How Impact Funeral Partners Discovered a Better Lending Process

Robbie Hulme
CEO and Founder
Impact Funeral Partners
Lehi, Utah
30 funeral home locations
Combined Average Call Volume: 4,000 calls/year

When was the last time your funeral home needed lending services? Was it to renovate your facilities? Were you building a new location? Did you want to refinance an old loan?

The lending process is a challenge for most funeral homes, and it was especially trying for Robbie Hulme. With long-term goals of growth for his business, Robbie needed a lender who could help him reach his goals as efficiently as possible. However, with every lender he used, the process became more difficult.

That is until Robbie learned about Funeral Directors Life’s lending service. Unlike other lenders, Funeral Directors Life (FDL) understands the funeral profession and simplifies the lending process. Robbie was happily surprised after his first conversation with the FDL team and hopes to use FDL for all his future lending needs.

“FDL understands our needs, supports our goals, is supportive, and roots for us to be successful. It’s a true partnership.”

Read to learn more about Robbie’s experience with FDL.

How has your experience been with FDL’s lending service?

We’ve had a really good experience so far. We closed our first loan with FDL a little more than a year ago, and since then, we’ve probably done around a dozen loans with FDL. Everything has been very positive. Their team is top-notch and filled with great people who are experienced in working with funeral homes. But more than that, we appreciate the approach FDL takes and their collaboration with us. They make it feel like a partnership, which isn’t the same feeling you get from using a traditional lender or bank. FDL listens to our goals, helps us decide on a plan to best achieve those goals, and then partners with us to reach our goals. They’ve been supportive and helpful.

Why did you first consider FDL as a lending option?

Our long-term goals are to grow our company through several acquisitions over the next few years. We wanted to work with someone who could help us reach this goal instead of someone who made the process feel like a lot of transactions. We were referred to FDL, had some initial conversations with their lending team, and felt comfortable every step of the way. We felt like this would be a good match. FDL made us feel like they were genuinely interested in our success and that they were in our corner. I’m grateful to the people who recommended FDL.

Can you describe what your lending process looked like before using FDL?

We had done a couple of loans with some credit unions, which turned out to be loans specifically on the real estate and not based on the business. It felt transactional and not industry specific. We’ve also done an SBA loan once, and that ended up being very tedious. So, with those lending options, there was just more red tape, and it was a more difficult process.

FDL is a more efficient funeral home lending process that does a great job of streamlining. With other banks and lenders, I wondered: Are you even trying to get this done for us? You’re making this so difficult. But it’s much easier with FDL, which is a huge plus for our business. Working with FDL has gone so much better than we initially expected.

How would your business have been impacted had you not partnered with FDL?

Without FDL’s lending service, we would have grown slower, the process would have been more difficult, and the expenses would have been much higher.

None of those outcomes are great, and dealing with all three would have been challenging for our business and damaging to our goals.

Again, what distinguishes FDL from other lenders is that they treat you as a partner. It’s not like with other lenders, who act like they don’t care if you use them or if you even achieve your goals. FDL spends the time to understand your business, your goals, and your struggles so that they can create something that fits your needs.

What do you think funeral homes are risking by using traditional lenders who don’t understand the funeral profession?

Honestly, they risk not having as much fun trying to achieve their business goals. That may sound a little lighthearted, but I think it’s true. Working with banks, credit unions, or other typical lenders is a different experience than working with someone who knows your business. With someone like FDL who knows the funeral profession, you don’t have to spend time explaining the details of your business. And because they understand your business, they can usually help you more than a traditional lender. It’s a much more enjoyable lending process with someone who knows funeral homes. Plus, if you find a funeral home lending partner who is rooting for your success, the process becomes fun.

You also use FDL for preneed. What are your thoughts on FDL’s preneed solutions?

Just like with lending, FDL has a really good team and products when it comes to preneed. I’m a big believer in preneed and the value it can add to our business and families. So, it’s great to see that FDL – which began as a preneed company and now offers a lot of other great services – still has excellent preneed products and are among the industry leaders.

One of the main reasons we use FDL for preneed is because of how easy and simple their integrations make things for us. I like that DIGicon [FDL’s preneed sales software] integrates with Passare, Claimcheck, and other platforms because it’s one less system for me or our funeral homes’ staffs to learn. The integrations make things a lot more efficient for us, and those small details make a big difference over time.

Your business recently started using FDL’s digital marketing service, too. How has that experience been?

So far, we’ve really enjoyed working with FDL’s marketing team. They’re a great team, organized and thorough, and they always make sure we understand what is going on and why we’re using specific strategies.

Other marketing companies don’t always take the time to explain all the details, so you can be left with questions and unsure of what the plan is. The FDL marketing team explains everything, makes sure you understand, and encourages you to ask questions. It’s very helpful because it builds trust between FDL and us and doesn’t make me wonder if they’re not being transparent.

Is there anything that sets FDL apart from other marketing services you’ve used before?

Strong communication is a big one, but I’d say another big differentiator with FDL’s digital marketing packages is the robust number of offerings they have. With FDL, you don’t have to choose between social media, SEO, videos, or something else. You can have everything covered, all with one company. Having an all-encompassing digital marketing solution is nice because otherwise, I’d have multiple marketing partners to cover those same services. That’s multiple relationships to manage and more time spent on each of those companies, and I don’t really have time for that. FDL makes things very efficient and easy by offering so many digital marketing services.

What would you say to someone interested in partnering with FDL?

I would recommend that anyone look at FDL’s services and offerings. I think FDL would be a good match for many funeral homes, and at a minimum, I would highly recommend that you talk to someone with FDL to see what they can do for you.

I am confident in their team and products, especially on the lending side. FDL’s funeral home lending service has a good product that is financially doable for a lot of funeral homes. It’s worth your time to look into FDL and explore your options.