Finance

Assurant Preneed acquired by CUNA

By Funeral Director Daily / March 15, 2021 /

CUNA Mutual Group announced last week in this press release that it intends to acquire the preneed funeral business of global conglomerate Assurant.  We told you late last year, in this article, that Assurant was expected to move on from the preneed business as it concentrated on other business elements. The reported purchase price by…

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Checking in on the DCI. . . up over 10% year to date

By Funeral Director Daily / March 12, 2021 /

The last time we checked in on Funeral Director Daily’s proprietary Death Care Index (DCI) was in this article from January 4, 2021.  At that time we noted that the stock index of companies in the death care realm had a total return (capital appreciation plus dividend) of about 6.85% for the calendar year of…

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Australian funeral homes fare much differently than U.S. counterparts

By Funeral Director Daily / March 3, 2021 /

The COVID-19 pandemic during the year 2020 and how countries geographic location and national responses to the situation could not be more different than you see in recent publicly owned funeral home companies’ annual reports. We’ve reported on the results of the United States Service Corporation International (SCI) and Carriage Services both in the last…

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Where is the money going in Death Care

By Funeral Director Daily / March 2, 2021 /

I recently read an interesting article, authored by funeral industry veteran Doug Gober, in the Memorial Business Journal published for members by the National Funeral Directors Association.  Gober, who’s been around the profession for a long time gave an interesting sequence of events beginning with when money flowed into the profession from the public companies.…

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Moodys upgrades Carriage Services. . . . can you find savings in financing?

By Funeral Director Daily / February 26, 2021 /

Upon the heels of a very profitable quarter and yearly report of funeral and cemetery consolidator Carriage Services, Moody’s Investor Services last week raised the credit rating of the company as you can see in this article here.  A better credit rating should drive down borrowing costs for Carriage Services and, according to the Year…

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Carriage Services reports 2020 year. . . shows the trends

By Funeral Director Daily / February 23, 2021 /

In a press release that you can read here you can find out that Houston, Texas, based funeral home and cemetery consolidator Carriage Services recorded record results not only for the 4th Quarter of 2020 but for the full year of 2020 as well.  Not only did Carriage Services record these record financial results, they…

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Service Corporation services jump 14% in 2020

By Funeral Director Daily / February 22, 2021 /

Service Corporation International reported both their 4th Quarter 2020 and Full Year 2020 reports last week.  Among the interesting items that you can find in the report, that can be accessed here, is that their total number of services increased from 319,616 in 2019 to 364,312 in 2020. . . .that’s an increase of 13.98%.…

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Changing the Paradigm

By Funeral Director Daily / February 18, 2021 /

Last week Foundation Partners Group issued a press release through Cision PR Newswire that you can read here.  The release dealt with some of the company’s ten year history in that it has grown into a company with nearly 160 locations serving over 75,000 families annually. Another thing that the release shouted was that Foundation…

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Assurant reports. . . . Preneed seems to be “up in the air”

By Funeral Director Daily / February 16, 2021 /

Worldwide insurance conglomerate Assurant reported both its 4Q 2020 and its Full Year 2020 results last week.  The company reports in three distinctive segments — Global Housing, Global Lifestyle, and Global Preneed. The total Earned Premiums of the entire company for the Full Year 2020 combined to $9.52 billion which is a better than 2%…

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Hillenbrand reports 1Q 2021. . .Batesville sales soar 30%

By Funeral Director Daily / February 8, 2021 /

In the world that we are living in, it is certainly not unexpected, but to see Batesville’s sales soar 30% for the October, November, and December quarter is both mind boggling and sobering. It is, in my opinion, mind boggling simply to see any company, without a major acquisition, grow their sales by 30% in…

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