Simply as a member of a community I was again reminded this past week that transformation, and especially technology transformation, continues to happen at a rapid pace in the Death Care profession.  Last week I intended to go to a visitation of a deceased gentlemen who for the most part of my funeral director career volunteered as a caretaker of a small cemetery in our greater community.

The gentleman was a very nice person, humble as can be, and everytime I would see him in the community he was always friendly and would inquire as to the well-being and interests of my children and wife.  Simpy put, I wanted to make sure that I went to his visitation to pay the respect to him that he deserved and wanted to share these comments with this wife and family.

Well, I woke up Sunday morning and by habit checked the obituaries of the funeral home I used to own.  I then realized that I missed the gentleman’s visitation and funeral.  It happens . . .  But the reality of that is I did not get to visit with the family in-person as I believed I should.

At that point in time I had to look at my “next best option” to communicate my condolences and thoughts to the family.  Luckily, as most funeral homes have now, my old funeral home allows “messages” to the family on the decedent’s obituary page.

That’s what I did . . . and appreciate that the funeral home had that type of simple technology available to me.  And, I’m glad that they had kept up on that technology so I had a “next best option” to communicate with the family.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

More Realities —  It’s interesting because on Sunday at church I also saw the President of a local bank I will call ABC Bank.  ABC Bank was sold to XYZ Bank last summer and the transformation of accounts was completed in the last couple of weeks.  ABC Bank was my mom’s historical bank and I’ve been a client there since 1974 when as a 16-year old my mom brought me there to open a checking account  — so that’s a client relationship of over 50 years.

ABC Bank was not my business bank and is not my main bank today, but I have retained that personal checking account to pay monthly bills and have automatic withdrawals taken from it.  In that regard, it has been a foundation of my personal financial bill-paying system my entire adult life.   When I think of my ties to that bank — automatic withdrawals to savings accounts built my retirement and paid for my children’s college education from it.  There’s a lot of history and sentiment that I have with that bank.

However, when I saw the bank president at church my thought process was that he will soon be the president of the bank where I “used to” have a checking account.

You see here is what happened just this month. . . . I use an “external” bank transfer from my main bank to ABC Bank once per month to pay those bills and have money in the account for automatic withdrawals.  It was done overnight — i.e. I initiated the transfer on Wednesday and the money was in the account ready to pay bills on Thursday.

Well, once set up with the new XYZ Bank system I initiated the “external” transfer on a Wednesday and the money shows it is out of my regular bank account that night.  However, XYZ Bank does not acknowledge the receipt of that transfer for five days  —  making my money unavailable for five days.

That is maybe not the biggest issue in the world to worry about. . .so the money gets there 5 days later.  One answer is to initiate the transfer five days earlier and everything is fine.  Or, another thing to do is to go online and tell my automatic withdrawal accounts to take that money every month out of my main bank account instead of XYZ Bank and then simply close the XYZ Bank account.

The point is, either through a policy decision or the lack of technology to process “external” bank transfers in what I consider a timely fashion, XYZ Bank is now going to lose a customer that they have had for over 50 years.

Why that should matter to you —  Transformation, especially among technology is happening extremely fast in the Death Care world.  It’s almost so fast that there is a “dizzying” effect on all of it.  I was happy that I was able to send a condolence to a family whose visitation and funeral I missed  —  and, quite frankly, I expected to be able to do that from the funeral home website.

However, in just the last couple of months I’ve received information on technology improvements such as preneed prompts from online funerals, obituary writers for families from funeral home websites, and the ability to offer recorded services online with no fear of music license offenses.

My guess is that your families expect all of that and more.  From your website can a consumer:

• Get a mobile phone calendar reminder about attending a funeral or visitation so you don’t miss one like I did?
• Check their preneed balance?
• Pay a bill?
• Plan their services including knowing the price?
• Buy a preneed plan?

We live in a day of a new consumer mindset.  I believe that if a consumer can’t find the information that they want on your website or if your reaction time is slow or late, you will risk losing that consumer forever.

