Best insurance assignment company searches usually come after a claim went badly. The funding company you might’ve used for years took a week to verify a policy it once verified in a day or two. A beneficiary called asking where the rest of the money was, and the rep who used to know your directors off-hand had moved on. Most funeral homes we talk to already use a funding company. So disappointment with the last claim, or the last several, is the most common reason a director starts looking for an alternative. The second reason is different. Your funeral home has always handled assignments in-house, and the last one really hurt. Maybe it was a policy you couldn’t verify or one you accepted in good faith that never paid, and the funeral home carried the burden.
Either way, you already know what an assignment funding (also known as funeral funding) company is supposed to do. What you’re deciding is who should do it, and that decision is bigger than it looks, because it’s a decision about ownership. Two well-established national assignment funding companies most directors know by name now belong to a publicly traded company and a private equity firm. Meanwhile, approximately three-quarters of funeral homes in the United States remain family- or privately owned, according to the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA).
This guide names the three ownership models plainly, with the public record behind each one. It walks through the questions we’d recommend asking any funding company, including ourselves. And it explains, from our own experience inside every one of those models, why many funeral homes choose a family-owned partner when they can. The best insurance assignment company for your funeral home may turn out to be the one built the way your funeral home is.
Who Owns the Insurance Assignment Companies Funeral Homes Use
Ownership isn’t a secret in this profession, but it rarely comes up in a sales call. Any search for the best insurance assignment company should start with it, so here it is, drawn from the companies’ own announcements and filings.
Three Examples of Ownership Structures Within the Funeral Profession
Three ownership structures commonly encountered in funeral funding are publicly traded corporate groups, private equity-backed companies, and independent family-owned businesses. C&J Financial is part of Security National Financial Corporation, a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: SNFCA). Messenger acquired Express Funeral Funding in 2019. In 2022, Messenger Holdings was acquired by PNC Riverarch Capital, now operating as Riverarch Equity Partners, a private equity affiliate of PNC Financial Services Group. Family Funeral Funding is family-owned, partner-led, and independent.
Both of the larger companies have long histories. Both fund a great many claims for a great many funeral homes every year, and nothing in this guide says otherwise. The point is simpler: the people who own a company decide how it treats you, and it helps to know who those people are.
So who are they? A company’s ownership structure can influence how decisions are made and how directly funeral directors can communicate with leadership. Publicly traded, private equity-backed, and family-owned funding companies can all provide good service. The question worth asking is who handles your claims, who has the authority to make decisions, and who you can contact directly when something needs attention.
We’re the family-owned model. At Family Funeral Funding, our founding partners verify claims, make funding decisions, and handle follow-up with insurance carriers. That’s why the directors we work with have our personal cell numbers rather than a queue. It’s also the first thing we’d want to know about any funeral home funding company.
Why the Profession Is Talking About Ownership
Funeral service grew up on family ownership, and it still runs on it. The NFDA counts 15,401 funeral homes operating in the United States, and approximately 75% of them are family- or privately owned. Most directors reading this grew up in one, bought one, or built one.
That model has had a hard decade. Funeral home consolidation has accelerated as publicly traded operators, regional groups, and private equity-backed buyers acquire family-owned firms. Trade press tracks the trend closely. Most directors can name a competitor down the road that sold to a group headquartered three states away. It’s a regular topic at every state convention. The conversation tends to carry respect for the sellers and some unease about what the profession is becoming.
On the funding side, the profession consolidated the same way, just more quietly. Larger companies bought the independent funding companies, and larger companies still bought those. As independent funding companies have been acquired, the ownership behind familiar names has changed. That’s the sentiment behind this guide, and we share it.
Family Funeral Funding exists because the partners believed the profession still had room for an assignment funding company built the way three-quarters of funeral homes are. Many directors told us they’d rather work with one. For them, the best insurance assignment company isn’t an abstraction; it’s a company whose owner responds when they text.
Our Experience Across Three Ownership Structures
Our partners have spent their careers in assignment funding. Andrian Hall has spent nearly two decades verifying and funding claims for funeral homes and has personally funded more than $1 billion in claims. Along the way, our team has worked inside publicly traded, private equity-owned, and family-owned companies. That experience shaped what we built: owners who work the claims themselves, a first call to the insurance company within 5 minutes, and partners you can text directly. You can read more on our About Us page and in the Kates-Boylston feature on our first year.
Eight Questions That Find the Best Insurance Assignment Company
Ownership is the first question. The rest are about conduct. On a difficult claim, they’re the questions that separate the best insurance assignment company from the rest of the field. The right funding company for your funeral home is the one whose answers you can verify on your next claim. Here are the eight we’d ask, with ours; the rest of our funeral home resources go deeper on each.
Before You Send the First Assignment
- Who owns you, and who answers when I call? At Family Funeral Funding, our founding partners personally handle claim verification and funding decisions. Clients have our personal cell numbers and can text us directly. There’s no escalation chain, ticket queue, or script.
