About: Julia Elliot

Originally printed in Southern Funeral Director, May 2023 Ask Foundation Partners Chief Financial Officer Thomas Kominsky what makes his ap­proach to business partnerships different from others in the deathcare industry and he'll tell you: "We buy businesses we want to own versus those that are for sale." With 20 years' expe­rience in corporate and strategic…

Mark Krause is a fourth-generation funeral director whose successful Wisconsin funeral home business joined Foundation Partners Group last year. The founder and past president of the Funeral Service and Cremation Alliance of Wisconsin (FSCA), he is a former president of Preferred Funeral Directors International (PFDI) and past president of the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral…

Ask any Funeral Director and they will tell you the same story plays out at their reception desk a few times each year. A middle-aged resident walks in holding a shopping bag and says, "My uncle just passed away and he had no children. I was cleaning out his house and found these urns on a shelf in his closet. I don't want them in my house. What can I do with them?"

Ask any Funeral Director to list his or her top priorities when selling a business, and inevitably, taking care of employees will be among the top three concerns. After all, funeral business is a people business, and a funeral home and cremation center is only as valuable as the people who provide the service.