’s. . . In my opinion that shows how difficult it is to be rated in the “A and above categories”.

When you look at SCI, according to E-Trade financial website, the company did $4.1 billion in business in 2023 and that amount produced a “Net Income” of $537 million.  If you do the math on those numbers that equates to 13 cents out of every dollar spent with SCI as moving down to the “Net Income” line. . . . Yet, the credit companies, and I agree there is a lot that goes into that rating, don’t give them an “A” rating.

Again, I just think that this points out how difficult it is to recieve and secure an “A and above” rating from the corporate credit agencies.

Here is an article from Standard and Poor’s dated September 12, 2024 titled “Service Corporation International’s $800 million Senior Unsecured Notes Rated “BB”

Investments are a decision of “Options and Risks” —  On the same day (January 6, 2024) that I looked at the par value of the SCI bonds I also looked at E-Trade’s listing of 5-year Certificates of Deposits (CD’s) which, when purchased in a unit of under $250,000 have the FDIC insurance benefit to individual investors.  The top interest rate that I found was 4.7% from JP Morgan Chase for a CD that matured on January 16, 2030.

So, a purchaser has the option of choosing that 4.7% rate in a virtually guaranteed investment as compared to the 5.9% rate from the SCI bond which has some level of risk.  What would be your choice?

My time in Debt Management —  When I served on the Board of Regents for the University of Minnesota I chaired what was called the Debt Management Committee for 4 years.  It’s where all the debt for the University was watched and our committee made suggestions to the full Board of Regents about potential uses of credit.

The committee was ad hoc and I was blessed to have financial and revenue experts from two large urban counties, the CFO of the University of Minnesota, the Dean of the University’s Carlson School of Business, and a retired CFO from a Fortune 100 company on this ad hoc board to advise me during this time.  I learned an extreme amount of information and details about the public credit markets from this position and, at least in my opinion, we were able to selectively and judiciously use the University’s S&P Credit Rating of “AA” to our advantage in building University assets for the future.

Disclosure — This article from Funeral Director Daily is not intended as an investment advice article.  It is meant to be an article on how the ratings companies may look at the Death Care, funeral, cemetery, and related businesses in the overall scheme of creditworthiness.

Disclosure — The author of this article from Funeral Director Daily is a shareholder in Service Corporation International (SCI).

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