Fortitude Research and Marketing Launches Guidant – the First Technology Platform to Enable Online Cemetery Property Sales

Patented platform goes live with Milestone Funeral Partners, marking a major step forward in the digital transformation of the deathcare profession

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif., Oct. 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Fortitude Research and Marketing today announced the launch of Guidant, a technology company pioneering digital commerce solutions for cemeteries and funeral homes. The patented platform enables families to purchase cemetery property and related services directly from cemeteries, completely online — a first for the deathcare profession.

While several companies have made it possible to arrange funerals and cremations online, Guidant is the first to bring direct cemetery property transactions — traditionally an offline, in-person process, requiring customers to meet with a sales professional — into a fully digital, secure, environment.

Guidant’s patented technology integrates interactive mapping, inventory management, and e-commerce functionality, allowing cemeteries to showcase available property, streamline purchasing, and enhance the consumer experience. According to industry research, thirty-five percent of consumers say they would purchase cemetery property online if they had the option.

“For too long, cemetery property sales have been one of the last major purchase categories still tied to a completely offline process,” said George Owens, Founder of Fortitude Research and Marketing which incubated Guidant. “Guidant changes that. Our platform brings the transparency, convenience, and accessibility that today’s consumers expect — while empowering cemetery operators to grow their business in a digital-first world.”

The company’s first live implementation launched at Brooklawn Memorial Park in Portland, Maine, a partner of Milestone Funeral Partners, a forward-thinking funeral, cemetery, and crematory company serving funeral homes and cemeteries across multiple states in the Northeast.

“We’re proud to be the first to bring Guidant’s technology to market,” said Mike Martel, President of Milestone Funeral Partners. “This platform makes it easier for families to make meaningful, informed decisions — and it gives our locations a new way to reach people where they are. Guidant represents the kind of innovation our profession has needed for years.”

Guidant’s technology is patented, with 11 additional partner locations currently in pre-launch. The company is now entering an active growth phase, seeking to add new locations to the platform as well as seedinvestment to accelerate deployment, expand its engineering team, and scale adoption across North America.

“This isn’t just a digital tool,” added Owens. “It’s the foundation for how the next generation of cemetery commerce will operate — built with respect for tradition, and the innovation needed for the future.”

About Guidant

Guidant is a technology company transforming the way cemeteries sell property and services. With a patented digital platform that enables families to browse, select, and purchase cemetery property online, Guidant empowers cemeteries to modernize their sales process and meet the expectations of today’s digital consumer.
Learn more at: OurGuidant.com

About Milestone Funeral Partners

Milestone Funeral Partners, led by experienced funeral directors Michael Martel and Timothy “TJ” Smart, focuses on supporting community-based Managing Partners and fostering entrepreneurship. With a dedication to people and local caregivers, the company ensures its businesses are led by the best caregivers in each community they serve.
Learn more at: Milestonefuneralpartners.com

While it certainly is speculation on their part, one research contributor at Seeking Alpha, Caffital Research, says this about publicly held funeral home and cemetery operator Carriage Services, “The company has been quiet on the M&A front to improve the financial position throughout 2024, but with debt levels reaching a more desirable level, 2025 could return Carriage Services’ M&A activity.”

The article which was dated January 15, 2024, can be found here. 

While Funeral Director Daily will refrain from giving our own comments on the company, here are a couple of quotes from the article:

 

• “In the most recently reported Q3 report, revenues grew 11.3% year-on-year through strategic pricing increases in funeral contracts, and more notably, rapid growth in sold preneed interment rights – revenues from preneeds continued to grow at a rapid 27.1% pace in the quarter after strong momentum in previous quarters as well.” 

 

• “Although Carriage Services’ strategy focuses on consolidating the highly fragmented industry through accretive M&A, the company stayed quiet on the M&A front for the entirety of 2024, even divesting some non-core assets.”

 

• “Carriage Services’ operations have shown solid momentum organically with good pricing increases and growing demand in cemetery preneeds, also carrying into underlying profitability.”

 

Disclaimer — The author of this article for Funeral Director Daily is a shareholder of Carriage Services.

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Picking the Brains of the Pros: Recent Research into the Field of Death Care

The field of death care is a thriving area of formal research. Structured studies explore how the public – and the pros – are affected by (and work with) matters of death, loss, and mortality.

At this stage of the game, when it seems like so much has been said and done, particularly with the death positive movement, one might rightly inquire what, if any, er, headstones on the issue remain unturned.

What exactly does science still want to know?

While these issues have been addressed to a degree, what is wanted is often greater detail in the answers, specifically in terms of consequences to health of those affected.

