Funeral Service Insider: The Podcast

Welcome to the latest edition of ICYMI from Funeral Service Insider. As always, we are here to keep you informed about the latest happenings and trends within the funeral industry. Here's what we have on deck this week:

Advances in Funeral Innovations Conference

Precoa Acquires Life-planning Brand Everplans

Cody Gortmaker: Triple Threat Funeral Director

BC Gets More Green Burial Space

Kates-Boylston hosts the Advances in Funeral Innovations conference Nov. 12-13 in Houston. Over the course of two days, attendees will hear about some emerging trends and best practices for running their operations. In what follows, we speak with two representatives of National Guardian Life Insurance Company. Melissa Posey Loose is the assistant vice president of marketing communications for NGL and Kenn Peterson is NGL’s vice president of lending and business development.  

They will present, “Culture: Your Business’s Ultimate Superpower,” which is a look at an alternative approach to innovation. We spoke with them recently about what they hope to accomplish with their talk and what attendees can expect.  

Welcome to the latest edition of ICYMI from Funeral Service Insider. As always, we are here to keep you informed about the latest happenings and trends within the funeral industry. Here's what we have on deck this week:

Advances in Funeral Innovations Conference

Australian Funeral News 

Deeley Honored for 50 Years of Funeral Service

Disclosure Fine for Iowa Repeat Offender

Gricoski Sells to Hummel

Koch Joins Grau Funeral Homes

Funeral Directors Life Approved to Sell Preneed Life Insurance in Virginia

Alix and Elevia Join Forces to Integrate Estate Settlement Into Aftercare Support Services

We spoke with Austin Anderson of Implant Recycling about his upcoming presentation on how artificial and virtual reality may change what families expect from memorialization. 

Click here for complete show notes.

We speak with funeral director Tim McLoone and Professor Sara Murphy, who includes death-care and LGBTQ+ issues among her special areas of interest.

Their journey began with a chance encounter at the 2019 NFDA convention, which led to the creation of the Deathcare Proud event series – an annual gathering to show support and provide visibility for LGBTQ+ professionals in funeral service. This episode covers the organic growth of Deathcare Proud from a modest meetup to what’s becoming an anticipated event backed by influential sponsors.

We discuss the motivation behind their initiative, the importance of creating safe and supportive spaces, and the broader implications for diversity and inclusion within the profession.

Selected quotes from the episode:

Support for Queer Professionals in Funeral Service: “We realized there really is a need for not only support for queer folks in funeral service (because it is such a prevalent profession for folks who are identify as LGBTQ+), but also as a means for them to be able to come together in fellowship and camaraderie in what is often a very closed off profession that has a lot of inherent discrimination." – Sara Murphy

Social Justice in Death Care: "I think when we saw that there was an absence of support for the people in this profession who make up this beautiful, diverse rainbow community and that people in positions of power and organizations weren't really doing anything to bring them together or to celebrate them or to validate them, you know the social justice warriors are going to say, ‘Well, then we're going to do it ourselves.’” – Sara Murphy

Creating Safe Spaces: "There are people who come to our events who are not out, but who know that they are safe in that space, whether they want to be out to us or not." – Sara Murphy

Networking Moment: “I started talking to Sara about my feelings about the LGBTQ+ community and funeral service and all that. We both looked at each other and were like, ‘Well, there’s something here,’ and I had already planned on approaching this mutual friend of ours … about the lack of seeing anything relating to the community in really any publications or anything like that.” – Tim McLoone

Discussing the Future of Death Care: “We hope to really have some of those conversations – with folks who’ve come consistently, with folks who have been to our talks, with people who still want to see more happening in this space – to see where we can take Deathcare Proud. Maybe it’s to a whole other level besides just meetups.” – Tim McLoone

Be sure to click here to listen and then subscribe to get show notifications as soon as they’re available. Also, check out our “In Case You Missed It” video series.

