Funeral Director Daily

Carriage Services Reports 1Q 2018

By Funeral Director Daily / April 26, 2018 /

  On Tuesday, April 24, publicly owned death care industry company, Carriage Services, announced its 1st Quarter 2018 results.  You can read their press release with financials included here.  The company announced record revenues of $73.4 million for the quarter.  That is a 7.7% increase over the same period of a year ago. Funeral Director…

Pre-Need: Defensive Strategy or Offensive Weapon?

By Funeral Director Daily / April 26, 2018 /

Recently I was reading a business plan of a public company funeral home consolidator and when talking about how they look at the pre-need market, they mentioned that they look at Pre-Need as a “defensive posture” for holding on to call volume.  That was interesting to me because I have always looked at Pre-Need as…

Assurant Financial Strength Affirmed

By Funeral Director Daily / April 25, 2018 /

While not specific to the death care portion of their industry, A.M. Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A (Excellent) for the U.S. property/casualty subsidiaries of Assurant, Inc.  The credit rating company has also affirmed the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings of Assurant at bbb+.  Best continues that the outlook of these Credit…

Chinese Citizens Paid to Destroy Caskets

By Funeral Director Daily / April 25, 2018 /

I recently read an article from the South China Morning Post that you can read here.  The article touches on the fact that the Jiangnan City Daily reported that about 400 villagers in Shangrao county of Jiangxi province were paid about 1,000 yuan (about $159) to have their caskets crushed. The article goes on to say that…

Memorial Mortuaries and Cemeteries Awarded “Best of Utah”

By Funeral Director Daily / April 24, 2018 /

The death care branch of public company Security National Financial Corporation, Memorial Mortuaries and Cemeteries, was awarded two of the Best of State Awards in Utah recently.  You can read about it in the company’s press release here. The Best of State Awards were presented in the categories of Best of State for Funeral Services…

Massachusetts community to vote on Municipal Pet Crematory

By Funeral Director Daily / April 24, 2018 /

Two years ago the Massachusetts Cape Cod community of Harwich approved the transfer of land to the cemetery commission to build a pet cemetery for the community.  Roads and paths are being put in, landscaping has been done and the project even won an innovation award from the Massachusetts Municipal Association. Now, according to this…

Settlement Reached in Mississippi Coroner Lawsuit

By Funeral Director Daily / April 23, 2018 /

Just last Friday we reported of a case that was in trial concerning the issue of six Mississippi black-owned funeral homes believing that they did not receive as many death calls, proportionately,  from the coroner of Harrison County as white-owned funeral homes did. The plaintiffs were asking for $870,000 in damages for the years 2012-2016.…

The Prototype Greatest Generation Funeral

By Funeral Director Daily / April 23, 2018 /

Last week we learned of former First Lady Barbara Bush’s death. Over the weekend we received news reports on the visitation and funeral service.  I never really saw the events on television but on Sunday read about the visitation and funeral service on line and in my daily newspaper, The Minneapolis Star Tribune. It struck…

Crematory Approved in Maryville City Limits

By Funeral Director Daily / April 20, 2018 /

An article in the Daily Times of Maryville, Tennessee, that you can read here announced that the Smith Funeral and Cremation Service has successfully applied for, and been approved, to add a crematory in their existing funeral home inside the city limits of Maryville.  Owners Jason Chambers and C. Lynn Gibson indicated that the cremation…

Discrimination Trial Continues in Mississippi

By Funeral Director Daily / April 20, 2018 /

Testimony continued in the Gulfport, Mississippi, trial where six black-owned funeral homes have contended that Harrison County and its coroner, Gary Hargraves, have discriminated against them by sending deceased bodies in greater numbers to the white-owned funeral homes in the county.  In testimony yesterday, which is summed up by the Associated Press here, Harrison County…