Funeral Director Daily

What about Closure?

By Funeral Director Daily / November 5, 2021 /

It’s Friday.  How about we take a couple of minutes to think about how death, dying, grief, and funerals deal with what is always termed as “Closure”.  Are you aware of how often we use the term?  What does it mean?  Do our client families desire this? I bring up the subject because this past…

Back to the Future

By Funeral Director Daily / November 4, 2021 /

The World Series has been played for the past two weeks and I’m a baseball fan. . . and former little league coach.  I’m “Old School” and don’t particularly like the “data-driven” strategy decisions used in today’s game of baseball.  I like the past when you watched a hitter’s feet move to determine if they…

Could “Skimpflation” be part of your margin solution??

By Funeral Director Daily / November 3, 2021 /

My wife, Angie, came home from the grocery store on Monday morning and showed me a bag of Honeycrisp apples that priced out at over $18. . . Now, I don’t buy the groceries, but I could tell from her reaction that this was a high price for these apples.  So, I think we know…

Carriage Services announces record 3rd Quarter Results, comments on acquisition environment

By Funeral Director Daily / November 2, 2021 /

Funeral home and cemetery consolidator Carriage Services reported on the financial results of their 3rd Quarter for 2021 and in doing so reported record 3rd Quarter revenue for a quarter of $95.0 million.  That is 12.6% higher than the $84.3 million of revenue recorded in the 3rd Quarter of 2020. Here’s what is said in…

Funeral homes adding “assisted death” to service options

By Funeral Director Daily / November 1, 2021 /

What some people term “Death with Dignity” is a growing movement that I confess to know little about.  However, the acronym MAID, which stands for “Medical Assistance in Dying” and is part of the Death with Dignity movement is becoming better known and accepted.  Legal in Canada since 2016 the Medical Assistance in Dying Movement…

SCI’s 3Q Report continues solid run

By Funeral Director Daily / October 29, 2021 /

Service Corporation International (SCI), the largest funeral home and cemetery operator in North America reported their 3rd Quarter 2021 financial results on Wednesday.  You can see them for yourself here. Here’s some of what Tom Ryan, Service Corporation’s CEO said of the 3Q 2021 results, “Today we are reporting another strong quarter with earnings .…

Can your funeral home capitalize on 2nd funerals?

By Funeral Director Daily / October 28, 2021 /

I read this article from the Toronto Sun where Canadian funeral director Diane Moniz-Alves commented, “It has been quite traumatizing for families, not being able to have a proper funeral.”  And, last Spring I attended as a member of our funeral home a “family only” committal service simply because I wanted to pay my respects…

Propel Funeral Partners raises capital, announces Share Purchase Program

By Funeral Director Daily / October 27, 2021 /

Propel Funeral Partners of Australia and New Zealand announced last week, in this announcement, that they had raised $AU 50.2 million via a placement with institutional investors.  They also announced that they are offering eligible existing shareholders the opportunity to purchase a total of up to $AU 10 million via a share purchase plan. Here’s…

The Experiential Funeral

By Funeral Director Daily / October 27, 2021 /

Via e-mail marketing the other day I received an invitation from our friends at the Cremation Association of North America (CANA) to take in a free webinar partially titled, “Families prefer experience over extravagance“.  The topic hit home with me and I think points out a very important detail about what the consumer public is…

Zacks Research previews SCI earnings report

By Funeral Director Daily / October 26, 2021 /

We found this report, dated October 21, interesting from Zacks Equity Research.  Here’s an interesting couple of lines from the report. . .”SCI is likely to display year-over-year declines in the top and bottom lines, when it reports third-quarter 2021 numbers on Oct 27. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues is pegged at $800 million,…