PREMIER PRENEED OFFERS NEW INTEGRITY HEALTH PLAN FOR AGENTS

Premier Preneed Marketing is now offering the Integrity Health Plan, a first-of-its-kind health-
coverage solution built exclusively for independent agents and advisors. Introduced by Integrity, Premier Preneed’s parent company, the plan offers access to high-quality, group-style benefits while allowing agents to remain fully independent.

The Integrity Health Plan delivers comprehensive, industry-leading benefits tailored to the needs of today’s agents. Key features include: preventative services covered at 100%; a nationwide provider network; no coinsurance; coverage for hospitalizations, surgeries, emergencies and more; individual- and family-plan options; HSA-eligible plans with $2,500 and $5,000 deductibles; and concierge support for billing, provider navigation and care coordination. Agents may sign up at any time. PremierPreneed.com

MESSENGER CELEBRATES WHITECAR JR. RETIREMENT 

After more than a decade with Messenger and a remarkable 100-year family legacy of service, James Whitecar Jr. has retired. This closed an extraordinary chapter not only in his career but also the history of the Whitecar family and the broader funeral service profession.

When Whitecar Jr. joined Messenger in 2010, he carried forward a proud tradition established by his father, Jim Whitecar Sr., and his grandfather, Al Whitecar. Serving funeral homes across Northern California and Nevada, Whitecar Jr. built lasting relationships rooted in trust, care and personal connection. These qualities defined his approach and earned him recognition as Supplier of the Year by the California Funeral Directors Association in 2015.

One of Whitecar Jr.’s proudest accomplishments was helping his family achieve 100 years of continuous service to Messenger and the funeral service profession. That legacy began in the 1920s when his grandfather joined Messenger and quickly distinguished himself – eventually winning the company’s Golden Harvest Sales Contest in the 1950s. Decades later, Whitecar Jr.’s father continued the tradition by contributing 47 years of service and leaving his own legacy of leadership and excellence, which the company recognized by inducting him into the Messenger Hall of Fame.

Throughout his career, Whitecar Jr. fostered meaningful client relationships that spanned decades. Reflecting on his career, he shared, “It has been an honor to continue these relationships and serve alongside so many great people. Keep up the great work.”

As Whitecar Jr. stepped into retirement, Mike Kane joined Messenger as its new sales representative in July. A licensed funeral director and former owner-operator, Kane brings deep industry experience, fresh perspective, and a commitment to supporting clients and advancing their success. TheMessengerCo.com

FUNERAL WOMEN LEAD TO HOLD LEADERSHIP AND WELLNESS SUMMIT, BAUE SPOTLIGHTED BY FORBES

Funeral Women Lead will hold its second-annual Leadership and Wellness Summit, “Unleashed,” and kick off the second cohort of its Women’s Leadership Academy, an 18-month online leadership-development program. The Unleashed summit and academy kickoff will take place September 27-30 at Wild Dunes Resort in Charleston, South Carolina.

Unleashed is a focused experience for funeral service women who have reached a place where they are ready for more clarity, confidence, community and leadership. Most conferences give women a seat at the table for a day, but Unleashed gives them the time to remember who they are as leaders, to restore themselves and to map their leadership journey.

The 2026 summit agenda features a keynote by Jen Coken, an internationally recognized leadership expert and the author of Make Imposter Syndrome Your Superpower. She will lead a workshop on identifying limiting beliefs and building a more expansive leadership life.

During the event, Angela Ippolito-Cottam of AIC Wellness will lead body-centered sessions on somatic breath work and nervous-system regulation, designed specifically for those who carry the weight of working in funeral service and deathcare.

The summit’s agenda also includes a panel discussion on leadership, burnout and boundaries in funeral service and deathcare.

The official kickoff for the second cohort of Funeral Women Lead’s Women’s Leadership Academy will be September 27-28. This year-round, systemic leadership development invests in women who will shape the future of the funeral service profession.

