What Vestamere does
The complete v1 feature surface — what the funeral home gets the day they sign on. Everything below is shipped and live in the codebase. v1.5 and v2 modules are in the next shipping windows; their scope is documented here so you know what’s coming.
v1 — shipped and live (10 modules)
Day-one capability when a funeral home signs on.
Pulls structured intake data into every form the funeral home needs to file. State-aware: Tier-1 launch states (CO, IL, FL, TX, WA, OR) have direct EDRS submission where available. Funeral director reviews each form before submission. Family co-drafts the obituary via the portal; the director approves before any send.
Every body track has a tag at intake and a structured log of every handoff (refrigeration / prep / transport / retort entry+exit / urn placement / release). Cremation tag is paired with the body tag in a single transaction before retort fires — preventing the wrong-cremains failure mode. Family-visible chain of custody on the portal (per-home opt-out for older homes that want to phase in).
Director edits the GPL once; the system auto-publishes to a public URL. State-specific overlays for sharper-than-federal states (CA, MA, NY, IL). Every arrangement quote is hash-signed at presentation time and recoverable forever — eliminates bait-and-switch failure modes. Family signs digitally; PDF available for download by either party. FTC Funeral Rule audit-ready by design.
ASD answering service routes 3am calls into a Vestamere case stub. Memoriams + Legacy.com receive auto-published obituaries from the approved obituary. QuickBooks/Xero sync of every invoiced line item — pending Intuit developer-account approval, expected within procurement window. C&J Financial / Trinity / ClaimCheck insurance funders for receivables compression — pending partner agreement.
Director sets a promised disposition date at intake. Daily Inngest worker checks for overdue cases and emails an internal alert to the home admin. Family sees a countdown on the portal — known, not anxious. Cancels the Apollo Denver / Heinz two-year-old-body class of horror.
9-entry seed catalog (Social Security lump sum + survivors benefits, VA burial allowance + plot allowance + headstone + PMC, plus state-specific programs for CO/IL/TX). Director clicks 'Derive eligibility' at intake — Vestamere reads decedent.veteranStatus + placeOfDeathState + survivingSpouseName and auto-seeds the items. Family sees a read-only view with form links (VA 21P-530EZ, SSA-8, etc.) and status (eligible / applied / received).
Clerk magic-link invite at intake. Family sees: the approved obituary, scheduled services with locations, chain-of-custody timeline (if enabled), arrangement quote (presented or signed), benefits checklist they can act on, FAQ personalized to their state, estate-clearance checklist, photo upload surface. Aftercare touchpoints arrive in email.
/app/compliance shows the federal FTC baseline + state-specific rules for the funeral home’s state. Currently covers 19 states: CO/IL/FL/TX/WA/OR (Tier 1) + CA/MA/NY (sharper-than-federal) + OH/PA/MI/AZ/NJ (Tier 2) + NC/GA/MN/TN/VA (Tier 3 partial). Other states default to federal baseline. Rules cover GPL disclosure, embalming, casket, preneed, cremation authorization, chain of custody, veteran disclosure, indigent burial, transport, and consumer rights.
Append-only audit log of every PHI access in the tenant. Content-hashed for tamper detection. Retained 1 year in-database, 7 years in S3 object-lock (exceeds HIPAA 6-year minimum). Owner-visible at /app/settings/audit. Regulator-grade NDJSON export on request.
At intake, the default-on cadence (7 of 9 templates) auto-schedules based on the date of death. Day 7 personal note, Day 30 estate checklist (12 admin tasks with state-specific notes), Day 60 grief resources (17-entry catalog by relationship + death pattern), first anniversary remembrance, year-mark birthday card, year 1 final check. Day 90 memorial products and Month 11 preneed outreach are opt-in (off by default). Ethical defaults: deceased never receives outreach, one-click family opt-out works forever, no third-party data sharing.
v1.5 — next shipping window
Modules in active development. These ship in the next 3-6 months based on pilot feedback. The scope below is the design intent; specifics may shift based on real-customer input.
Drag-and-drop event template (Traditional, Memorial, Celebration of Life, Religious, Outdoor/Green, Veteran’s Honors, Pet, Custom). Add or remove every line item; pricing surfaces to the family live. Religious customs surfaced automatically (Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Pagan, secular). Memory-table layout designer; OneRoom livestream integration; AI-assisted tribute video. Day-of timeline. The COL Planner is how independents recover the margin the chains can’t.
14-item per-service checklist: tech rehearsal day-before (slideshow, livestream, audio levels, camera angles), morning-of (AV tech assignment, casket inspection, florist confirmation, officiant briefing), 30-60 min pre-service (family preview, livestream URL distribution, scheduled hard end-time configured), post-service (livestream actually ended, media handed to family, family feedback survey). Items are conditional on service config (livestream / slideshow / casket present / etc.).
v2 — on the roadmap
Larger-scope modules in the 6-12 month window. Listed here for honest planning visibility. These can move earlier with strong pilot demand.
Preneed contract storage with versioning. Multi-carrier integration (FDLIC, Homesteaders, Forethought, NGL — pending partner agreements). Plain-English cancellation flow that protects against the Neptune-Society-style refund stonewalling pattern. No forced arbitration in default contract templates.
What we deliberately don’t do
Honest scope. Vestamere isn’t for everyone, and we don’t try to be the only tool a funeral home uses.
- We don’t sell preneed. Carriers (FDLIC, Homesteaders, Forethought, NGL) do that; we integrate with them.
- We don’t run marketing campaigns.Welton Hong’s Ring Ring Marketing, Ryan Thogmartin’s DISRUPT Media, MKJ Marketing — they own the funeral marketing space; we partner.
- We don’t handle cemetery management.Cemetery vertical is distinct; we don’t pretend otherwise.
- We don’t take a cut of cases.Flat per-case subscription; we don’t pass with you on every transaction.
- We don’t sell family data. Ever. Hard rule, not a setting.
- We don’t generate likeness of the deceased. AI drafting yes (obituaries, with family approval); AI digital avatars / fake voices / synthetic images of the deceased no.
- We don’t lock you in. Month-to-month default; full data export; no forced arbitration in our contracts.
The full picture matters.
If you’ve been comparing Vestamere to competitors based on one or two features, this page is the consolidated answer. The v1 wedge (10 modules) is what makes Vestamere a complete operating system rather than a point tool.