The funeral home industry is increasingly consolidating via private equity firms

Private equity companies are selling off more acquisitions—but at much lower prices

In 2025, private equity exits were up by 5.4%, but the total value of those deals was down by 21.2% year-over-year. An exit occurs when a private equity firm either sells an acquired company or takes that company public.

Private equity deals sometimes come with layoffs.

Roughly 10% of US apartments were owned by private equity firms as of 2025.

Private equity's expansion into healthcare has been criticized for raising patient medical costs

Between 2000 and 2018, PE's total investment in healthcare ballooned from $5B to $100B. While healthcare systems originally began consolidating as a solution to navigating complex regulations (and to make working with insurance companies easier), research suggests that private equity has both increased patient costs and decreased the quality of care in hospitals and doctors' offices.

Private equity firms often use leveraged buyouts to acquire new companies

In a leveraged buyout or "LBO," private equity funds finance acquisitions with debt secured by the target company's assets and cash flows. The PE firm aims to improve operations and leverage the company's profile to pay down debt, thereby increasing equity value.

Cheap debt and relatively minimal regulation have fueled private equity's expansion in recent years.

Family offices have been increasing their allocations to private credit

Private firms that manage family fortunes have been investing more in alternatives like venture capital and real estate, impacting the wider financial world.

Nearly half of billionaires planned to increase exposure to direct private equity investments in 2026.

More than half of today's family offices—the private companies that help ultrawealthy individuals manage their fortunes—were incorporated after 2010.

Should companies be owned by their workers?

In the last half-century, so-called private equity has transformed industries by purchasing private companies, cutting costs, loading up debt, and then selling the business at a premium—all at a huge profit to the investors. Workers, on the other hand, are often left with nothing. Listen to how both pro-worker economists and a private equity stalwart are trying to shift ownership to workers—a growing tactic proven to improve worker satisfaction and company value.

Private equity firms can be 'powerful partners' or 'formidable competitors'

Under the best circumstances, PE firms can increase a company's value using strategies that might not be suitable for public companies facing pressure for immediate shareholder returns. But PE firms are often portrayed negatively due to the aggressive strategies they sometimes use to cut inefficiencies. As PE has grown, many firms have changed their strategies, shifting away from aggressive scaling to more integrated acquisitions.

The majority of capital in private equity funds is provided by institutional investors

The individuals who invest this initial capital are called the firm's limited partners. Private equity firm LPs include sovereign wealth funds, university endowments, high-net-worth individuals, and more.

The first private equity fund was launched in 1960

At the time, the industry—and the public's understanding of it—was rather limited, and few private equity firms existed until the 1980s. The first leveraged buyout is thought to have taken place in 1955.

See a database of large companies owned by private equity firms

The Private Equity Stakeholder Project tracked more than 200 companies owned by private equity with more than 7,000 employees. Companies on the list include J. Crew, Jersey Mike's Subs, Barnes and Noble, Panera Bread, and Tropical Smoothie Cafe.

Abraham Lincoln's assassination helped create the multibillion-dollar funeral business

After the president was killed in April 1865, he became one of the first well-publicized embalming examples in the US. The burgeoning science enabled his body to go on a multistate tour. Prices soon climbed for the process and fueled more wakes, perhaps helping to lay the foundation for the pricy funeral industry.

Visualize the world's top 50 private equity firms in 2025 by capital raised.

Explore the differences between private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds

Private equity firms focus on buying and improving private companies with the intent to sell them for profit or take them public. Venture capital is technically a form of private equity in which investors focus on startups and generally don't seek majority control of the company. Hedge funds are pooled investments for sophisticated investors that pursue a wide range of often complex strategies.

Some institutional investors are growing wary of private equity, as certain investments underperform traditional market indices

Private equity often attracts investors who can afford to tie up capital for long periods of time in exchange for higher returns than traditional investments. For many years, private equity at least tracked with the S&P 500 in terms of returns to investors, but in 2024 and 2025, it underperformed and posted declining returns.