In other news, Funeral Women Lead founder Lisa Baue was featured in a sweeping Forbes profile by contributor Paula de la Cruz for her advocacy for women in funeral service and deathcare. The article, “Women Leading in the Death Business,” traces the arc of the American funeral industry and places Baue’s decades-long career – and the structural challenges women in the profession face today – at the center of the national conversation. The piece sheds light on the experiences that shaped Baue’s leadership and the insights that inspired her book, Wake-Up Calls: A Journey of Learning to Lead and Succeed in the Funeral and Deathcare Profession.

This national spotlight is a proud moment for Baue and for Funeral Women Lead, which she founded in 2024 with a mission to unleash the greatness of women in deathcare. The organization now has nearly 7,000 followers, and future plans include niche communities of support with ongoing coaching and mentoring, as well as educational resources that help women become better business leaders, managers and owners.

“The profession hasn’t been supporting [women] and those who identify as women as they need and deserve. We are on a mission to end that,” said Baue. “Our stories, our heartaches, and our need to be accepted and belong are at the center of the conversation about the future of this profession. Funeral Women Lead exists to make sure those voices are seen, heard and equipped to lead.” FuneralWomenLead.org

NMD INTRODUCES TWO MEMORIAL JEWELRY DISPLAYS

New Memorials Direct (NMD) recently launched two new memorial jewelry displays, designed to help funeral homes, cemeteries, cremation providers and memorial retailers showcase an assortment of personalized memorial products in a compact, attractive way.

An ideal merchandising solution for arrangement offices, selection rooms and memorial retail spaces, the 13-piece display maximizes impact while minimizing footprint. With a balanced assortment of jewelry, keepsakes and accessories, the display gives funeral service professionals an effective way to introduce families to personalized memorialization products that celebrate life, preserve memories and create lasting connections.

Bringing together some of NMD’s most popular memorial jewelry and keepsake categories, the new display allows families to easily explore personalization options, such as fingerprints, handwriting or photo engraving. To help families visualize premium options, the display includes select gold-tone samples to represent the 14K gold offerings, as well as silver-tone stainless-steel examples.

Additionally, NMD introduced its new premium memorial jewelry display, which also features elegant gold-tone sample pieces to represent the company’s 14K gold options. The display allows families to better visualize premium jewelry options as they explore meaningful ways to honor and remember their loved ones. Families can create one-of-a-kind keepsakes that preserve meaningful moments for generations by personalizing jewelry with fingerprints, handwriting, signatures, photographs, handprints, footprints or custom-text engraving.

Requiring minimal showroom space, this clean and professional-looking display complements arrangement offices, selection rooms and memorial retail spaces. NewMemorialsDirect.com

NGL ADDS WEBSITE CHAT FEATURE FOR POLICYHOLDERS 

In late 2025, NGL launched its redesigned corporate website to deliver a more intuitive, user-friendly digital experience for current and potential policyholders, agents and job candidates.

In addition to a modern design, improved navigation, faster performance, and stronger security and accessibility, the updated website introduced a live customer-service chat feature. Preneed policyholders with policy-related questions can connect directly with an NGL customer-service representative during regular business hours. This new feature provides faster assistance, personalized support, and a more convenient way for policyholders to receive answers without making a call or waiting for an email response. NGLIC.com

ONEROOM LAUNCHES STORIES TO SHARE AUDIO CLIPS FROM FUNERAL SERVICES 

OneRoom, a streaming platform specifically for funeral homes, recently launched Stories, a feature that creates a set of short, shareable audio clips from a funeral service. This way, family members can keep the words and memories they want to experience again.

A funeral service contains many parts, but certain moments – a turn of phrase, a funny memory, a familiar voice – rise above the rest. OneRoom’s Stories offer family members a simple way to hold on to moments and share them with others. After a service, the most meaningful, engaging moments are selected and then turned into standalone audio clips that family members can save, revisit and share in their own time.