It’s happening all the time. . . .Saturday night of last week I was on my own for dinner as my wife was gone.  It was a great day watching college football and college basketball for me.  I decided to order a pizza to be picked up and brought home.  I have three choices within two miles of my home — Caseys, Dominos, and Pizza Hut.  What was my deciding feature for which one I purchased Saturday night? . . . . . It was the amount of time from order to ready for pickup — not price, not flavor, but reaction time.  And, if a pizza restaurant didn’t list that on their website I just disregarded them.  Technology is transforming pizza sales, too!!!

Final Thoughts — Transformation is happening. . . and, it is happening everywhere.  The consumer mindset is different and that consumer really wants answers when they search.  And convenience really matters — it is almost hard for me to believe that I will admit to ordering my evening meal almost simply on convenience.

This past week, WalMart and Target reported 3Q2025 results.  They were strikingly different — Target’s sales declined 1.6% and WalMart’s sales increased 5.8%. . . .There might be some argument about “what type” of customers shop at each store and how the growing “K-Economy” has affected those customers.

However, WalMart CEO John David Rainey thinks it is more than just that.  Remember ten years ago when you could first make a WalMart grocery order online and have it delivered the next day? . . . .Here’s what Rainey said about that, “Walmart — by way of 4,700-plus US stores — is regularly delivering orders to people’s houses in less than 30 minutes. . . . Walmart has leveraged its mighty financial position to invest aggressively in its supply chain, allowing it to be a more trusted destination for shoppers than Target.”

My suggestion. . . . Make the investments necessary to turn that “new consumer” into your client.  And, you need somebody in your trusted corner who understands the technology as well as someone who relies on that technology to be fair, but critical and honest, in their reviews of what you are offering your community.

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

In this very brief press release issued out of Toronto, Ontario, last weekend funeral home and cemetery operator Park Lawn Corporation announced that they had acquired two free-standing funeral homes in Colorado’s Western Slope.  The press release announced that they had purchased substantially all of the assets of Hood Mortuary located in Durango, Colorado and in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.

When you look at the website of Hood Mortuary, which you can access here, it appears that these two funeral homes were under common ownership.

Jennifer Hay
Park Lawn CEO

Jennifer W. Hay, Chief Executive Officer of Park Lawn Corporation made these prepared comments in the press release, “We are pleased to deepen our Colorado presence through the strategic acquisition of the Hood businesses.  These outstanding businesses will allow us to better serve the communities of the Western Slope and will be an excellent addition to our existing portfolio of high-quality businesses in Colorado.” 

According to the press release, Park Lawn Corporation operates businesses in two Canadian provinces and 17 of the United States.

Park Lawn Leadership Changes —  This is the first press release we have seen from Park Lawn Corporation that lists Ms. Hay as the Chief Executive Officer.  For the last several years Mr. J. Bradley Green had been in that position.

I first learned in late April that Mr. Green was no longer with Park Lawn Corporation.  To date, at least that I can find on their website, the company has issued no public press release on Mr. Green’s departure nor Ms. Hay’s ascension to the top position at Park Lawn Corporation.  The last notice that we had on leadership changes at Park Lawn Corporation was a press release on September 10, 2024, about one month after the company was taken private.  Funeral Director Daily published this article on those personnel moves on September 12, 2024.

The Female Leaders — Jennifer Hay joins Lilly Donohue as CEO’s of two of the largest four funeral home and cemetery consolidators in North America.  Lilly Donohue has been, for the past couple of years, the CEO of Everstory Partners, a private company operating over 450 funeral home and cemetery locations in North America and Puerto Rico.

LIlly Donohue
Everstory CEO

While Everstory Partners and Park Lawn Corporation are now private companies and revenue numbers are somewhat hard to come by, I don’t think it is a stretch to suggest that Service Corporation International, Everstory Partners, Carriage Services, and Park Lawn Corporation are the four largest funeral home/cemetery businesses (by revenue) in North America.

