Funeral Home Owner Offers His Best Pre-need Advice

When funeral home owners need advice and best practices for running their business, who do they look to for expertise? Fellow funeral home owners.

Charles F. “Chip” Snyder Jr., owner of Charles F. Snyder Funeral Homes & Crematory in Lancaster, PA, was recently featured in the May 2016 issue of American Funeral Director magazine in an article about establishing a successful pre-need program in your funeral home.

Snyder’s pre-need program plays an important role in his business. He noted in the article that “Prearranged and/or prefunded funeral and cremation arrangements considerably ease a family’s burden when death occurs.” To that end, Snyder has partnered with Physicians Mutual and The Outlook Group to offer pre-need insurance in his funeral home. Snyder believes the companies’ values and missions align well with his own.

Tyler Anderson, president and CEO of The Outlook Group, said, “Charles F. Snyder Funeral Homes & Crematory is an excellent partner for Physicians Mutual and The Outlook Group. We seek the same results: Taking care of families when they need us most, and making what can be a very difficult process a little easier.”

Currently serving about 700 families every year, Snyder says demand for pre-arranged and pre-funded funerals continues to grow. To help increase public awareness and understanding of how pre-need works, Snyder instituted a lunch-and-learn program. He hosts a relaxed lunch for a couple dozen people in a local restaurant. They get to eat, chat and learn about preplanning their funeral from the firm’s advance funeral planner.

The lunch and learns are just one component of a successful pre-need program – to really make it work, Snyder says, “You have to develop a program, market that program and have people on staff that can be there for that family…” Snyder’s employees even function as unofficial “ambassadors” for the funeral home and its pre-need program. Employees will often encounter someone while out and about whose parents are aging and have concerns about arranging and paying for a funeral. They make sure to pass that person’s information along to an advance funeral planner in the funeral home to follow up.

Snyder has been in funeral service since 1975 and became the owner of Charles F. Snyder Funeral Home in 1988. Since then he has expanded the business when he bought another funeral home in 1989 and opened a new facility in 2000. Charles F. Snyder Funeral Homes & Crematory is the exclusive funeral provider in the Lancaster area to offer pre-need products through The Outlook Group and backed by Physicians Mutual.

Quotes and information from: “Building Preneed Success,” American Funeral Director, Kates Boylston, May 2016

About Us:

The Outlook Group and the Physicians Mutual family teamed up to create a pre-need funding program designed by funeral home owners for funeral home owners. This collaboration between a marketing leader in the funeral service profession and a strong, secure insurance company blends expertise and trusted service to deliver innovative, customized pre-need funding solutions.

About The Outlook Group:

The Outlook Group, based in Franklin, Ohio, has long leveraged their personal experience as funeral home owners to successfully provide a broad range of pre-need, training and lead generation services to funeral home owners. The company has recorded more than 30 years of improved pre-need sales and training performance in the industry; a record regarded as unmatched in the profession.

About the Physicians Mutual family:

The Physicians Mutual family, headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is a premier provider of health, life and retirement products. Composed of Physicians Mutual Insurance Company and Physicians Life Insurance Company, it has been in business for more than 114 years. With total combined assets reaching more than $3.6 billion, the Physicians Mutual family continues to earn the highest financial strength ratings in the nation from independent industry analysts, including A.M. Best Company (A Excellent) and Weiss Ratings (Physicians Mutual A+ Excellent; Physicians Life A- Excellent).