Funeral Director Daily

Ithaca Cemetery Raises Vault Maintenance Question

By Funeral Director Daily / May 22, 2017 /

I ran across an interesting article in the Cornell Daily Sun the other day which led me to ponder several questions about the long term maintenance of vaults, columbariums, and mausoleums in cemeteries. The article is very interesting and, quite frankly, tells of the city of Ithaca’s quest to understand what must be done to…

StoneMor Names New CEO and CFO

By Funeral Director Daily / May 19, 2017 /

On Wednesday, May 17, StoneMor Partners took some steps to reverse the fortunes of their company when they named a new CEO and a new CFO to replace departed CFO Sean McGrath and CEO Lawrence Miller.  StoneMor has been plagued for over the last year with quarterly losses, decreased cash flows, and a cut of…

Funeral Home Bankruptcy in New York

By Funeral Director Daily / May 18, 2017 /

I just read an article on something you don’t see very often in the funeral industry.  An article that was posted in the Times Herald Recordonline from Orange County, New York, pertained to the bankruptcy case, and hopeful solution to it, of a funeral business from that area. The article is about Mr. Anthony Ingrassia…

City Cemetery Decision irks Monument Businesses

By Funeral Director Daily / May 16, 2017 /

A recent decision by the City of Beloit, Wisconsin, to offer more cremation options at city cemeteries is causing angst among some Beloit area businesses according to the Beloit Daily News.  In essence the city is allowing their owned and operated cemeteries to offer a pricing structure that will allow for consumers to have an…

Student Designed Funeral Portal to Go Live this Summer

By Funeral Director Daily / May 15, 2017 /

Holly Price, a recent University of Michigan MBA graduate learned a lot a while back when her mother was suffering from a cardiac arrest and funeral arrangements, and other life-ending decisions, looked like they had to be made. According to a Press Release from the University of Michigan, Price used the experience – fortunately her…

Shaffer to Lead Homesteaders Beginning in 2018

By Funeral Director Daily / May 12, 2017 /

A recent press release by Homesteaders Life Company, a funeral industry pre-arrangement company,  announced that a succession plan for the leadership of the company was recently passed at their May 2017 meeting.  Using forward thinking the board accepted CEO Stephen Lang’s pending retirement in March 2018 and approved the plan to have COO Stephen Shaffer…

Funeral Home Prices vary by Thousands

By Funeral Director Daily / May 11, 2017 /

The above headline has shown up in a news story and web-site story from WHEC TV in Rochester, New York.  While attention grabbing, the news feature and story does eventually tell people that while there can be a wide variety of ranges for similar services, many times you do get what you pay for at…

My Education in the Last Ten Days

By Funeral Director Daily / May 10, 2017 /

In the past ten days I have had the opportunity to participate in my annual golf outing over four days in Las Vegas, Nevada, with 127 other death care industry operatives from all aspects of the industry.  The event, which is a get-together of old friends, is spearheaded by Johnson Consulting’s Tom Johnson, and is…

New Helicopter Crew Monument Approved at Arlington

By Funeral Director Daily / May 9, 2017 /

It probably should not take this long but a monument proposed three years ago in 2104 to honor Vietnam era helicopter pilots has just been approved by Congress for acceptance and placement into Arlington National Cemetery.  An article in Military acknowledges that the idea for the monument was spearheaded in 2014 by Retired Air Force…

Kentucky Funeral Home Investigated for Fraud

By Funeral Director Daily / May 8, 2017 /

A Benton, Kentucky funeral home has had his funeral home searched as allegations of fraud have been leveled against him.  According to the West Kentucky Star.com article, the Kentucky Department of Insurance is investigating complaints from customers who allegedly paid Filbeck-Cann & King Funeral Home owner Tim King to buy insurance policies that he never…