Funeral Director Daily

Creating “Gathering Time” may be the secret

By Funeral Director Daily / August 2, 2022 /

Probably the biggest value for me in blogging with Funeral Director Daily is the people I have been able to correspond with that I would have never got to know without the blog.  I’ve got lots of new friends who I have never met — almost 3,000 regular readers — many who correspond with me…

Matthews and the Baseball Hall of Fame

By Funeral Director Daily / August 1, 2022 /

I’ve been a big baseball fan since I served as Batboy of the local town team back in the 1960’s.  I played the game (not real well), managed an adult team, and had my most memorable time coaching years of Little League. . .with the highlight being my 2011 12-year old team winning the Minnesota…

Carriage Services misses on earnings and revenues, announces acquisitions in the pipeline

By Funeral Director Daily / August 1, 2022 /

Last week Carriage Services was the first death care related company to report its earnings for the March thru June 2022 period.  As you can see from this short article from Investors Observer, they missed the numbers in both categories – Revenues and Earnings – that the analysts had predicted for them to achieve.  Here’s…

Commander Initiative announces partnership with Titan Caskets

By Funeral Director Daily / July 29, 2022 /

At least in my area the idea of consumers purchasing caskets either online or in person from Costco and WalMart does not seem to have caught on.  I think one of the reasons why is that area funeral homes have not warmed to that idea and don’t like the competition from those large retailers. However,…

Cremation rate at 57%. . . and it’s not coming down anytime soon

By Funeral Director Daily / July 28, 2022 /

I recently read this article from author Harold Ivan Smith from Baptist News.  Smith offers a unique perspective as he attended mortuary school, is a grief educator, and works as a celebrant for Forest Lawn Mortuaries in Palm Springs, California. Smith indicates in his article that cremation was probably about 1% of United States dispositions…

Has start-up Empathy found the secret sauce?

By Funeral Director Daily / July 27, 2022 /

New York based Empathy has raised $43 million in about the past six months.  This article tells of their most recent raise of $30 million in Series A funding coming quickly on the heels of a $13 million seed round about six months ago. According to the article, “The U.S. end-of-life industry is projected to…

What’s with the “Pull-Forward” effect?

By Funeral Director Daily / July 26, 2022 /

In the early days of the pandemic I was called by a reporter at the Business newspaper, Barron’s, for my opinion on, among other things, what was being termed the “pull-forward” effect of pandemic deaths. The theory at that time was that it appeared that most of those dying from Covid deaths were elderly and…

Seeking Alpha feature article rates Service Corporation a “Buy”

By Funeral Director Daily / July 25, 2022 /

According to this press release from Service Corporation International (SCI) the company is scheduled to announce the financial results of their 2nd Quarter of 2022 on Tuesday, August 2.  Prior to that however, last week author Daniel Jones of Seeking Alpha penned an opinion article on the company and rated the company a “Buy” in…

NFDA President-Elect candidate parallels Military and Mortuary service

By Funeral Director Daily / July 25, 2022 /

Fate determined that this was meant to be an article for Funeral Director Daily.  I’m very familiar with the “Journey to Serve” program launched by the Funeral Service Foundation and the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association (ICCFA) Educational Foundation, in part,  through the work of my friend Jim Price. The other day I noticed…

Everybody’s reading Funeral Director Daily. . .here’s our top read stories of the past month

By Funeral Director Daily / July 22, 2022 /

With almost 2,800 daily subscribers and about 13,000 page views every 30 days, there is no doubt that lots of death care professionals are reading Funeral Director Daily.  Stories that range from grief to employment issues to business articles means that over 30 days there is something of interest for everybody. Here are the articles…