“Stories are not just shorter versions of a service,” said Brady Cox, CEO of OneRoom. “They capture the words families most want to hear again and put the focus on the voice. It concentrates the emotion and the small details in a way that creates something very special.” OneRoomStreaming.com

STARMARK EXPANDS WHITE-GLOVE DELIVERY SERVICE

Starmark recently expanded its growing white-glove delivery service into new markets within Alabama, Arkansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Northern California, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington and Wisconsin.

By adding these delivery-service centers, Starmark is ahead of its planned growth schedule. This expansion significantly strengthens Starmark’s ability to serve North American funeral homes, crematories and cemeteries, with faster lead times, improved product availability and responsive local support.

Starmark’s goal is to make funeral service professionals more successful by offering products that strengthen profitability, improve operational efficiency and deliver exceptional family experiences.

Starmark also is making technology and infrastructure upgrades, including improvements to ordering platforms, shipment tracking and operational systems, so it is easier for funeral service professionals to place orders, monitor deliveries and manage purchasing. StarmarkCP.com

NEW HOPE CENTER FOR GRIEF SUPPORT HIRES KITA AS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

The Board of Directors of the New Hope Center for Grief Support in Northville, Michigan, hired Ann Kita as its new executive director.

Having worked for both large and small nonprofits, Kita has a strong background as an executive director. She led the team at a domestic-violence agency and served as the program director and crisis-counseling outreach coordinator for the YWCA of Greater Flint in Michigan.

Kita holds a master’s degree in counseling and a bachelor’s degree in psychology and criminal justice. In her new role, she will be actively involved in Kid’s Camp and committee meetings, and she will begin integrating into the center’s other programs on day one. NewHopeCenter.net

VECTOR DIMENSIONS AND IONA UNIVERSITY SIGN MOU TO ADVANCE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

Vector Dimensions LLC and Iona University have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to collaborate on the creation of various professional development programs for funeral directors and other deathcare professionals. Through this partnership, Iona University will expand its continuing education and credentialing opportunities to meet the evolving needs of the funeral service profession; meanwhile, Vector Dimensions will contribute its expertise in funeral home management, higher-education consulting and professional development design.

The agreement establishes a framework for joint program development; instructor selection; marketing; and delivery of educational opportunities that have flexible, credit‑bearing options, including
continuing-education units, microcredentials and pathways that could lead to college credit.

A key feature of the initiative is its inclusive approach. Programs will be designed for not only licensed funeral directors but also nonlicensed funeral home staff, such as office administrators, support personnel and others whose roles are essential to daily operations. This ensures entire funeral home teams can benefit from meaningful career-development opportunities. VectorDimensions.com

CHPTR APPOINTS SHOWALTER AS SENIOR VP OF PARTNERSHIPS 

Chptr recently appointed J.B. Showalter as senior vice president of partnerships. In this role, he will work closely with funeral home partners nationwide as the company expands its offerings, helps funeral homes reach more families and strengthens community connections through modern memorialization.

Showalter joins Chptr after more than 27 years with Batesville. There, he held a series of sales and strategy roles, helping guide growth initiatives across the organization.

Said Showalter about his new role: “Throughout my career, I’ve always believed that the best innovations are the ones that promote the value of the funeral to the end consumer by strengthening the relationship between funeral directors and the families they serve. What drew me to Chptr is that we are doing exactly that. This team has built something that genuinely helps funeral professionals better tell their story of what makes this profession so special while serving families in a more meaningful way.” Chptr.com

@NEED MARKETING HIRES LOVE AS SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER, LAUNCHES VIRTUAL VISIBILITY SOLUTION 

@need Marketing has hired Temeika Love as senior account manager. In her new role, she will lead the company’s account-management team.

