When people start planning for retirement, most of them don’t add “go back to school” to their checklist — but Homesteaders Life Company CEO Steve Shaffer did.

So, why do it? Why trade watching Netflix with cramming for exams? Why become a part-time student when your full-time job is CEO for a leading preneed insurance provider? For Shaffer, the answer is simple.

“When you understand your business partners better, you have the ability to help them and relate to them more,” he says. “This is just one deeper commitment to show how real we are in our promise to support funeral service. We’re going to go deep and understand what it’s like to be on the front lines.”

Going back to school.

Shaffer enrolled in the online mortuary science and funeral service program at Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) in fall 2023 and expects to graduate in May 2027. He’s not in it alone, though. Shaffer has a study buddy in Teresa Carlson, vice president of The Bancorp, Homesteaders’ partner in offering the Funeral Home Conventional Loan Program.

“We’re so aligned in our commitment to the funeral space, that it’s been fun to take that alignment into our coursework,” Shaffer told FuneralVision.com.

Still, the transition back to school has been a challenge. Though he’s spent more than 30 years in the funeral profession, Shaffer’s undergraduate degree is in accounting — a far cry from most funeral home operations. What drew him to the space, however, was a desire to be part of something meaningful.

“I wanted to do something that was good for people, good for humanity,” Shaffer says.

Doing the work.

With hands-on experience from his coursework under his belt, Shaffer feels more connected now to that personal mission than ever.

“When you get into the real world, you see the humanity of funeral service, the personal impact a loss has and how funeral professionals help people start to navigate that loss. The work you’re doing is going to allow a family to see their loved one, one more time.”

One of Shaffer’s biggest takeaways from his education so far is a greater understanding of the grief journey, specifically the acute grief families experience immediately after a loss. No amount of reading material, conversations with funeral professionals or afternoons spent shadowing customers could provide the same experience, he says.

“When you’re not there to actually experience it, you don’t have the same context. You’re an observer, an outside participant. You may understand it intellectually, but you don’t understand it viscerally or emotionally like you do when you’re helping embalm an 18-year-old who died by suicide on their birthday.”

Looking ahead.

Like him, many of Shaffer’s classmates are already familiar with the funeral profession, but most of them work inside funeral homes. Looking ahead, Shaffer hopes more people will consider entering the field. It’s green lights ahead, he says.

“Making the change, going to school, doing the work and getting a license is going to be worth it in the end because you’re going to make a career doing something many people wish they could: helping people every day, and at one of the most challenging times in their lives.”

And Shaffer does intend on getting his full licensure upon completing mortuary school. Whether he uses that license to practice funeral service in the future remains up in the air, he says, but maybe after retirement. Either way, Shaffer quietly hopes his decision sets a trend for his peers.

“I would highly recommend it to anyone who’s been in or around funeral service for a long time but hasn’t done it yet. It will make an impactful change in your life and how you look at the world. Not everyone is going to do that, but it was important for me,” he says.

While graduating from mortuary school and obtaining his license will certainly give Shaffer a better idea of the day-to-day lives of Homesteaders’ customers, he knows his knowledge and experience still isn’t the same as those who work directly in funeral homes full time. Funeral professionals face incredible pressure to get everything right for every person, every family, every time. That requires extreme attention to detail, care and coordination — yet, they continue to do it.

“When you see all the things happening at a funeral home, you start to understand why they need us to make it as easy as possible to do business," Shaffer says. “We don’t want to be a problem they have to solve in their day.”

He does, however, hope his education is a step in the right direction — one that will influence all of Homesteaders’ operations.

“Homesteaders has always supported the profession, and we have great relationships and friendships within it. Attending mortuary school is just a small way for me, as the leader of Homesteaders, to show how much we appreciate everything they do every day for families and their communities,” Shaffer says. “It’s really important work, and I couldn’t think of a better way to validate that than becoming licensed myself.”

As evidenced by our CEO’s decision to attend mortuary school, there’s always more to learn and more ways to grow. Whether it’s earning a degree, attending continuing education sessions or joining a peer group, we hope you feel inspired to let your inner student be curious and learn something new.