- What happens in the first five minutes after I send an assignment? During normal business hours, we aim to make our first call to the insurance company within five minutes of receiving a completed assignment. On that call, we report the death, start the verification process, and verify as much as possible. If something doesn’t align with the information you provided, we’ll let you know promptly.
- Is your fee on the net funeral bill or the total assignment? Ours is 3.5% of the funeral bill, the net amount paid to the funeral home, with a $125 minimum. When comparing funding companies, ask whether the quoted percentage is calculated on the net funeral bill or the total assignment amount. The distinction can affect the actual cost, so it’s worth understanding how each company calculates its fees before comparing rates.
- What does the power of attorney in your assignment form actually cover? Families ask this at the arrangement table, so it belongs before the first signature. Our assignment form authorizes Family Funeral Funding to communicate with the insurance company, obtain necessary information, and complete claim-related paperwork on the beneficiary’s behalf. The authority relates to the insurance policies and claims covered by the assignment, rather than granting general control over the beneficiary’s personal finances or unrelated affairs. The assigned payment amount is specified separately, although the POA can authorize paperwork involving the policy’s full proceeds. Funeral homes processing assignments in-house may instead use forms that simply direct payment, without granting this additional authority.
Once the Claim Is Received
- What happens after you fund, and when does the family get the rest? After funding, we follow up with the carrier daily until it confirms receipt, then confirm on record (COR) and follow up regularly until the payout arrives. Confirm on record means the insurance company puts in writing that it holds all pertinent paperwork and will pay the assigned portion. The Closed date in your dashboard marks the day our check arrived. Insurance companies typically issue the beneficiary’s remaining portion around the same time they issue payment for the assigned amount, although processing and delivery times can vary by carrier.
- Will you ever contact my family without asking me? No. We never contact a beneficiary without the funeral home’s permission. When a family calls us to confirm we’re legitimate, we route them back to you.
- Do you complete the carrier’s claim forms, and can I use your claim form library? In most cases, yes. We generate and complete the insurance company’s claim forms for each claim submitted through us, under the POA. Some insurance companies won’t accept a POA for certain forms. When that happens, we let you know right away and help coordinate the necessary signatures. Our Claim Form Library, under Form Downloads in your Claim Dashboard, holds carriers’ claim forms, searchable and downloadable, free to any approved user.
- How do you handle a funded claim that doesn’t pay as expected? We carefully verify each claim before providing funding to minimize the risk of a denied claim. If a properly verified and funded claim encounters an unexpected issue with payment, we work directly with the insurance carrier and keep the funeral home informed while we pursue a resolution.
Why Many Funeral Homes Prefer a Family-Owned Funding Partner
In our experience, many funeral homes, and family-owned firms especially, would rather work with a company built the way they are. The reasons tend to be practical rather than sentimental, and they show up on the claim itself.
Decisions and Continuity
The first reason is decisions. When the owners of a funding company handle the claims, a question about a difficult policy gets an answer from someone who can decide. There’s no one to check with, because the person on the phone is the person who’d do the checking.
Continuity is the second. Directors tell us the same team on every claim matters as much as speed. A rotating rep has to relearn your funeral home’s preferences every time. Garrett Casey of Casey Funeral Services processes at least 10 insurance assignments a month. He put it this way: “These guys ‘get it’ and know the funeral business more than anyone we ever worked with.” Beth A. Wallace McNearney of Wallace Family Funeral Home named the opposite experience. “With other companies, we’ve often been asked for additional documents multiple times, creating unnecessary delays and added stress.”
Scale and Personalization
The third reason is scale that doesn’t change the level of service. A single-location family firm and a multi-location operation get the same people, the same cell numbers, and the same follow-through from us. Howard K. Hill of Howard K. Hill Funeral Services described a team that will “communicate clearly, respond promptly, and work efficiently with funeral homes.”
Personalization is the fourth. No two funeral homes operate exactly alike, and we don’t expect them to. We’re happy to accommodate each firm’s individual needs, whether that means adjusting how we communicate, who receives claim updates, or how we coordinate with their staff. Our goal is to make the assignment process work for your funeral home, rather than asking you to change the way you operate to accommodate us.
That personal approach is strengthened by the relationships and familiarity we develop over time. Shawn Bates of Locust Grove Funeral Home has worked with several funding companies over 15 years. He followed the people he trusted. “The people working at Family Funeral Funding are familiar as many of them worked for a company that I previously used. Family Funeral Funding picked the ball up and raised my expectations back to where I am very pleased.”
Final Thoughts
Three ownership structures, eight questions, and one pattern underneath them. What matters on a claim is who decides, who follows up, who carries the wait, and who you can get a response from at 4:45 p.m. on a Friday. We’ve worked within each of the three structures discussed here. Those experiences led us to build an independent, family-owned alternative.
If you’re weighing funding companies, book a demo with us and ask the eight questions in person. That’s how you’ll find out whether we’re the best insurance assignment company for your firm. We’d rather you decide it on a real claim than on a blog post. We’ll walk you through the Claim Dashboard, the Form Downloads library, and how we track claims through payment. You’ll have the partners’ cell numbers before the call ends.
You’ll know who’s responsible for your claim, because they’ll be the ones on the call.