Love has a marketing degree from Northern Kentucky University and brings nearly three decades of marketing experience to her new role. Her career includes media buying, direct-mail-campaign
execution and cross-channel engagement. Before her stints with USA Today Co. Inc. and SageSure, Love spent nearly two decades in the preneed space with The Outlook Group.

Said Love about her new opportunity: “This is a full-circle moment – returning to where my career began. I’m surrounded by people I know, respect and see as family. What excites me most is getting to collaborate with highly sought-after individuals in a space where ideas can grow and everyone feels supported and heard. And, of course, doing that work in service of funeral professionals, who give so much of themselves to the families they serve, will always be fulfilling.”

In other news, @need Marketing launched its Virtual Visibility Solution – a curated, research-backed service package engineered to help funeral service professionals stay visible and competitive to the families that are turning to AI-powered tools to find the providers they call. Families used to type keywords into a search engine and scrolled through results, but many now ask AI tools who to call. For the funeral homes and cemeteries not optimized for this environment, the risk is stark: invisibility at the moment families need help most.

The Virtual Visibility Solution delivers two layers of visibility that work in tandem. Building on the tactics that ensure families find a funeral home or cemetery through traditional SEO, the package also includes tactics designed to appeal to the emerging AI-search environment.

The package includes: optimized metadata and on-page elements to boost local visibility and rankings; GEO- and SEO-optimized blog posts that answer the questions families are actually asking about funeral service; press releases to build authoritative off-site signals; directory listings and Legacy.com profile optimization; and geo-targeted content to drive qualified local traffic and establish community authority. AtNeedMarketing.com

THUMBIES ADDS GOLD VERMEIL OPTIONS TO PREMIUM PERSONALIZED JEWELRy 

Thumbies has added gold vermeil (pronounced “ver-MAY”) as a new material option within its personalized memorial jewelry collection. This provides funeral service professionals another way to meet the growing demand for personalized remembrance products that are both meaningful and affordable.

A thick layer of 14K yellow gold over sterling silver, gold vermeil meets internationally recognized standards for quality while acting as a less-expensive alternative. Gold vermeil bridges the gap between sterling silver and solid gold by delivering a rich appearance with exceptional durability and impressive craftsmanship at a more accessible price.

Gold vermeil is available for many of Thumbies’ most popular jewelry items. Handcrafted and personalized, each piece preserves a unique connection and can be worn and cherished by loved ones for years to come. Thumbies.com

A.M. BEST AFFIRMS WELLABE’S A (EXCELLENT) RATING

A.M. Best has affirmed the A (Excellent) financial strength ratings for Wellabe’s six insurance-company subsidiaries. According to A.M. Best, the ratings and outlook reflect the group’s balance-sheet strength, which was assessed at the strongest confidence level, and its risk-adjusted capitalization, which is expected to remain strong.

A.M. Best also noted that innovation is embedded in Wellabe’s culture and is being leveraged by the company to generate long-term growth, streamline operations, reduce costs, create customer value and increase employee engagement.

“A.M. Best’s affirmation reinforces our financial strength and gives customers confidence we will fulfill our promise to always be here for them,” said Dave Keith, CEO of Wellabe. “It’s a commitment we’ve kept for 97 years and will continue to uphold.” Wellabe.com

PRECOA CHANGES LEADERSHIP STRUCTURE, PREPLANS MILLIONTH FAMILY 

Precoa recently announced changes to its leadership structure. Michael Hornibrook will continue serving as CEO, and Tyler Hornibrook will assume the role of president. This formalizes an operational reality that developed within the company over the past several years.

As CEO, Michael Hornibrook will continue focusing on long-term strategy, the strength of key partnerships and leadership development. He will work alongside newly promoted Chief Growth Officer Tyler Anderson to expand services and value offerings for Precoa’s funeral home partners.

While overseeing organizational clarity, alignment and day-to-day execution, Tyler Hornibrook will help fulfill Precoa’s brand promises to significantly grow and sustain preneed sales, complete program integration, and create the highest quality experiences for funeral homes and families.

