By Jack Hirsch, president, Funeral Services, Inc.
The demographics driving preneed growth have rarely looked more favorable. The country is experiencing the largest demographic shift in history as the baby boomer generation reaches traditional retirement age, a point when preneed sales are most likely to occur.
For funeral homes and cemeteries, the wave of Americans surpassing 65 means years of preneed opportunity. It also raises the stakes on getting the fundamentals right, because a larger book of business can magnify the cost of a poorly run program.
Preneed is a long-term promise. The money a family pays today funds a service that may not be delivered for a decade or more, which makes the discipline behind the program as important as the sale itself. Yet many deathcare professionals review their preneed programs only at the end of the year, missing an opportunity to correct any areas needing a second look.
At mid-year, the fourth quarter is close enough to feel real and there is time to course-correct before year-end. A checkup does not require an auditor, only an honest hour and a willingness to look.
The five questions below are designed to help spot a compliance slip, a funding gap or a structural issue while there’s still time to act.
Question 1: Are you meeting your state’s trust deposit requirements?
Every state sets rules for how much of a preneed sale must be placed in trust and how soon after the funds are received. Those deposits happen at two moments: when a contract is sold and payment comes in, and as installment payments arrive on a payment schedule.
The risk emerges when a required deposit is missed, made late or in the wrong amount. A mid-year review is the time to reconcile deposits against sales and payment schedules and confirm that every dollar that belongs in trust is there and arrived on time.
Catching a missed deposit in August leaves room to correct it before it becomes a regulatory finding.
Question 2: Are your contract prices keeping up with today’s service costs?
Inflation makes this question especially timely. The value of preneed is that it locks in today’s prices for the family, and that is a genuine benefit worth selling. But the firm still has to make sure trust growth and contract structure actually cover the cost of delivering that service years from now. Operators understand this principle. The real test is whether anyone is watching the numbers in practice.
Pull a sample of older contracts and check them against your current price list. If the math no longer holds, that is a finding you want to make now, not at need.
The other half of the equation is investment performance. Trust earnings are what help preneed keep pace with rising costs over the life of a contract, so lagging returns quietly widen the gap between what a family paid and what the service will cost to deliver. If returns have consistently trailed expectations, that is a signal to take a look at your investment adviser, investment strategy or your trustee and to make a change if the performance is no longer justified.
Question 3: Is your reporting current and accessible?
Ask yourself a simple question: If you needed funding levels, transaction histories and compliance status on short notice, could you or your recordkeeper produce them today? If the answer is that it would be a scramble, that is an issue that reaches well beyond compliance.
Clear, current reporting builds confidence, and if ownership ever changes hands, it directly protects the value of your business. Mid-year is the time to reconcile your records rather than let a full year of transactions pile up in a year-end burden.
Question 4: When did you last talk to your trust partner?
A strong preneed program is not “set and forget.” Schedule a mid-year check-in with your trust administrator to review growth, raise any concerns and confirm that nothing has drifted off target. This is what a professional partnership is for. When the regulatory and fiduciary details are covered by specialists who do this work every day, directors are free to focus on the families they serve. A short conversation now can reveal small issues before they become expensive ones.
Question 5: Is your program still aligned with your long-term plan?
Step back from the maintenance items and look at the bigger picture. Whether your goal is to stay independent, grow or eventually sell, your preneed book shapes all three paths. Does its current structure still fit where the firm is heading? This is the question that bridges routine upkeep and genuine strategy. With consolidation reshaping the profession and generational transitions on the horizon for many family firms, a healthy, well-documented preneed portfolio has never been more valuable.
A checkup, not an overhaul
None of these five questions requires a major undertaking. Each asks only for a willingness to look honestly and make small adjustments where they are needed. The firms that keep their doors open for decades are the ones that treat preneed as ongoing maintenance rather than an annual afterthought.
There is still time this year to act on whatever your checkup reveals, but that window narrows with every passing week.
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