Should you prepay for your funeral?

The median cost of a funeral with a viewing and burial was $8,300 as of 2023, according to The National Funeral Directors Association.

Cremations are America's top choice for postmortem body treatment

Though this process is the most popular one, more Americans are becoming interested in "green" burials that don't involve slowly degrading coffin materials, toxic embalming fluids or emissions from crematoria.

Private equity is viewed as an alternative investment

These different types of private equity include venture capital, growth equity, and buyouts.

Investing in private equity is typically reserved for 'accredited investors'

Limiting PE to accredited investors helps protect less experienced investors from large and risky investments. Accredited investors must meet requirements set by the Securities and Exchange Commission—they're typically required to have a net worth exceeding $1M, for instance. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Most Americans are now dying at home, reversing 20th century trends

For most of the 21st and 20th centuries most Americans died in hospital settings. But in 2016, home-based deaths overtook hospitals; most Americans are now dying at home, likely fueled by individual preferences to die at home or to receive at-home palliative care.

Family offices are estimated to manage more assets globally than hedge funds

As baby boomers prepare to transfer more than $84T in assets to the next generation over the next 20 years, family offices’ impact is expanding.

In 2024, US private equity posted an 8.1% return

Tracked by Cambridge Associates, 2024 performance saw limited partner distributions overtake contributions for the first time in years. Cambridge Associates, a leader in the space, typically uses a 2.0x+ MOIC (Multiple on Invested Capital) as a benchmark for top-quartile PE fund success.

71% of equity investments in Q1 2025 went to AI companies

That's up from just 14% in 2020, according to JPMorgan, which recently conducted an analysis of venture capital investment trends in the US.

Half of the richest people in the US are finding ways around death taxes

One of the main purposes of the federal estate tax is to crack down on generational wealth, so wealth isn't concentrated among a select few. However, the ultra-rich have found ways around paying these taxes. This ProPublica article investigates the practices used by half of the 100 richest people in the US to avoid death taxes.

A private equity firm led the leveraged buyout of Toys 'R' Us before the company's bankruptcy

After being acquired by two private equity firms and a real estate company for more than $6B in 2005, Toys 'R' Us filed for bankruptcy in 2017. Many point to the $400M a year the company had to pay to service its debt, as well as increased competition from online retailers like Amazon, for draining its profits and ultimately dragging it under.

PetSmart and Hilton are among 10 of the most famous leveraged buyouts in history

Some of the most famous leveraged buyout deals include Blackstone's 2007 acquisition of Hilton Hotels, in which Blackstone took the then-public company private and then returned it to the public markets in 2013. A British PE firm bought PetSmart for $9B in 2014—one of the most expensive leveraged buyouts since 2007.

Life insurance can can cover funeral expenses, loss of income, and more

Life insurance can act as a financial safety net if your main financial provider dies. Among other things, it can cover any debts that were left behind. In this video, a Yahoo Finance contributor dives into why life insurance could be the key financial protection your family needs.

The private credit industry offers nonbank loans directly to businesses, particularly privately held midmarket companies.

Family offices’ estimated wealth is expected to hit $9.5T by 2030

The number of family offices, and how much money under their management, is growing rapidly both in the US and around the world.

Family CEOs tend to prioritize a non-economic goal: keeping the business in the family

Companies led by family CEOs tend to prioritize corporate social responsibility, but they also tend to invest less in innovation and international growth. They also have more debt on average.

Real estate investment firms handle enormous, complex real estate transactions

In the large-scale projects real estate investment firms handle (such as huge commercial developments), the parties involved in a sale are more likely to be large corporate real estate developers and investors than individuals.

