Benzinga | Aug 11, 2021 09:09AM EDT

StoneMor Reports Partnership With Empathy To Expand Support Offered To Families Dealing With Loss

StoneMor Inc. (NYSE:STON), a leading owner and operator of cemeteries and funeral homes in the United States, today announced a partnership with Empathy, a service platform that helps families navigate the journey they face after losing a loved one. StoneMor will now offer Empathy's application to its customers, extending its commitment to supporting families in their time of need by including practical guidance, automated tools, and grief support.

Planning a funeral is often just the first of countless logistical tasks that millions of Americans face every year after losing a loved one. In the weeks and months following the funeral, families spend, on average, over 500 hours dealing with immediate needs such as validating a will, as well as on long-term processes such as account cancellations, estate administration, benefit claims, and property cleanout. These logistical challenges can leave families overwhelmed and overburdened, making the grieving process even more difficult.

StoneMor provides families with the best care for planning and managing end-of-life services through a broad scope of products and services across a national portfolio of cemeteries and funeral homes; now, by partnering with Empathy, StoneMor is extending that care to assist in the management of the many logistical burdens that families face following the funeral service. Empathy's app walks families through the immediate and long-term tasks associated with the loss of a loved one, employing sophisticated software to personalize guidance, simplify complex procedures, automate processes, and ease unnecessary friction for families at their most vulnerable time. Empathy also offers human support via live chat in order to provide users both emotional and practical assistance, creating a hybrid experience to help families navigate arrangements and grief.

"Our goal at StoneMor is to constantly seek out new ways to enhance the services we provide to families in need. This is an opportunity to leverage a new technology platform that will extend our support and expand our services long after a family's initial loss," said Joe Redling, StoneMor's CEO.

"Laying your loved ones to rest will always feel daunting, lonely, and overwhelming--it is absolutely the worst time to be burdened with navigating a crippling bureaucracy," said Ron Gura, Co-Founder & CEO of Empathy. "Technology has the potential to help ease the burden of logistics following loss, and we are proud to partner with StoneMor, one of the largest companies in the space supporting thousands of families across the US. StoneMor is an established and trusted player in the industry, and they understand and embrace the potential of technology to enhance the overall services they provide to families in need. We are excited to have StoneMor join us in leading this effort to drive positive change in end-of-life care."