Two sixth-generation members of Selected Independent Funeral Homes went public on Aug. 20 with a call for members to reject the proposed combination with the National Funeral Directors Association, the first organized, named opposition since the deal was announced July 29 and covered by Obitley on Aug. 1 in "nfda-acquires-selected-independent-funeral-homes."
Nathanael M. Billow and Paul C. St. Pierre are establishment figures within the association, and that is what makes their break with leadership notable. Billow is executive vice president of The Billow Co. in Akron, Ohio, a Selected member since 1933 and a founding member of NFDA in 1882. His father served as Selected's president in 2017. St. Pierre, president of Wilson-St. Pierre Family Funeral and Cremation Services in Greenwood, Indiana, served as Selected's president in 2020. His family traces to one of the 25 founding firms of Selected in 1917.
Their central objection is definitional. "An acquisition, not a merger," is how Connecting Directors characterized their argument. Under the proposal, Selected would cease to exist as an independent association, with governance reduced to two minority board seats within NFDA and a non-executive advisory committee they say has no formal authority. NFDA's own "Better Together" FAQ confirms the legal structure: the transaction "would be structured as an acquisition of Selected Independent Funeral Homes by NFDA."
A vote on a document members cannot read
Billow and St. Pierre told Connecting Directors that Selected's board and executive director spent roughly a year and a half developing the proposal without member input, a process both men said left members blindsided when it went public.
Both men said they separately requested the letter of intent between the two organizations. Legal counsel for both told them the document is confidential and cannot be shared with members, even as those members are asked to vote on it.
Passage requires a two-thirds supermajority of the membership. Billow offered an informal count: "Of the 70 firms we have spoken with, upwards of 85% have expressed a strong desire to vote 'no,'" he said.
By the Numbers
The money dispute
The two men also challenged the urgency behind the deal. By their account, roughly 80% of Selected's annual budget, more than $2 million, goes toward personnel, benefits, office space and outside consulting. They said the board's own financial modeling shows the current operating structure remaining solvent through 2029, with pressure not projected until 2030.
Their alternative: transition administrative operations to a third-party association management company rather than surrender governance. NFDA's FAQ now addresses that option directly, saying the Selected board considered it and chose the combination instead.
Leadership's counter
Selected President Barbara Risher Welch, in an Aug. 19 interview with Connecting Directors, described member response as "overwhelmingly positive." "The majority do favor this merger," said Welch, whose term ends at the annual meeting. She said board members have been personally calling every member firm.
Welch said about 70% of Selected members already belong to NFDA, and about 30% of lost memberships came from firms acquired by consolidators, the funeral home chains that have been buying independents for decades. NFDA's FAQ pledges that the combined 2028 cost of membership plus the Selected designation will come in "at or below" what Selected firms pay today.
What happens next
Welch's term ends at Selected's annual meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, Sept. 2 through 5, where a town hall on the deal is planned. Ballots go out roughly two weeks later, placing the member vote in mid-to-late September. October's late-month target is for a definitive agreement, which only matters if the vote passes.
No formal opposition group, petition or website has formed, and Obitley's monitoring of trade coverage found no member resignations. The opposition, for now, is two men with deep family roots in the association, a whip count and a request to postpone the vote.
If Billow's count is anywhere near accurate, the two-thirds bar sinks the deal. If Welch's read is right, it clears easily. Louisville is where those numbers meet.
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