About
Elaníf is a concierge-level service provider dedicated to supporting you and your legacy
Why Elaníf Was Created
Elaníf inspires and empowers. We do what nobody else does.
Elaníf was founded on the belief that how one ends their days and exists the world is important. It is a direct representation of who we are - and who we were.
The death care industry ends their support following a funeral or when ashes are handed to a loved one. It eschews anything beyond that. To the extent it does anything more, the industry offers only modest standard options from which it seeks high margin returns. The industry has only one offering for well-off individuals. It has been selling its only bespoke aftercare product - a mausoleum - for centuries. The industry is not, shall we say, cutting edge.
Similarly, the industry offers virtually no true services to help be remembered. What it does offer - a headstone for a burial - has been the same offering for millennia. Once again, the industry is neither modern nor supportive of bespoke services.
The traditional death care industry supports plainness, and commonality. That is sufficient for most. For others, they desire more. That is why Elaníf was created.
Elaníf offers its services to a select clientele - those who desire more than the norm.
Elaníf has expanded its expertise to offer its clients unique ways of being remembered. We all want to be remembered. It is innate within us. Only some can be. Consider working with Elaníf to support your legacy.
How Elaníf Got Started
In 2007, our founder learned about the vast number of ashes sitting on shelves, in closets and in garages. There was a news article describing how a woman’s ashes had been placed into a nice clock designed urn, and the clock inadvertently sold at a garage sale when the house it was stored in was being cleaned out for sale. He was struck by how the death care industry failed to support the final stage of the life cycle - what people choose to do with their or their loved ones’ ashes.
The Founder
Howard Sankel is a Stanford MBA and non-practicing attorney. His earlier career focused on financial roles within operating companies.
Howard founded Elaníf in 2021, having developed its initial concepts a decade earlier. Throughout that intervening period, the initial constructs - that nobody offers endings commensurate with how bespoke individuals lived their lives, and that there are few ways to be remembered - remained true, and confirmed the need for a niche provider of these services. Hence the name Elaníf - the word Finale spelled backwards.
Howard becomes Elaníf client’s senior concierge, personally ensuring client wishes are fulfilled in the most bespoke and elegant manner possible. It is he you are trusting with your legacy remembrance or finale.
Outside of Elaníf, Howard runs a voluntary educational program supporting funeral directors and the rest of the death care industry on the many things that can be done with ashes at all price levels. The program is well regarded, and he is becoming an in-demand speaker at industry conferences. Cremation rates have been increasing significantly over time and the death care industry has been slow to address the challenges with ashes.
Howard is an avid skier, tennis player, hiker, dog lover and not particularly good hockey player. Someday he hopes to fulfill his desire to finally learn to golf.