Funeral Service Journal - FSJ

Enter our birthday competition before it's too late! £140 in John Lewis vouchers and stylish power banks up for grabs. Just answer three simple questions.

If you are a funeral professional with an unusual hobby, we want to hear from you. We've had pole dancers and pirates, snow carvers and scuba divers, opera singers, mountaineers and prize cow breeders. If you'd like to appear in FSJ's Unusual Undertakings section, please comment below or get in touch with the editor at [email protected].

👀 𝐁𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐍𝐅𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐎𝐍 👀

Planning your National Funeral Exhibition exposure? Now’s the time

Did you know our FSJ June NFE edition is one of the most in-demand issues of the year with extra copies printed and distributed at the exhibition for maximum visibility?

Many of our advertisers choose to take advantage of this period with a short run of advertisements across 2 or more issues (before, during, and after June)
This is a great way to stay front of mind when it matters most.

🔊 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗝𝗨𝗡𝗘

We’re also introducing 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 - advertisement features designed to showcase a specific product or service. These are eye catching, informative, and work brilliantly alongside a display advert (or as a standalone option).

If you’re considering promoting your business around NFE, we have a range of flexible options to suit

👉 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐨𝐫 𝐃𝐌 “𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝐍𝐅𝐄 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞” 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐞’𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐬
𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭!

Celebrate FSJ's birthday with us. We've turned 140 years old and want to spread the love. Details of our birthday competition are in the issue out now.

If you are a neurodivergent funeral professional, you're in good company. One in four people in funeral service is neurodifferent and FSJ wants to hear from you. Our first article celebrating neurodivergence appears in the March issue and we're looking for people for the follow up piece. Contact the editor for more details on [email protected].

🤍 𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀 𝐃𝐈𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄

Danielle Green of Forever Flowers has 300 teddies wrapped and ready to go to bereaved parents at Hereford Crematorium. Read the story of how she brings comfort to parents of angel babies in FSJ’s December issue. For a sneak peek, see below👇🏽

Forever Flowers will offer free teddy bears
to parents of babies buried in Hereford Crematorium in the run-up to Christmas.
The Teddy Box holds 300 bears, enough for each of the little ones buried in the forget-me-not gardens, and will be sited next to the crematorium's letterbox to heaven from 3rd December.
The small cellophane-wrapped teddies are designed to be placed on the babies' grave.
Founder Danielle Green says the idea came about because she wanted to comfort people who'd suffered baby loss. Originally she intended to add teddies to each grave but realised some parents and families might find that upsetting, so she decided to offer a help yourself service instead
"It's all about giving back and helping parents and families in need at such a hard time, the world needs to be a little kinder because we really don’t know what others have been through,” she says.
The Teddy Box first appeared at Hereford
Crematorium in the run-up to Mother’s Day this
year to commemorate “the angel babies who
made them mothers” and console the parents
who could no longer hold them. Some 240
bears were collected.
“It went extremely well, and it has now been
confirmed that we can bring the Teddy Box to
Hereford Crematorium every year,” Green says.
“We understand that more angels were
added to the forget-me-not gardens, which is
why my goal this year is to add another 60 so
that every angel to have a Christmas teddy this
year,” she adds.

Green started Forever Flowers in 2019 in her mum’s garden shed. “I noticed the population of my home town, Hereford, lost a significant number of babies. It truly broke my heart, and that’s when I decided to do something about it by creating keepsakes you couldn’t buy in shops.
There isn’t enough out there for angel babies. I wanted to bring comfort to parents and families by creating items personal to them and their angels.
“Donations from the public and our social
media have all made this happen. We couldn’t
possibly do this without everyone else’s help.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you to the
community and worldwide for the donations
and the support,” she concludes.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐃𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 — 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐅𝐒𝐉’𝐬 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐭

A great post below written by our finance expert has broken down the key budget changes that may affect independent funeral directors

If you have any burning questions you’d like answered, please email [email protected].

Meet Drew👇🏽

Yesterday’s Budget – what does it actually mean for independent funeral directors?

The Chancellor didn’t mention funerals once, but there are a few things in the budget that will land directly on independent funeral firms.
I’m Drew, Director of Oak Circle Accounting and a columnist for the Funeral Service Journal (Funeral Service Journal - FSJ), and here’s the short version without the political noise:

Wages are going up again:
The National Living Wage and other minimum wage rates are rising. That means higher costs for:
- bearers and drivers
- junior admin / ops staff
- casual or part-time support

If you’ve been holding prices down 'to be kind' to families, this squeezes your margins further. At some point, prices per funeral have to reflect true costs or the numbers stop working.

Vehicles, fuel and EVs:
The 5p cut to fuel duty is being extended – small help for diesel fleets.
Per-mile road tax is coming for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.
Extra money is going into EV charging and road maintenance.

If you’re thinking about electric hearses or vans, don’t assume they’ll stay cheap to run from a tax point of view. You need to look at the full cost over several years, not just this year’s incentives.

Business rates:
The Budget promises permanently lower rates for many smaller high-street/retail-type properties, funded by higher rates on big, high-value sites.
Most independent funeral homes sit in the 'smaller premises' camp – so your next business rates bill is worth a careful look, not just filing it away.

Owners’ tax and succession:
Income Tax and National Insurance thresholds are frozen for longer (a so-called "stealth-tax" rise).
Tax on property, savings and dividend income is going up.
From 2029 there’ll be a cap on how much pay you can salary-sacrifice into a pension with extra NI advantages.

If most of your family’s wealth is tied up in the business and/or the building, this makes succession and exit planning more important, not less.

If you run a small, family-run funeral firm and want help turning this Budget into concrete numbers (wage bill, pricing, drawings, succession) send us a message - I’m happy to walk through it with you.
Drew.

Or if you have any burning questions you’d like answered, please email [email protected].