Funeral Director Daily

Assurant reports 3Q 2020

By Funeral Director Daily / November 18, 2020 /

In late October Assurant hinted that they will be divesting what they call their Global Preneed business.  That segment of their business consists of preneed funeral insurance products and Final Need insurance products. In reporting the company’s 3rd Quarter financial results, CEO Alan Colberg gave another hint as to the Global Preneed business potentially disappearing…

Park Lawn reports 3rd Quarter. . . .continued growth

By Funeral Director Daily / November 17, 2020 /

Park Lawn Corporation (PLC), the funeral home and cemetery operator, with headquarters in Toronto and Houston, announced their 3rd Quarter 2020 results last week.  As a growth company, they continued to exhibit those traits — with revenue for the quarter growing to $83.7 million from last year’s 3Q revenue number of $66.5 million (all dollar…

Will we look back at 2020 as a “high water mark” for change in the funeral profession

By Funeral Director Daily / November 17, 2020 /

The first thing I will comment on is that if you look at the image I have put on this article, it should come with a question mark at the end. If you have followed my writings for any length of time you know that I like to try to spot trends and then hypothesize…

International acquisitions – Propel adds Kiwi firms, Ontario firm happy after one year

By Funeral Director Daily / November 16, 2020 /

We learned last week that Propel Funeral Partners that operates out of Australia and New Zealand had purchased the Dils Group which has locations in New Zealand and Australia.  The Dils Group is said to have performed about 800 services last year and brought in revenue of about US $ 4.96 million. You can see…

Hillenbrand reports. . . Batesville segment shows strong results

By Funeral Director Daily / November 16, 2020 /

Hillenbrand Industries, parent company of Batesville Casket Company, reported their July through September numbers – which happen to be their 4th Quarter fiscal year numbers, as well as their Fiscal Year End numbers last week.  Hillenbrand showed record revenues both for the quarter and the year.  You can access their financial report here. However, those…

Weekend edition: Wilbert Vault fire, Bukala retiring, SCI increases dividend and more

By Funeral Director Daily / November 13, 2020 /

As we head into the weekend we thought we would catch you up with some information that is both of interest to our readers, but sometimes hard to catch as you are busy in your daily work and don’t have time to check out death care information as we do. . . . but that…

Dignity Plc 9-month report: More services, more revenue, less profit

By Funeral Director Daily / November 12, 2020 /

Dignity plc, the United Kingdom’s only publicly listed provider of funeral related services released its report on the first nine months of its 2020 business year earlier this week.  You can read highlights of that report here in a short synopsis of such from Reuters. In essence, the number of deaths in Great Britain increased…

StoneMor announces sale of West Coast locations

By Funeral Director Daily / November 11, 2020 /

We learned today that a rumored divesture of West Coast assets of StoneMor Inc. has indeed been negotiated and an asset purchase agreement has been signed. This press release from Globe Newswire indicates that StoneMor Inc. has sold all of their properties in Oregon and Washington to an entity known as Clearstone Memorial Partners, LLC. …

New Mexico funeral home fined for social distancing violation

By Funeral Director Daily / November 11, 2020 /

I woke up this morning (Monday as I write this) to see the Dow Jones Industrial average futures up over 5% on the news that Pfizer has had tremendous success with its Covid-19 vaccination drug trials.  It’s a rainy day in Minnesota so I did my daily run on the treadmill watching Jim Cramer on…

Park Lawn lawsuit alleges trade secret irregularities

By Funeral Director Daily / November 10, 2020 /

This article published last week from Bloomberg Law alleges that when former Park Lawn Corporation CEO Andrew Clark resigned and left the employment of the company he carried trade secrets with him to his new employer, Plot Box, Inc. The article from Bloomberg Law notes that a lawsuit was filed in a Delaware federal court…