On the topic of female leadership, here’s an article on the Lisa Baue led movement for women’s leadership in funeral service.  There is no doubt that the number of women in funeral service is greatly increasing and Hay, Donohue, and Baue have the opportunity with their positions to promote and increase female leadership in the profession.

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

In mid-April I received a press release from Batesville that was titled “Batesville empowers Deathcare professionals with Industry-leading Burial, Cremataion and Technology solutions at 2025 ICCFA Exhhibition.”  Since that time I’ve had this article in my mind and thought now was as good as any time to share some of my historical insights about Batesville.

You see, when I started in the funeral home business it was 1980 and the profession operated in a world of about 90% traditional casketed burials according to at least one source.  At that time what was known as the Batesville Casket Company was a division of publicly traded Hillenbrand Industries and owned a very large percentage of the casketed burial market sales. . . . and if you wanted to purchase a product from Batesville Casket Company, it had better have been a casket because I don’t know if they sold anything else.

Today people operate their funeral homes in North America in an environment that is, at least according to Service Corporation International’s reports, 60% cremation. . . .which would lead one to believe that there are a lot less caskets sold.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

So, I found it very interesting at the end of the press release when it said “About Batesville Services, LLC” that this is how the company was described, “Batesville is a recognized leader in the deathcare industry in North America, offering a comprehensive portfolio of burial and cremation products, innovative technology solutions and an unparalleled array of personalization and memorialization offerings.”

When I read that description it made me realize how today’s Batesville has transformed itself from a “casket company” into a modern “solutions company” that is aimed at helping today’s funeral homes in a wholistic fashion.  For instance, the company is no longer just about caskets as they may be one of the largest suppliers of cremation products to the profession today.  In addition, the technology that Batesville supplies to the profession through its Halcyon and MIS Management software are also thought of as industry leaders.

I think it is very interesting how Batesville has “changed with the times” to not only keep itself relevant but to lead and have products and services available for funeral homes when they need them.  If they continue to do this they will be relevant to our profession for a long time.

A Partial Batesville timeline:

• 1884 — Batesville Coffin Company founded
• 1906 — Batesville Coffin Company purchased by John Hillenbrand.  Becomes Batesville Casket Company.
• 1985 —  Forethought Life Insurance established as a direct subsidiary of Hillenbrand Industries.  Focus on Preneed funeral insurance
• 1993 —  Options by Batesville formed. . . .introducing cremation items into the product lines.
• 2023 — Batesville sold by Hillenbrand Industries to Long Range Capital — becomes a private company.

Those are just some of the dates that I remember as milestones during my career as a funeral director.  In my remembering, Forethought Life was an early entrant into the preneed market helping move preneed from bank deposits into insurance.  I also remember the company as being an advocate for allowing funeral directors to offer insurance through their funeral homes.  Believe it or not, at the time in some states, like my native Minnesota, funeral directors were prohibited from being licensed agents for the sale of preneed.  Forethought not only became a great company, but I remember them more so as advocates for the funeral director/agent status.

Forethought today is no longer part of Hillenbrand or Batesville and is a part of the Global Atlantic Financial Group.  It is Global Atlantic that now partners with Service Corporation International as their exclusive preneed supplier.

I also think that Batesville’s creation of the “Options” products was a time when many funeral directors and funeral home owners realized cremation was here to stay.  In my own thought process, when a casket company like Batesville embraced the sale of cremation products it made me look upon the choice as one with staying power.

Final Thoughts — I think it is interesting that Batesville recognizes that the only thing constant with business is “Change is Inevitable”.  They, historically, have seemed to have a good idea of where that change is going — from caskets, to preneed, to cremation, to the present technology needs of funeral homes.  And, it seems that wherever that change is going they want to be on the leading edge of helping funeral homes.

I’ve been told more than once that if the great passenger train companies of the 1940’s and 1950’s had defined the business that they were in as “Transportation” instead of “Railroad” that they would be the companies dominating air passenger service today.  It appears to me that Batesville knows that story and will work to define their business by “whatever helps funeral homes” rather than any other adjective.

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