Letter To Our Shareholders

KRIS SEALE | PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

FELLOW SHAREHOLDERS

The historical account of Nehemiah is my favorite story from the Bible! For years, I wondered why the book of Nehemiah was included in the Bible at all. Then, one day, it hit me, “It’s in the Bible for people like me!” Ordinary people to whom God presents an opportunity and that opportunity touches the heart in a way that a person must respond and act!

Here is a quick summary of what Nehemiah has taught me about leadership:

• No matter who you are or where you are, you

can lead. Nehemiah was a Jewish exile and was the cupbearer to the King of Persia, Artaxerxes, in the 5th century B.C. (The cupbearer was responsible for ensuring that the king’s food and beverages were not spoiled or poisoned – not an auspicious position.)

• When God places something on your heart, you

have to act and respond. Nehemiah was burdened to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the wall

around it; he prayed, and God guided him to act.

• When faced with opposition, you have to take

a stand and rely on God’s direction. Nehemiah suffered opposition from enemies of the

Jewish people and from the Jewish inhabitants themselves, but he stood up to them and said consistently, “I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down.”

• As a leader, you have to stand up for what is

right. Nehemiah was righteous and just, while previous governors of Jerusalem were corrupt and oppressive.

• Leaders have to honor God and give Him the

glory. Nehemiah did just that!

What really stands out to me about Nehemiah is the fact that even when God gives us a task and clear direction, we have an enemy (Satan) who wants to stop us. Our enemy wants us to fail. He wants us to give up, to do anything other than what God wants us to do, to get distracted. Here is how the enemy has

Now when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it, Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, ‘Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono.’ But they intended to do me harm. And I sent messengers to them, saying, ‘I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?’ And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner.

Nehemiah 6:1-4

tried to distract us from the good work we’re doing here at DIG:

• Presenting us with other, less important opportunities (that often appear to be good).

Remaining focused on what we know are the priorities is vital, but it is easy to get distracted by the “next shiny thing.”

• Consuming our attention with naysayers and the

opinions of others. There are plenty of critics in our world today, and there is always someone who wants to bring us down. • Threatening our security. Our security has been significantly threatened by the pandemic of

COVID-19, political unrest, and racial tension over the past two years.

Thankfully, God has kept our management team focused, and we have achieved success well beyond anything we ever expected or imagined. Let’s take a look at 2021, and allow me to show you how we kept our focus without getting distracted and achieved stellar results:

FUNERAL DIRECTORS LIFE

SALES • Sales volume grew by $116 million in 2021 – our previous largest growth year was 2019 when sales grew by $33.8 million! • We achieved an all-time monthly sales volume record of $36.5 million in August. • We enrolled 284 new funeral home locations for preneed funeral sales programs. • A record 2,054 funeral home locations produced new business for us. • A record 1,961 sales professionals/funeral directors wrote business for us. • We set a record with 68 of our sales professionals selling over $1 million.

MARKETING PARTNERS • The marketing partner sales segment grew by

$67.3 million – 162%! • Marketing partner sales were $108.9 million (27.9% of total sales). • Directors Agency (a DIG subsidiary) sales were up 32% or $15.38 million and set a record for annual sales ($62.78 million).

DIG DEVELOPMENT • We implemented Robotic Processing Automation (RPA) in New Business to save two New Business employees on an annual basis. • We launched the Android version of the FDLIC mobile app. • We launched “DIG In Week” in order to allow our development team to have a week to individually focus on projects that could help our Company save processing time.

OPERATIONS • We trained 51 employees inside and outside Operations. • We processed more than 700,000 different transactions!

ACCOUNTING & FINANCE • Assets showed record growth, growing by more than $135 million! • Net income exceeded 2020 by 193.3%! • The ratio of capital and surplus to assets was 9.03% at the close of 2021 as compared to 8.89% on

December 31, 2020.

CLAIMCHECK

• We implemented the “Perfect Assignment” (an automated process for funding insurance assignments). The average days to pay the funeral home on an assignment went from 4.23 to 1.62 days, a 262% improvement. • The return on investment for CLAIMCHECK was 16.87%. FUNERAL HOME LENDING

• We originated $37 million of funeral home loans for acquisitions, refinancing, improvements, and succession. • We hired two positions to continue to drive funeral home lending to the next level: Director of Funeral

Home Lending and Loan Operations Specialist. • We totally restructured our monthly reporting processes for maximum automation and efficiency.