Many studies seek understanding of the ways different people respond to different types of death under different circumstances. There are, of course, innumerable ways to be shaped by the deaths of others, and often our responses are unexpected… sometimes even for the most grizzled, long-in-the-tooth of the pros.

Of particular interest is the manner in which pros think about and respond to death, tragedy, loss, and mass mortality in a sustained, long-term way when it’s familiar; the psychological underpinnings, and how that translates to your biological expression (exhaustion, compassion fatigue, even inflammation and auto-immune issues.

The effects of a tragic death resulting in mass casualties isn’t going to be the same for a death care professional as it would be in a member of the public’s response, and beyond the obvious association and familiarity, why is that, exactly? After a point, are you just wired differently? (Yes.) How is the experience different? How does this experience affect one’s health? What about long term? Are such changes permanent? In what ways? How do we come to terms with the changes it can force upon us through the experience of loss and bereavement? And how does this difference influence the roles that funeral directors play, not only handling the practical matters of death in an hour of need, but in the stewardship of socially significant knowledge to a comparatively unprepared population?

These are some of the questions of recent studies.

And, technically…

When COVID-19 forced great changes into every quarter of the practice, requiring a lot of improvisation without warning, the changes imposed by the global experience introduced technologies we’re not likely to give up anytime soon. Death care tech has become synonymous with electronic memorialization, live broadcasting of services, and electronic legacies, all of which have become standard offerings for many funeral homes. The ways such technology affect our experiences of ritual, memorialization, and religious services are the subject of a growing body of research.

You can never know too much

New technologies and advancements benefit the practical aspects of death care practice in new ways every year; likewise, science has never ceased to ask big questions of the experiences of humans with the end of life. How fortunate that our understanding of the many ways death penetrates our lives is growing all the time, allowing us all greater expertise and insight into what can be unbearable experiences… an informed way to support each other through the greatest type of loss possible.

Right in the middle of the United States’ National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) annual convention in New Orleans is probably a good time to drop information from a press release that we received in mid-September.

That press release, which you can access here, came from PR Newswire with information provided by Allied Market Research.  In all honesty, the press release was more than likely intended as a “teaser” for purchasing a more detailed report compiled by Allied Market Research.

However, the press release provided elements of the company’s research that we feel is important for death care professionals to be made aware of.  And, part of that research indicated that the Global funeral service market will grow at an estimated 3.8% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) through 2033.  If that was to become true then, according to the press release, the Global funeral service market would grow from $61.3 billion to $88.6 billion over the next decade.

Here’s what the press release states as the prime drivers of this projected growth:

1. A Rise in Geriatric population
2. Cultural shifts toward personalization and meaningful ceremonies driving demand for customized funeral services
3. Technological advancements offering opportunities for innovation in service delivery such as online planning and virtual attendance
4. Environmental consciousness

Here are some other quotes from the report:

 

• “The burial services market is witnessing a significant shift toward green burials”

• “The shift toward celebrating life, rather than traditional mourning, is leading to more personalized and unique services.”

• “The “immediate need” segment holds the major share of the market. . and is estimated to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period. . . . However, “the pre-planned segment” is projected to manifest a higher CAGR of 4.6% from 2024 to 2033.  Pre-planned funeral service are increasingly popular. . . .”

• “The “Offline segment” held a major share of the market in 2023. . and is estimated to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period.  The “Online funeral services market” is expanding rapidly. . and is projected to manifest a higher CAGR of 4.6% from 2024 to 2033.”

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  If you work in the death care profession daily I’m guessing that none of these points are surprising to you.  However, in a business profession where sometimes change happens slowly, you must realize that change does take place.

And, because change does take place, your place of business has to be ready for those changes that will be, more and more, sought out by the consumer public as time moves forward.

If you do nothing else you need to be looking into how you will be providing the growing services to your potential consumers.  From my point of view, it is apparent that a traditional funeral home that wants to continue to be a leading provider of death care services needs to look into the following:

• How do you provide options that “Celebrate Life” rather than “Mourn Death”?
• How do you move to a growing online presence and “self-administration” for some clientele while at the same time offering that personal touch to those that continue to want “Offline” care?
• How do you take your Preneed program into the 21st Century for those potential clients that want everything “online”?

I’m pretty certain that “taking care of clientele” will continue to be what funeral homes do.  However, “being taken care of” may mean different things to different individuals who have suffered loss and funeral homes need to know that they are prepared for as many situations as possible.

If you happen to be in New Orleans at the NFDA Convention make sure you spend part of today and tomorrow on the Expo floor and visiting with those vendors that may be able to help your funeral home get to that next level of service that future clients will be expecting.

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