Funeral Director Daily

A glimpse into things to come

By Funeral Director Daily / July 31, 2019 /

The state of Colorado is in the news often these days.  Demographers tell us that in many ways it appears to be a bellwether of things to come in the United States.  It is growing by leaps and bounds, the diversity of the people is rapidly expanding to resemble what America’s diverse population will eventually…

SCI reports 2nd Qtr, mid-year results

By Funeral Director Daily / July 30, 2019 /

Service Corporation International (SCI), the largest single entity seller of funeral and cremation services in the United States, reported their 2nd Quarter 2019 and mid-year 2019 financial results yesterday.  SCI has approximately 1500 funeral home, crematories, and cemeteries under its umbrella and is said to garner about 15-18% of the American death care dollar. Because…

The Ontario liquid cremation debate

By Funeral Director Daily / July 30, 2019 /

Since February 2018 there has been a moratorium on the installation and licensing of liquid cremation, also known as alkaline hydrolysis or water cremation, in the Canadian province of Ontario.  At this point in time, according to this article from the Ottawa Citizen, the Wartman Funeral Home of Kingston is the only facility in the…

Marijauna and your employees

By Funeral Director Daily / July 29, 2019 /

Marijuana still remains a Schedule 1 drug under the federal Controlled Substance Act.  However, many states have approved the medical use of marijuana.  So, what does that mean to you as an employer or you as an employee? In most instances courts will back the federal law.  However, some states have started to back employees…

This funeral home doesn’t want your business. . . .yet

By Funeral Director Daily / July 29, 2019 /

Last week Funeral Director Daily published an article on “Out of the box” marketing.  In a nutshell we told traditional funeral homes not to be scared about advertising your services in a less than conventional way. While we didn’t have anything to do with it, we happened to notice on our local media in the…

Ohio funeral home to close after 120 years

By Funeral Director Daily / July 26, 2019 /

The Warren (Ohio) Tribune Chronicle reports today that the McFarland-Barbee Funeral Home in that city will close its doors for good on Saturday after over 120 years in business. According to the article, which you can read here, owner and director Mark Barbee said on Thursday, “After sitting down with my wife, our accountant, and…

Cemeteries, Crematories, and their issues

By Funeral Director Daily / July 26, 2019 /

Just about every day when we peruse articles to opine on we can find articles that pertain to cemeteries and crematories and the problems they seem to cause to just everyday people.  You might argue that some of these issues are pretty petty and could be easily fixed, however, to the consumers they bother they…

Out of the Box marketing

By Funeral Director Daily / July 25, 2019 /

I think even those of us who grew up in the world before smart phones and the internet understand that funeral homes can gain in their marketing efforts by being actively involved in the social media world.  However, common sense dictates that marketing dollars should be spread around. . .even to the point of doing…

BOOX Research rates SCI as “underperform”

By Funeral Director Daily / July 24, 2019 /

BOOX Research provided an article to Seeking Alpha about Service Corporation International (SCI) that you can read here.  It’s important to note that this is only one article by one researcher, but their complex analysis ends up with a going forward rating on the public death care company of “Underperform”. The very first page of…

The alarming trend of county paid funerals

By Funeral Director Daily / July 23, 2019 /

As America is gearing up for its 2020 elections we hear a lot of campaign rhetoric about the haves and the have nots.  One of the statistics that you hear is that of a Federal Reserve survey that contends that 40% of U.S. adults said they couldn’t easily cover an unplanned expense of $400.  So,…