Dan Isard
Founder
The Foresight Companies provides the most comprehensive services to funeral service professionals nationwide. As a result, Dan Isard is nationally recognized as an authority in valuation, succession planning, business management, mergers and acquisitions, and preneed. He is frequently called upon as an expert witness in disputes arising within the funeral service industry. He and his staff have appraised over 2500 funeral homes, 800 cemeteries, and 300 cremation operators. They have coordinated hundreds of business transfers between every possible type of buyer and seller. The financial and business management consulting that they have provided over the years has enabled funeral service professionals and their families to reap well-deserved personal rewards while enhancing their ability to deliver quality services to their communities.
Active in the financial services industry since 1974, Daniel M. Isard specializes in advising owners of successful closely-held businesses. During the past three decades, he has developed close relationships with funeral directors, cemeterians, and combination operators across the United States, and has established his reputation as a trusted adviser to business owners and their families.
Dan Isard consults with clients on matters including feasibility studies, appraisals, mergers, acquisitions, business management assignments, family transfers, and securing financing. In addition, he continues to testify as an expert witness in litigation across the USA.
During his career, Dan has been privileged to present over 500 speeches to groups large and small, had more than 300 articles published in all major death care industry media, and has written two books. Since 2005, Dan has been a monthly columnist for the NFDA’s The Director magazine, writing a column entitled, “Finance 101.” He debuted the column “Finance 201” in 2021. His column stresses the business-like applications of finance and business management within an industry that does not usually employ business protocols. In 2016, Dan and his team started writing a new monthly column for the ICCFA Magazine called “Cemetery Impossible”. The column, which focuses on cemeteries, highlights a problem and a corresponding fix. This is akin to the business fixing television shows where restaurant, hotels, and bars undergo reconstruction or implement new business practices.
In addition, Dan has been interviewed by and quoted in prestigious publications such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Forbes, Business Week, and Money Magazine. He has been interviewed for local TV and radio as well as CBS’s 60 Minutes, American Greed and NPR’s All Things Considered.