25/10/2025
What’s the difference between an Independent Funeral Directors and a Corporate Funeral Directors?
People often ask us what is the difference between an Independent and a Corporate Funeral Directors, here are a few things that you may or may not have known.
🕊️Company names:
Independent: A lot of independent funeral directors hold their family name above the door, and when carrying out services wear the name with pride.
If it’s not a family name it’s a family behind the face.
Corporate: Corporate companies buy the family names and carry on trading under this name with a lot of families not knowing it is no longer the family running the business, this is misleading for a lot of families who are normally under the impression they are still dealing with the family not a corporate outfit.
🕊️24 Hour Phone Line.
Independent: When calling an independent out of hours you will get through to a member of the family or one of our trusted and dedicated colleagues (pretty much family).
Corporate: When calling a corporate out of hours you will go through to a call centre normally based in one of the big cities when getting through to the call centre they are less likely to be able to help with general enquiries, they are only really there for first calls.
🕊️Staff
Independent: All our staff are local people who normally know your family or a family connection from over the years
Corporate: Corporate staff can also be local but do get shared across different branches across other counties within the corporate group.
🕊️Services
Independent: Each funeral we arrange is bespoke to each family we deal with, no 2 funerals are ever the same we don’t work with packages or deals.
Corporate: a lot of corporate firms work with set packages, staff can be paid commission by services sold to families. Some of these packages include services not required by families but they still require to pay for them.
🕊️Working hours:
Independent: We along with a lot of other independents don’t have operational/office hours we visit our families in the evenings and work with the families work schedules and diaries to what is best with them.
Corporate: most corporates do offer home visits and or later office hours but you will normally find there is additional charges for these services.
🕊️Weekends:
Independents: We as an independent don’t charge extra for any weekend funerals, we carry out a lot of funerals on Saturdays and even Sundays.
Corporates: Most if not all corporate firms charge extra for weekend funerals/work.
🕊️Other Services:
Independent: We are proud to supply all of our services in house this includes Grave Digging, Memorial Work such as fixing and restoring headstones and memorials.
Corporates: the majority of corporate firms sub contract these services out and take commission on the works carried out.
We are proud to be an Independent Family Run funeral service, offering each of our families the best service we can possibly offer, treating each deceased with dignity and respect, our business isn’t run by figures and numbers, our services are provided from our heart and our decisions are dictated by our families not managers.
Funeral Directors & Monumental Masons Herefordshire / Radnorshire
With offices in Kington, Leominster & Presteigne
