By Thomas A. Parmalee
After more than 13 years with Global Atlantic, Tony Armogida has joined Golden Considerations, bringing a relationship-driven approach to helping funeral homes build their businesses and reach more families.
When FuneralVision.com reached out to Armogida, he said he never set out to build a career in preneed. In fact, when he first applied for a job at Forethought all those years ago, he wasn’t exactly sure what the company did.
What he did know was that he wanted to leave a sales job he disliked and find something different. A friend who was interning in Forethought’s legal department told him about an opportunity, and Armogida sent in his résumé.
He landed an interview and was hired into the company’s capital funding department, where he initially spent his days processing insurance assignments, making sure funeral homes could receive money upfront while the company verified the policy and processed the claim. Once the insurer paid, the advance and a 4% fee were recovered, with the remaining proceeds going to the family.
After about two months at Forethought, he moved to an inside sales position supporting the capital funding team. That role put him in contact with funeral home accounts across the country, helping him develop relationships and learn about the profession from the people working in it every day.
When Global Atlantic acquired Forethought and the capital funding operation closed, Armogida moved into preneed.
“I fell in love with it,” he said.
That unexpected career turn would lead to more than a decade of progressively senior positions, from territory sales to national strategic accounts and regional leadership. It also helped shape the philosophy he brings to his new role as vice president of sales at Golden Considerations: Focus on helping funeral homes solve problems, and the preneed business will usually follow.
A Career Built on Relationships
Armogida’s early experience in sales outside deathcare prepared him for the work ahead. Before entering the profession, he had worked in other industries, including selling ADT security systems.
But it was his growing familiarity with funeral homes that gave him a different perspective on what it means to be a successful preneed professional.
In 2015, he moved into the Northeast territory, where he began working more closely with Golden Considerations. He eventually took on national and strategic accounts at Global Atlantic in 2021, followed by a principal role in 2024 managing regional sales directors.
As his responsibilities expanded, Armogida found himself spending more time on internal meetings, training and management, and less time interacting directly with funeral home customers. His move to Golden Considerations represents an opportunity to return to that customer-facing work.
The transition followed an unexpected departure from Global Atlantic. Armogida said the company had undergone changes after being acquired by private equity, and disagreements over internal processes ultimately led to his departure. He said he has a clear conscience about how he handled the situation and emphasized that the decision was made by the company, not by the colleagues and customers with whom he had worked.
He considered opportunities with other organizations but was uncertain about returning to another large corporation. Golden Considerations offered something different: a familiar team, established relationships and a business model that would allow him to work with multiple insurance carriers and other industry partners.
“I’ve been working with them for 14 or 15 years,” he said, describing the longstanding relationships he had developed with Golden Consideration’s leadership and regional directors. “It just seemed like the right fit.”
Golden Considerations was not an unfamiliar organization he needed to learn from scratch. Armogida already knew its people, its processes and the resources it could bring to funeral homes. He had seen firsthand how the company’s capabilities complemented those of Global Atlantic, opening doors to solutions and opportunities that a single carrier could not necessarily provide on its own.
The Best Sales Strategy May Not Start with a Sale
Ask Armogida what has helped him build relationships with funeral directors, and his answer has little to do with a particular product or sales technique.
“I have always tried to help funeral homes grow,” he said.
That means listening to owners, agents and funeral directors and identifying the challenges they are trying to solve — even when those challenges have nothing to do with preneed. If a funeral home needs a vendor, technology resource or training solution, Armogida has tried to help connect it with the right people.
“Even though I dealt with preneed or capital funding, I listened to the owners, agents or funeral directors and helped them solve problems,” he said.
Sometimes those conversations eventually led to preneed business. Armogida described it as selling preneed “by accident,” because the relationship and the work of helping the funeral home came first.
The other essential ingredient, he said, is follow-through. If he tells a customer he will do something, he makes a point of doing it.
For funeral professionals trying to develop their own preneed programs, that approach offers a practical lesson: Relationships are built through consistent actions, not simply through scheduled sales presentations. Understanding a funeral home’s broader business challenges can create opportunities to contribute in ways that strengthen trust over time.
Why Multiple Carriers Matter
One of the features of Golden Considerations that appeals to Armogida is its ability to work with multiple insurance carriers. The company’s website lists access to seven carriers, along with marketing, technology, training, compliance guidance and shortfall protection resources.
Armogida believes carrier diversity is important because funeral homes can face problems when they depend too heavily on a single provider. He recalled situations in which companies closed their doors, leaving funeral homes scrambling to find alternatives. Changes in regulations or carrier business practices can also affect the options available to a funeral home.
“Offering multiple carriers is helpful,” he said.
That does not mean a funeral home should automatically abandon an existing carrier relationship. Armogida said Golden Considerations can continue to support funeral homes that want to maintain those relationships while also helping them explore other options when appropriate.
The goal, as he described it, is to give funeral homes flexibility and help them find solutions that fit their needs and the families they serve.
Golden Considerations was founded by the late funeral director Robert S. Rae, whose experience in the profession helped shape the company’s emphasis on carrier choice and support. The company is now led by his son, Josh Rae, who serves as CEO.
Armogida said he is particularly excited about the opportunity to work with the Golden Considerations team while continuing to maintain relationships with Global Atlantic colleagues and accounts. His role will continue to evolve, but he expects to focus on funeral home and cemetery accounts, bringing new partners into the network and helping existing customers develop their preneed business.