DIRECTORS BUSINESS SOLUTIONS

• We promoted Connor Dale to Accounting

Supervisor and added 3 new staff members. • We added 14 new full-service funeral home accounting clients. • We completed 13 funeral home valuations that also set the stage for FDLIC’s funeral home lending program. • We ramped up marketing efforts through social media and articles in funeral profession publications, and we developed a podcast focused on accounting services. • We increased our margin from under 15% of revenue to over 34% of revenue.

PARKWAY ADVISORS

• We achieved a new annual net income record in 2021, closing the year just under $2.4 million. • We distributed a record $2.1 million upstream to DIG! • For 2021, we served insurance companies with combined assets of over $10 billion!

PASSARE

DIG DEVELOPMENT • We reduced the number of customer satisfaction improvement work tickets for the Passare platform by 140%, from 1,200 tickets to 500 tickets per month. • We improved page load times by 50% on the platform. • We worked diligently to unify software tools used across the organization to increase visibility and

synchronize Product and Development processes. • We completed a record 1,117 work tickets and 118 software development sprints to continue to innovate within the funeral industry.

PRODUCT • We won the National Funeral Directors

Association Innovation Award for the first-ever integration with the Pennsylvania Electronic

Death Registration System. • We implemented a new credit card processor for more flexibility and have already doubled the amount of credit card transactions on the system. • We clarified Support and Implementation offerings to allow our Sales and Implementation teams to offer more value to our customers. • We implemented Design System to allow

Development to move faster.

OPERATIONS • We improved training to have new employees answering customers’ phone calls in just 3 weeks! • We increased per customer revenue by 54% via

Client Services and Premium Services. • We onboarded 5 new hires to help facilitate the growth Passare has experienced. • We received 99.8% positive customer feedback. • Passare made net income for the first time in 2021 and ended the year with $353,000 in cash!

DIG

CULTURE GROWTH & ADVANCEMENT • Tom Allen, the head football coach of Indiana

University, joined us virtually and shared the meaning behind “L-E-O” (Love Each Other).

His message inspired us to love others and to not be distracted by a pandemic, contentious politics, and racial upheaval. • We launched a new podcast for the funeral profession called FD Talks™, where we explore ideas, insights, and solutions for serving families and employees more effectively. • We launched REIGNITE™, a funeral service leadership summit and webinar program to promote new ideas and insights in leadership, work-life balance, and improving culture. • We hosted six on-site COVID-19 vaccine clinics for employees and their families. • A team of employees and volunteers spent a week during our company-sponsored mission trip giving of themselves to build two homes for families in Costa Rica. • We hosted Todd Pierce, former bareback rodeo champion, at our “Born Wild” event, where he demonstrated how Jesus pursues, heals, and ultimately becomes one with us as a Father by breaking a wild horse. • We continued to invest in our employees’ minds, bodies, and souls with various DIG Wellness

Center programs and our monthly Bible study and quarterly book study programs. • We were honored once again to be certified as

“A Great Place to Work®.” We were named the #7

“Best Company to Work for in Texas” by Texas

Monthly magazine.

PERFORMANCE • DIG paid a record $2.1 million in dividends to shareholders compared to $1.75 million in 2020. • Our Modified Book Value increased from $72.85 to $80.36 or 10.31%! • For 2021, net income exceeded 2020 by 95.34%! • The DIG subsidiaries had all Paycheck Protection

Program (PPP) loans forgiven by the Small

Business Administration – over $3.4 million.

Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

Romans 13:7

CONCLUSION

As much as our enemy has done to distract us over the past two years, we have persevered, overcome, and kept our focus! Like Nehemiah, we have chosen to stay on track and follow through with God’s plan for us, and we have quoted Nehemiah 6:3 multiple times per day – “I am doing a GREAT work, and I CANNOT come down!” This quote is now prominently displayed in our Board Room, as shown on the cover of this Annual Report. We consistently want this reminder of Nehemiah’s strength and faithfulness in front of us as we guide and lead our companies. It is worth saying it again, “I am doing a GREAT work, and I CANNOT come down!” Through focus, perseverance, and God’s guidance, we accomplished extraordinary results in 2021.

I must continue to give honor where honor is due (Romans 13:7). Our management team is incredible! Through their dedication, their care for our people, their trust in my leadership, and frankly, their personal focus, our Company flourished! We are blessed with strong leadership, and my heart overflows with gratitude and love for them. We thank you, fellow shareholders, for your support. There is no greater responsibility than earning and keeping your trust and confidence. Rest assured, we will continue to work tirelessly to keep our commitments and protect and grow the value of your investment in DIG.

With sincere gratitude and blessings,

KRIS SEALE

Chairman of the Board

President and Chief Executive Officer