Funeral Director Daily

A Renaissance for cemeteries?

By Funeral Director Daily / June 1, 2023 /

    I was out at our hometown non-denominational cemetery, Kinkead Cemetery, on Memorial Day.  It’s the large cemetery on the north end of our community where I ride my bike through on Summer Saturday mornings.  It was named after Alexander and William Kinkead, the founders of our city, Alexandria.   I went out there…

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Do Death Care consumers trade down in a weak economic environment?

By Funeral Director Daily / May 31, 2023 /

      Has the death care community ever studied if, when faced with economic difficulties, the purchase of death care such as funerals, caskets, cremations, and other services reflect those economic times or do the vast majority of death care consumers select the disposition option, such as burial and cremation, that is most meaningful…

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Matthews International continues to lead Death Care Index companies in 2023

By Funeral Director Daily / May 30, 2023 /

    All three major indexes of the U.S. stock market, the Nasdaq Composite, the S&P 500, and the Dow Jones Industrials grew by 1% or more on Friday.  That convinced me that, over the long weekend I should take a look at how the public companies that deal with Death Care have fared for…

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Memorial Day 2023 — May God Bless their memories

By Funeral Director Daily / May 29, 2023 /

    I bring you this Memorial Day thought and tell you that it is a slight reprise from an Easter message of thanks that Funeral Director Daily produced during the days of the pandemic lock down. . . . The crux of the message, with a little editing to bring it up to date,…

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Pandemic’s death benefit payments come to an end. . .average award about $6,275

By Funeral Director Daily / May 26, 2023 /

    President Donald Trump declared a nationwide pandemic public health emergency on January 31, 2020.  That public health emergency has now expired as of midnight on May 11, 2023. . . . a period of over three years in length.   I certainly don’t have to remind anyone who lived through it of the…

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Maybe the word is getting out. . .it’s honorable and rewarding

By Funeral Director Daily / May 25, 2023 /

    I served as a “front line” funeral director for over 33 years.  I did my share of night calls, prep room work, arrangements, and funeral duty.  One thing that I take from that experience is that “I always felt, by the way I worked with a client family, like I could make a…

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Digital and online arrangements and artificial intelligence. . do we need to embrace it?

By Funeral Director Daily / May 24, 2023 /

    Our funeral home experts from the podcast “Two Guys and a Question” are back with what I thought was a really thought provoking commentary.  It seems like all we hear about now is “artificial intelligence” and in the death care field how that is going to lead to digital and online arrangements.  …

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Security National Financial Corporation: Balance leads to 1Q 2023 profitability

By Funeral Director Daily / May 24, 2023 /

    Security National Financial Corporation (SNFC) issued their report on their results for the 1st Quarter of 2023 last week and in doing so credited their “balanced nature of their businesses” for the performance.   We follow SNFC because of their involvement in what they term their “Memorial Segment” — a portion of their…

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TPG Capital back in the game for InvoCare

By Funeral Director Daily / May 23, 2023 /

    It was announced last week by InvoCare, Australia’s largest death care provider, that San Francisco based private equity firm TPG Capital had sweetened their offer to acquire the company.  As you may recall, TPG Capital made an unsolicited offer on March 7 to the InvoCare board to acquire the company for a total…

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CANA’s Certified Cremation Specialist Training opens regisitration in June, What’s new from NFDA’s podcast series, and some news from Anthem Partners

By Funeral Director Daily / May 22, 2023 /
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    The Cremation Association of North America (CANA) has announced that the final cohort of the 2023 class for their Certified Cremation Specialist training may begin filing applications on June 1.  The program is an online program that spans 17 weeks and comprises eight courses.  According to the registration form that you can see…

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