“I’m getting back to customers and accounts,” he said, describing one of the most appealing aspects of the change.
Reaching Families Who Aren’t Already Planning
For Armogida, one of the most significant opportunities in preneed is also one of the profession’s most persistent challenges: reaching families who have not yet considered planning their funerals.
He estimates that only about 20% of people preplan, leaving a substantial portion of the population outside the traditional preneed conversation. Many of those individuals aren’t necessarily opposed to planning. They simply may not know where to begin, may not have considered the subject or may not respond to the outreach methods funeral homes have relied on for years.
“There’s so many families out there that are not being marketed to,” he said.
That creates an opportunity for funeral homes to reconsider how they introduce preneed to their communities. Rather than relying exclusively on people who already understand the process, funeral homes can look for ways to educate families who have never taken the first step.
Technology can play an important role in that effort, Armogida said. Digital tools can make it easier to track information, monitor activity and understand whether marketing and sales initiatives are producing results. He has been encouraged to see funeral homes paying greater attention to what their data can tell them about their businesses.
But technology is only useful when funeral professionals put the information to work.
For example, a dashboard that tracks sales calls can help a manager identify declining activity before it affects results. If a salesperson’s calls begin to fall, the manager can address the issue early rather than waiting until the impact appears in the following month’s production.
“Being able to track and use that information is useful,” Armogida said.
He also sees potential for artificial intelligence to help with routine work. He uses AI to draft or rework emails and believes funeral professionals can benefit from identifying repetitive tasks that could be automated. Marketing content, scripts and other recurring assignments may offer opportunities to save time.
The broader lesson is that technology should support a funeral home’s business objectives. Tracking activity, identifying trends and responding to problems are more valuable than simply collecting data without a plan for using it.
Preneed Must Keep Pace with Changing Consumer Expectations
Armogida also sees continued evolution in the services families choose. In particular, he has observed growth in cremation accompanied by a service, rather than cremation without a ceremony or gathering.
Families still want opportunities to celebrate a life, remember someone they love and come together in a meaningful way. He believes the profession has become better at offering those options.
That shift reinforces the importance of having conversations that go beyond funding. Preneed planning is also an opportunity to understand what families value, document their wishes and help them consider the kind of experience they want their loved ones to have.
For funeral homes, that means avoiding assumptions about what a family wants based solely on its disposition preference. A family considering cremation may still be interested in a memorial service, a gathering or other meaningful elements.
The preneed conversation can help bring those preferences into focus before a death occurs, giving both the family and the funeral home a clearer understanding of the arrangements.
Guarantees, Shortfalls and the Importance of Pricing
Funding arrangements and future costs are another area where Armogida believes funeral professionals need to communicate clearly.
When discussing guarantees, he encourages funeral homes to consider the economics of the commitment they are making. If a funeral home promises to guarantee a price, it should understand the financial implications and account for the cost of providing that guarantee.
“I always say, if you want to guarantee it, let’s charge for the guarantee,” he said.
He suggested that funeral homes think carefully about how inflation protection is built into their pricing and funding arrangements, rather than treating a guarantee as an incidental feature.
At the same time, he said families may not fully appreciate the value of a guarantee until a funeral professional explains it. The conversation should help them understand what the arrangement provides and how it could affect their financial responsibilities in the future.
Armogida illustrated the point with a hypothetical example: If a funeral costs $17,000 today and a family has a policy worth $16,000 when the death occurs years later, the family may need to make up a $1,000 difference rather than facing the entire $17,000 expense. Depending on the arrangement and circumstances, adjustments to the services selected could also affect the final amount.
The example underscores why funeral professionals should explain the actual terms of a funding arrangement instead of allowing families to make assumptions about what is covered.
He also recommends reviewing funeral home prices at least annually. Waiting four or five years between increases can force a business to make a much larger adjustment all at once.
“If you increase prices 2% across the board every year, it’s not a huge jump,” he said.
For funeral homes, regular pricing reviews can help keep charges aligned with operating costs and make it easier to explain changes to families.
Compliance Is Part of Serving Families Properly
Although Armogida said compliance was never an area he particularly enjoyed focusing on, his experience has taught him why it matters.
He pointed to seemingly routine activities, such as texting customers, as examples of areas where funeral professionals need to pay attention to requirements. Businesses should make sure their customer relationship management systems properly capture consent where required and that applications and other business are completed correctly.
The challenge is maintaining appropriate safeguards without creating unnecessary obstacles for families or the people serving them.
That balance requires funeral homes to understand their responsibilities, follow applicable procedures and seek guidance when questions arise. Golden Considerations identifies compliance guidance, underwriting support and training as components of its partnership offering.
For Armogida, the lesson is straightforward: Processes that may seem burdensome when everything is going smoothly can become critically important when a problem arises. Building sound practices into everyday operations helps protect the funeral home, its partners and the families relying on them.
Looking Ahead
Armogida’s move to Golden Considerations brings his career back toward the customer relationships that first drew him into the preneed business. He is looking forward to expanding the company’s network, working with funeral homes and cemeteries, and helping partners identify opportunities to grow.
He is also enthusiastic about the ability to work across carrier relationships and collaborate with other industry vendors, giving him more ways to help funeral professionals address their needs.
His career began almost by chance, with a job application to a company whose business he barely knew. But the experience of working with funeral homes ultimately gave him a professional focus he found deeply rewarding.
And the approach he developed along the way remains central to how he intends to work with customers: Listen, follow through and look for ways to help.
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