2021 Annual Report

Helping people design a better farewell, benefitting those they love.

Designing a Better Farewell

Building New Tools & Partnerships

Celebrating Exceptional Achievement

Supporting Customer Success

Empowering a New Generation of Leaders

Investing in Long-term Security

Designing a Better Farewell

As we near the close of year two of this pandemic, I am very proud of Homesteaders’ ability to meet the demand for advance funeral planning in these unusual times and position ourselves to continue to honor the promises we make to consumers well into the future. Our financial strength and long-term planning have created an environment where we remain poised to thrive. Homesteaders is stronger today and better positioned to serve our customers and partners than ever before.

Stephen M. Shaffer, President, CEO & Board Chair

Building New Tools & Partnerships

Homesteaders recently introduced Homesteaders Solutions, an integrated suite of services that helps funeral providers increase revenue, grow market share and serve more families. The flagship services combine the success of eFuneral’s online sales engine, Domanicare’s award-winning aftercare program and Homesteaders’ secure funeral funding to connect funeral homes with consumers, providing exceptional customer experiences and building long-lasting brand strength.

In 2021, Homesteaders focused on developing and enhancing these tools and building new partnerships.

Our appointment setting program helps funeral providers serve more preneed families than ever before. Our skilled service specialists are trained to make every single family they call feel like they’re speaking with someone sitting at the front desk of the funeral home. In 2021, our service specialists placed over 300,000 calls on behalf of our funeral home customers.

Watch the video to learn more.

The text-based aftercare program – staffed with live text message responders – helped more than 1,000 funeral homes create a thoughtful, personalized dialogue with families in the first 12 months following the loss of their loved ones. Across all partner funeral homes, the text-based aftercare program generated more than 16,000 five-star reviews, helping our partners enhance their brand and serve more families.

Watch the video to learn more.

Since its early days, eFuneral has helped hundreds of funeral home clients close preneed and at-need sales through secure, easy-to-use online storefronts. Their customized sales solution helps families plan and purchase their funeral services online, while generating thousands of highly qualified abandoned cart leads for preneed counselors.

Watch the video to learn more.

Homesteaders partners with more than 40 of the nation’s top performing preneed marketing organizations, giving our customers the ability to select the best fit for their business and market. In 2021, our marketing partners increased their annual sales volume by nearly 30%, due to partnerships with 187 new funeral homes as well as new integrations and services to grow same-store sales.

Click here to learn more.

As 2021 drew to a close, Homesteaders launched a new partnership with The Bancorp Bank to offer an all-new funeral home lending program to help fund acquisition and refinancing of multi-unit funeral home businesses across the country. This new service meets the growing demand for a lending solution that offers a more tailored solution than traditional SBA funding, backed by the security and expertise of two financial institutions committed to the funeral space.

Click here to learn more.

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Celebrating Exceptional Achievement

Despite the continued uncertainty the pandemic presented in 2021, Homesteaders responded to the ongoing challenge by boldly moving forward and making proactive investments in new tools to support our funeral home customers, agents and employees.

Together, we achieved the highest annual sales volume in Homesteaders’ 116-year history, outstripping the previous record by more than 13%.

As funeral professionals implemented new tools and strategies in 2021 to serve more families than ever before, the Homesteaders team was proactive in offering resources to support their important work. Like our funeral home customers, we continued to provide exceptional service and solutions while investing in operational efficiency to meet growing and changing needs.

In addition to new resources and services, sustained success requires people who are committed to helping others, solving problems and leveraging opportunities. The Homesteaders staff worked alongside funeral professionals to introduce even more options that meet those demands, all while upholding the highest standards of customer service.

Our new business team issued
106,977
policies, breaking the previous record set in 2018.

We paid
67,548
claims in 2021.

Our customer service team answered more than
173,438
calls.

We offered 16 virtual continuing education events with
2,796
total registrations.

Empowering a New Generation of Leaders

Homesteaders would not be who we are without the people in our company. Our positive company culture fuels our success, empowering all employees to live and work by our core values:

Be Your Best
Serve Boldly
Be Humble
Care

In the last two years, we have added key people to our leadership team whose vision and passion will help us continue to fulfill our purpose well into the future.

Tom joined Homesteaders in June 2021 as Senior VP-Chief Actuary. He leads the team responsible for Homesteaders’ profit testing, product development, actuarial services and long-range profitability planning.

“I enjoy the creative process that begins with a problem and builds to a solution which provides value for all parties. I look forward to helping Homesteaders enhance our position as a solutions provider.”

As Homesteaders Executive VP-Chief Innovation Officer, Nick is responsible for seeking out opportunities to optimize company growth through innovation. Nick joined Homesteaders in 2020 with a rich background in insurance, new technologies and strategy. 

“The death of a loved one is never easy, and money does not necessarily ease that pain, but helping a family take care of a loved one’s final wishes is quite an honor. It is exciting to be executing on a great strategy, knowing Homesteaders is well positioned to meet consumer needs far into the future.”

Jon joined Homesteaders as Senior VP-Consumer Experience in December 2021. He is responsible for aligning consumer experience efforts with Homesteaders’ overall strategy and goals. He also continues to serve as CEO of Domanicare and works with that team to ensure they continue to offer the best aftercare program in the funeral profession.

“With a focus on technology, communication and personalization, Homesteaders has the ability to reach more people than ever before. I am excited to help fulfill our company mission.”

“The executive leadership team’s open-door policy has allowed me to learn about the insurance industry, especially as it relates to actuarial and investment principles.”

Will Bischoff – VP-Strategic Markets

“The experience and perspective of our senior leadership have challenged me to become a better individual contributor and a more effective leader.”

Danielle Burmeister – Director-Marketing Communications

“Homesteaders has provided me with challenges which have allowed me to enjoy successes, learn from missteps and grow personally and professionally.”

Ron Crawley – Director-Strategic Innovations

“I’ve been able to grow as a leader by contributing to various projects that have helped shape the future of the company.”

Laurie Covington – VP-IT Application Delivery

“Having the support and mentorship of Homesteaders’ leadership has equipped me to carry out our vision and objectives and become a better teammate, leader and person.”

Michelle Hartley – Director-Business Development, Homesteaders Solutions Group

“Without the guidance, support and motivation I’ve received from my past and current managers and mentors, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

Garrison Lynch – Business Development Specialist, Homesteaders Solutions Group

“From the very beginning, Homesteaders has invested in my growth as a leader through management and leadership training programs.”

Rochelle Pavon – Manager-Licensing & Compensation

In addition to recruiting the new senior leadership members listed above, we are developing emerging leaders within our organization to carry us well into the future.

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Investing in Long-term Security

Homesteaders’ financial strength enables us to honor our promises to our policyholders, support the success of our funeral home customers and agents and invest in innovative tools that help funeral providers and consumers connect. Our ability to honor our commitments has driven our financial stewardship for 116 years and will continue to drive us well into the future.

We are proud that our financial strength enables us to make the kind of strategic investments that truly move the needle for our customers.