Funeral Director Daily

Park Lawn Corporation reports 3rd quarter — mixed results

By Funeral Director Daily / November 14, 2022 /

The 3rd Quarter of 2022 has shown a trend of less deaths than the comparable 3rd Quarter of 2021.  As a matter of fact, as you can see from this report from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), provisional deaths for 3Q 2022 numbered 751,497 as compared to 874,495 in the same quarter of 2021. …

The 11th Month, the 11th Day, the 11th Hour. . . . Honor it

By Funeral Director Daily / November 11, 2022 /

November 11th brings back memories in many countries.  It’s not just Veteran’s Day in America. . . it is a day of remembrance all over Europe.  Originally referred to as Armistice Day (Armistice, in Latin, means to “stand arms”).  It was at 11 am on November 11 (11/11) in 1918 that an agreement was reached…

Will Vermont lead a funeral director employee comeback?

By Funeral Director Daily / November 10, 2022 /

We’ve all talked about it and see it out in the profession — a lack of trained and licensed funeral directors to combat the coming years when America faces a wave of Baby Boomer deaths.  Without the influx of new professionals, many funeral homes will be understaffed which can lead to a vicious cycle of…

SCI sees “more mortality” than expected. . .What’s behind it?. . .I don’t think this will surprise you

By Funeral Director Daily / November 9, 2022 /

Because I report on them, and partly because I just like learning what is happening, I generally read the “Earnings Call Transcripts” that take place every quarter between the public company death care executives and the financial brokers that cover their companies.  If you’ve never read these they end up being a “give and take”…

Federal Trade Commission apparently set to revise “Funeral Rule”

By Funeral Director Daily / November 8, 2022 /

I’ve worked almost my entire career under the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) “Funeral Rule”.  The rule, for all practical purposes, required me to introduce “price” into the conversation whenever someone either called the funeral home or walked into the funeral home and asked about funeral, cremation, or memorial services.  It also required me to hand…

StoneMor completes merger with Axar Capital. . . becomes a private company

By Funeral Director Daily / November 7, 2022 /

Last week death care property owner and operator StoneMor announced, in this press release, that they had completed their merger with Axar Capital Management whereby StoneMor will become a private and wholly owned subsidiary of Axar Capital Management.  Prior to this “take private” movement, which was announced in this May 25, 2022, press release, Axar…

Titan Casket scores positive PR from Taylor Swift video

By Funeral Director Daily / November 4, 2022 /

The streets of Death Care and the avenues of Entertainment don’t seem to collide too often at an intersection.  But every once in a while they do and when they do it generally leads to some publicity.  According to this article from Bloomberg that intersection just happened with a highly performing music video by artist…

SCI reports 3Q revenue decline. . .CEO Ryan “These results significantly exceeded our expectations”

By Funeral Director Daily / November 4, 2022 /

North America’s largest business in the death care industry, Service Corporation International (SCI) reported their 3rd Quarter 2022 financial results earlier this week.  The results show a decline of about 5.5% in total revenues for the quarter as compared to the same quarter of 2021.  The 3Q 2022 revenue number was $977.7 million as compared…

Reflections by Duey . . .a product differentiator for your funeral home

By Funeral Director Daily / November 3, 2022 /

It was in June 1980 when I was a rookie funeral director that a gentleman stepped into our funeral home and we were introduced for the first time.  The gentleman was another young funeral director who had left the world of funeral directing to become a representative of one of the major casket companies. That…

Foundation Partners Group purchases Solace. . . extends Direct-to-Consumer digital cremation services

By Funeral Director Daily / November 3, 2022 /

In this press release from PR Newswire you can read about Orlando based Foundation Partners Group and its acquisition of Solace Cremation, the Portland, Oregon, based direct-to-consumer cremation services business.  Solace operates in the Oregon, California, and Florida markets at this time.  The purchase will allow, according to the release, Foundation Partners Group to have geographic…