Pension funds' allocations to risky, alternative investments increased by 25% between 2001 and 2021

The portion of pension funds' risky investments, including alternative investments such as private equity, increased from 14% in 2001 to 39% in 2021. Analysts say private equity investments have delivered higher returns than traditional assets like stocks and bonds. Increased investment in private equity has also given pensions a way to recover from the 2008 financial crisis without necessarily investing more money.

Family Dollar and Dollar Tree merged in 2015 before splitting in 2025

Dollar Tree completed its acquisition of Family Dollar for about $9B in 2015. However, in 2025, Dollar Tree sold Family Dollar to private equity firms Brigade Capital Management and Macellum Capital Management for just over $1B after Family Dollar lagged in performance.

Alkaline hydrolysis—dissolving the body—is one 'green' burial option

This approach, which is sometimes called flameless cremation, involves dissolving the body with water and chemicals. The remaining bone fragments can then be spread like ashes. It was reportedly incorporated into the funeral industry in 2011.

More than half of family offices have succession plans in place

The UBS annual report on family offices found that its clients are preparing for trade wars, generative AI, and generational wealth transfers.

Private companies are often harder to value than public companies

That's partly because there isn't readily available stock information, and financial accounting is kept behind closed doors. Typically, determining the value of a private company involves, among other things, closely comparing the private company with its competitors.

It’s estimated there are 10,000 single-family and 5,000 multifamily offices globally

Family offices are expanding around the world at a rapid pace, impacting the wider financial landscape.

Final life insurance is most common for people over the age of 50

Final expense life insurance is a type of life insurance where, instead of paying a sum of money to your beneficiaries after death, the insurance covers the expenses for your funeral, burial, and any end-of-life care.

In China, deepfaking a dead loved one has become a growing industry

Digital replicas of the deceased provide individuals with another way to process grief in a culture with long-standing traditions of communicating with ancestors. The emotional and ethical implications of "digital immortality" are complicated further by cases of actors impersonating deceased relatives during deepfake video calls to hide their deaths.

The private credit industry—which offers nonbank loans directly to businesses, particularly privately held midmarket companies—grew from a $250B asset class in 2010 to around $1.5T in early 2024.

What happens when a cemetery goes out of business?

When a cemetery goes out of business, what happens to all the bodies? And how do cemetery business models work in the first place? This podcast episode answers those questions and others as host PJ Vogt interviews a cemetery expert who grew up in a cemetery before he began studying them as an adult.

US concierge and direct primary care practices surged 83.1% between 2018 and 2023

Research published in December 2025 in the journal Health Affairs indicates that these retainer-fee care models are expanding across the country. Concierge medicine charges monthly or annual fees, as does direct primary care (which doesn't take insurance).

How ‘vulture’ hedge funds make money

Some hedge funds specialize in snapping up distressed assets, like failing newspaper chains, and further stripping down their operational expenses in a bid to make a profit from the initial capital outlay. Delve into how one secretive firm known for the practice operates—and what’s at stake for the broader economy.

Between 2016 and 2023, PE spent more than $200B buying British companies

Between the COVID-19 pandemic and the United Kingdom's official departure from the European Union, the UK's economy struggled to recover. This economic strife led to British companies receiving steadily lower valuations than American companies, prompting a huge increase in PE investment. However, interest rates began increasing in 2022, putting pressure on the numerous leveraged buyout deals that took place between 2020 and 2021.

The average pay for family office executives has soared

As the number of family offices grows, they’re battling for top talent with traditional financial institutions by bulking up pay and incentive packages.

Historically, only about 1% to 2% of Americans had to pay the federal estate tax

Recent IRS data shows that between 2011-16, that number dropped even lower: The federal estate tax only impacts about 0.2% of Americans. Death taxes typically only impact the rich, and the federal estate tax is no exception.

In recent years, many private schools have seen enrollment increase

The pandemic realigned schools’ demographics, with steady enrollment increases reported since 2020. In school years 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 20225, 40% of private schools saw enrollments increase, though the overall trend appears to be slowing.