Time moves so quickly, and we find ourselves at the end of yet another year. Looking at events of the past year, I want to thank you all for your participation in supporting our association.

Together, we were able to get good legislation passed, providing the opportunity to better serve our fellow Montanans. If you haven’t benefitted from SB 244, our intern license change, I would suspect you will at some near point in your organization. I know for many around the state, licensing students as interns has helped tremendously to ease the hiring burden. Thank you all for supporting this change. Increasing the pre-need dollar cap will also be a “win” for funeral homes and the families we serve.

Many of you attended our state convention in Miles City and the NFDA Convention & Expo in Las Vegas. It was great to have such a large delegation from Montana! I enjoyed talking with many of you. My takeaways from these conventions are:

1. AI is here, and we need to embrace it with optimistic caution. AI is a tool that can be most beneficial, but we cannot lose the personal touch and relationships fundamental to funeral service.
2. Call volume around the nation, for the most part, has retracted considerably. Firms I have talked with are seeing anywhere from about 6-11% decrease this year on average. Hopefully, we planned for this. My observation is this will likely remain for a couple of years before we return to pre-COVID numbers. Montana has seen lower levels of slow-down in some areas, which I attribute to the influx of people moving to the state.
3. Ownership is changing at a rapid pace. The season for the baby boomers to exit funeral service is in full force. The landscape of funeral home ownership is changing. We are seeing around the state and country that most funeral homes are being transferred to larger funeral groups from the previous owner/operator model. If you are making a change, remember you must let the Board of Funeral Service know. The forms are on the board’s website.

Where do we go from here? Convention planning for June 2024 is well underway. The convention will be held in Missoula, and we hope to have a great program for all who can attend. We would like to provide meaningful education sessions, so we need your help. We would like to ask for your participation. What are you or your firms lacking? Where would you like to focus this next year? What education can we provide that will support you in your efforts to serve families better? Please take some time to think of how we can help you.

If you have questions, concerns or ideas, please reach out to me or any of our board members. Thank you again for a great year, and I look forward to this next year together.

Regards,

Tyson
tyson@missoulafuneralhomes.com
(406) 317-3874