Three months ago in December 2020 Funeral Director Daily told you of a program Wilbert would be offering to death care professionals that would help those professionals keep up with their Continuing Education Units (CEU) at the end of the year. We concluded that it was a great venture by Wilbert that would be really appreciated by those, including myself, who were slowed by the lack of in-person CEU classes during COVID 2020. Wilbert recently issued a press release that […]
Author: Funeral Director Daily
A Year of COVID. . . what do we now know
While there has been some discrepancy on the case because of cruise ship involvement elsewhere, most people will say that the first COVID-19 death in America happened on February 28, 2020, in the Seattle area. That’s just over a year ago. . . . what have we learned. . . what do we now know? COVID-19 and the coronavirus pandemic have changed some of our daily habits. We know that. For Angie and I, our first change of habit occurred […]
Do we listen to the consumer
Funeral home owners, cemetery operators, preneed professionals. We’re the experts in the death care profession. We know the business, we understand the clientele, and we know what is good for everybody. Or do we? I’m guessing that is somewhat how the buggy whip manufacturers, horse livery operators, and sales reps in that industry thought of themselves while Henry Ford and others were going about changing the way American moved by figuring out a way to build an automobile at a […]
Australian funeral homes fare much differently than U.S. counterparts
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 week. At the end of last week we received early data and results from the two largest public funeral home operators in Australia and New […]
Where is the money going in Death Care
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. He continued by telling us that it is not only the large companies that have access to capital in this day and age, but smaller […]
Recompose opens. . . . has clients
I’ve been an entrepreneur and have started some businesses outside of the death care realm. I think one of the things that happens to every entrepreneur who starts a business that is new and unique is that they open their doors for business and then wonder if anybody will purchase their goods and/or services. No matter how many times you have started a business. . . .I think that exact moment you are open for business is somewhat nerve wracking. […]
Moodys upgrades Carriage Services. . . . can you find savings in financing?
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 End 2020 Annual report, Carriage Services management is counting on that to lower cash outlays for those needs. It’s also very interesting as to what […]
The importance of permanent memorialization
The pyramids in Egypt were built to give permanent memorialization to the rulers of that land. The tomb of the 13th Disciple to Christ, Matthias, can be seen to give credence to his life. George Washington, known by many as the Father of America has a burial site at his Mount Vernon home. However, there can be no doubt that we are on a trend line to make permanent memorialization an afterthought to human life. And, I think that is […]
The death at home movement gains steam during the pandemic
Where a person dies does have an effect on funeral home operations. One simple effect you can see is that of two person removal teams to homes rather than a one-person removal being done at a hospital or nursing home where there is always facility staff help if needed. This recent article from the Associated Press and bylined out of Mission, Kansas, takes the side that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the amount of deaths occurring under hospice care in […]
Carriage Services reports 2020 year. . . shows the trends
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 exceeded the 2022 plan that they had set in their five year milestones only a year ago. In essence they passed that 2022 goal two […]
