Funeral Director Daily

Quinn Foley on Carriage Services

By Funeral Director Daily / August 14, 2018 /

Quinn Foley of Seeking Alpha offers his assessment of public funeral service company Carriage Services here.  This is a recent analysis following the company’s 2nd Quarter financial report. Funeral Director Daily note:  Canadian public funeral home and cemetery company Park Lawn Corporation reports earnings following the market close today.  Stay tuned for our report on…

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The Anatomy of Grief and Why We Do What We Do

By Funeral Director Daily / August 14, 2018 /

Sometimes it is just a good feeling to be reminded as funeral directors as to why we do what we do.  Very often, including on this site, we talk about all the business aspects of funeral service.  However, I learned during my time as a funeral home business owner, if we follow the pretense of…

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Assurant Reports Higher Preneed Profits

By Funeral Director Daily / August 13, 2018 /

Assurant reported their 2nd Quarter results last week.  You can read their report here. The worldwide conglomerate operating in the insurance and warranty business has one of its three business segments that operates in what they call “Global Preneed”.  That is the part of the company that we at Funeral Director Daily like to review.…

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Thinking of adding a Crematory?

By Funeral Director Daily / August 13, 2018 /

Over thirty-five years as an owner operator of a community funeral home I made hundreds of business decisions.  Some were easy, some were hard, some worked out, some didn’t.  The one common denominator is that I did my research and thought that I was doing the right thing to either help the community or gain…

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Mount Ida Students Find a Home

By Funeral Director Daily / August 10, 2018 /

Last April Mount Ida College decided to close its doors for good.  Most students from the college were able to find continuing studies when the University of Massachusetts – Amherst acquired the campus.  However, that school does not have a mortuary science program and those students from Mount Ida College with partially completed degrees, in…

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Another Reason for Burial of Cremated Remains

By Funeral Director Daily / August 9, 2018 /

Those of us at Funeral Director Daily have told you that we truly advocate for the memorialization of cremated remains in an earth grave with marker or cemetery niche or columbarium. Today we bring you these moving photos and video following an apartment fire in Providence, Rhode Island.  One photo captures the moment a firefighter…

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Hillenbrand Reports Earnings – Casket Revenues Drop 6%

By Funeral Director Daily / August 9, 2018 /

Hillenbrand Industries reported fiscal 3rd Quarter 2018 results last week and while positive for the company as a whole, the Batesville Casket Division reported revenue decreases for the quarter of 6%.  The company, as a whole, delivered earnings of $0.57 per share as compared to analysts estimates of $0.56 per share. You can see their…

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What are you doing to add Ethnic Business

By Funeral Director Daily / August 8, 2018 /

It seems to me that in this day and age of declining revenues per case in the funeral business, that every ancillary service a funeral home/crematory can secure can be a god-send for business.  Many funeral homes will try to sell a better casket or urn, or will push cremation jewelry or an urn vault…

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Cremation – What’s Next in the Market?

By Funeral Director Daily / August 7, 2018 /

The Cremation Association of North America just wrapped up its weeklong gathering of cremation professionals at CANA2018.  While I did not attend, I have kept up with some of the issues that were discussed and saw a quote come out of the convention that I wanted to discuss further. The quote I am referring to…

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Carriage Services – Behind the Numbers

By Funeral Director Daily / August 6, 2018 /

You only have to read the first page of Carriage Service’s press release, which you can read here, to understand that CEO Mel Payne was not thrilled with Carriage’s 2nd quarter numbers.  The third paragraph of the release states, “We have complete confidence that our operating leadership is effectively dealing with the revenue and margin…

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