Welcome to the latest edition of ICYMI from Funeral Service Insider. As always, we are here to keep you informed about the latest happenings and trends within the funeral industry. Here's what we have on deck this week:

Kates-Boylston hosts the Advances in Funeral Innovations conference Nov. 12-13 in Houston. Over the course of two days, attendees will hear about some emerging trends and best practices for running their operations.

Busy at Better Place: Better Place Forests is getting a fair bit of attention following a merger, a positive funding report, and a glowing feature.

Partnering Up: Anthem Partners announced a preneed deal with Premier Preneed Marketing and National Guardian Life. It was the latest in a number of consolidators finding new preneed partners. 

NOR Legal and Possible: A funeral home owner in Delaware announced his business will partner with Recompose to fulfill NOR requests for families until regulations allow for him to provide it onsite.

New President: Mid-America College of Funeral Service has announced the appointment of David Hess as the new president.

Kates-Boylston hosts the Advances in Funeral Innovations conference Nov. 12-13 in Houston. Over the course of two days, attendees will hear about some emerging trends and best practices for running their operations.

Click here for complete show notes. 

In this episode, we speak with University of Cincinnati professor of social work Jennifer Wright-Berryman, a seasoned mental health and suicide prevention researcher with a long-standing commitment to improving understanding of the death-care experience for members of the LGBTQIA+ community. During her extensive research, she discovered a scarcity of resources and support specifically directed towards LGBTQIA+ individuals.

Her efforts include analyzing the websites of funeral homes to identify those that had explicit signaling that they welcomed LGBTQIA+ individuals. Based on that work, Wright Berryman and her colleagues are developing a website that evaluates funeral homes and lists those that are LGBTQIA+ friendly.

Their work aims to ensure everyone has access to dignified and inclusive death care services without fear of discrimination. In this episode, we discuss the recently launched website, EqualDeathCare.org, and the scope of this project, which includes a directory of verified LGBTQIA+ friendly funeral homes. https://www.equaldeathcare.org

Selected quotes from the episode

Educating Funeral Homes: They say, ‘I never thought that I would need to put something on my funeral home website that signaled, whether it be a little pride flag or a graphic of a same-sex couple holding hands.’ They’ve never really given much thought to the fact that not signaling could mean that someone may not walk in your front door because they fear discrimination.

Rising Mortician Classes: This new cohort of mortuary science students that are coming up are going to be savvy with technology. They’re going to be savvy with their values envisioned around who their customers can be and who their customers are.

Inclusive Partnerships: If you’re not listed (on the directory), that means that either A. we haven’t found you yet (and please reach out to us because we would be happy to have a discussion about putting you on the website), or B. your website isn’t clear enough.

Be sure to click here to listen and then subscribe to get show notifications as soon as they’re available. Also, check out our “In Case You Missed It” video series.

Show Web Page: https://www.kates-boylston.com/podcast/

Welcome to the latest edition of ICYMI from Funeral Service Insider. As always, we are here to keep you informed about the latest happenings and trends within the funeral industry. Here's what we have on deck this week:

A Big "What If?': In case you missed the last podcast, we spoke with Tyler Anderson of Precoa about treating your website like you treat your funeral home.

Bought not Closed: Whether you're Park Lawn or a sole owner, keeping the public informed about transitions is also a chance to remind them who you are.

More Transitions: A new GM at a family funeral home and an owner celebrates becoming an employee.

A Win in Court: The Las Vegas, New Mexico, City Council voted to uphold the planning and zoning committee's decision to allow Gonzales Funeral Home to install a crematory attached to its existing building.

Crematory Fined: A Breckinridge Circuit Court judge imposed the maximum civil penalty against Cloverport Funeral Home and Kentuckiana Funeral Service.

Click here for all the ICYMI stories from Funeral Service Insider.

Accounting for shifting consumer preferences is a challenge many funeral home owners face daily. Tyler Anderson of Precoa discusses approaches for accommodating these shifts.

Click here for complete show notes.