In other news, Precoa recently helped its millionth family prearrange services. For more than two decades, the company has worked diligently to set the standard for both quality and effectiveness. In 2025 alone, Precoa set more than 243,000 appointments and preplanned more than 100,000 individuals on behalf of its partners. This was the result of more than 7,100 community education programs, an astounding 5.2 million follow-ups and analytics drawn from a decades-deep data lake.

“When people come together with a shared vision and purpose, you can accomplish more than you ever thought possible,” said Michael Hornibrook. “This milestone is all due to our incredible funeral home partners and the many people throughout Precoa who are so dedicated to helping them connect with more families in their communities.” Precoa.com

JENSEN AND BROWN PUBLISH BOOK TO INCREASE FIRST CALLS IN AGE OF AI 

As families increasingly explore their options online, forward-thinking funeral directors are finding ways to grow their call volume that were difficult even five years ago. A new book, Getting More First Calls in the Age of AI: Digital Marketing for Funeral Homes in the World of Google and AI, written by FirstCall Marketing co-founders Scott Jensen and Trevor Brown, addresses both the opportunities and challenges funeral professionals face in today’s digital landscape. The book is organized into four practical sections:

• Part I: Mastering Google – Understanding Google’s search results page, and how to appear in the AI Overview, Local Services Ads, paid search ads, the Map Pack and organic listings

• Part II: How to Be Recommended by ChatGPT – An AI-adapted “Know, Like, Trust” framework that positions funeral homes for recommendation by ChatGPT and other AI search tools

• Part III: Measuring What Matters – Using AI to move beyond vanity metrics to track qualified leads, cost per case and actual ROI

• Part IV: Taking Action – Practical next steps for implementation, whether a funeral home chooses to handle marketing internally, work with an existing partner or explore specialized support             

Writing specifically for the funeral service profession, the authors address the unique challenges funeral homes face. The book includes real examples, data visualizations and actionable strategies that funeral homes can implement, regardless of budget or size.

Getting More First Calls in the Age of AI is available for free during its initial release (your name, email, phone number and website URL are required). FirstCall.marketing/Book

UNIVERSITY MORTUARY SERVICES ESTABLISHED TO HELP EXISTING FIRMS 

University Mortuary Services does not serve the public directly. Instead, the company offers its services to funeral homes, coroners, mortuary shipping companies, fellow mortuary firms, overland transport companies and crematories. The firm covers the Mid-South for transport, embalming, cremation, and domestic and international shipping.

The service has a fleet of four strategically placed, professionally fitted vehicles with equipment for residential and institutional deathcare. The staff, which includes professionally trained and dressed removal technicians and embalmers, has more than 30 years of combined deathcare experience.

University Mortuary Services will operate 24/7 year-round, and the firm is available for quick response times to Batesville, Oxford, Desoto, Jackson, and Tupelo, Mississippi; select parts of Tennessee, including Memphis; and select parts of Arkansas. UniversityMortuary.com

POLCREATIVE GROUP PROVIDES RANGE OF BODY BAGS, MORTUARY SUPPLIES 

Polcreative Group is a manufacturer of body bags and mortuary accessories that has been in operation for more than 25 years. The company combines European production, international distribution and customized solutions for professional clients worldwide.

Polcreative Group’s bio-friendly range offers two distinct options. Its fully biodegradable body bags are made from a certified material compliant with EN 13432 (the European standard for compostable products) that decomposes into carbon dioxide, water and natural minerals. Its regranulate body bags are produced from recycled production waste, reducing environmental impact without compromising reliability. Both are manufactured in Europe and used in funeral homes, hospitals and veterinary offices across the continent.

The company’s heavy-duty range is engineered for natural disasters, conflict zones, long-distance repatriations and field operations. Made from reinforced PEVA foil, the bags are available in various sizes with up to eight integrated handles, absorbent layers and document pouches. PolcreativeGroup.com