Funeral Director Daily

Can you the provide the opportunity for additional Preneed sales in the 1st Quarter of 2026?

By Funeral Director Daily / January 14, 2026 /

  “Strike when the iron is hot“.  That’s a 15th-century saying that came from the blacksmith trade and meant to suggest that the blacksmith should “bend the metal when it is hot and somewhat flexible”.  Six centuries later in a world with fewer blacksmiths I would suggest that the saying now means “act now to…

“When we put our aprons on, we forget about everything else”

By Funeral Director Daily / January 13, 2026 /

    Yesterday’s Funeral Director Daily column dealt with “Demographics” and how that change over time in your business area can lead to gains or losses in Death Call numbers.  With long-term demographic changes in one’s area of business it is difficult and costly to make the changes necessary — such as building a new…

Demographics can make a difference

By Funeral Director Daily / January 12, 2026 /

  When it comes to the Death Care business and your local funeral home “Demographics” do make a difference.  It might not be for a year, or  five years, or even a decade but demographic shifts in neighborhoods, cities, and states will eventually manifest itself in the numbers of death calls that funeral homes receive.…

Creedy, Jefferson form advisory firm

By Funeral Director Daily / January 9, 2026 /

    Long-time Death Care executives and advisors Alan Creedy and Danny Jefferson have again joined together to form a new firm to help those in the business.  A press release issued earlier this week announced the “formal launch of J & C Advisors, a newly organized advisory platform created to support independent funeral home…

Slow the erosion, relocate graves, or letting nature take its course. . . .

By Funeral Director Daily / January 8, 2026 /

    When it comes to a cemetery on a river bank and the river has moved the shoreline back over 20 feet in the past 30 years and you now realize that in the next couple of decades, as the erosion continues, you will be losing the cemetery — and the remains buried in…

Washington crematories stymied by air quality regulations

By Funeral Director Daily / January 7, 2026 /

  Washington State cremation owners and operators find themselves in somewhat of a Catch-22 when it comes to new cremation equipment.  According to this article from the Seattle Times Pacific Northwest Magazine old cremation machines have been grandfathered in but operate less efficiently as compared to the new cremation machines available.   However, because of…

Investors shy away from Death Care stocks

By Funeral Director Daily / January 6, 2026 /

  The price of equity ownership (stocks) in public companies is a function of supply and demand.  The more people that want to own the stock (equity or ownership in the company) the higher the price goes because the stock is in demand.  Conversely, when the stock is not in great demand the price drops…

Slacking into the New Year

By Funeral Director Daily / January 5, 2026 /

  We’ve noticed at Funeral Director Daily that readership drops by about 33% in the last half of December.  It was particularly noticeable this year as we reached a record of over 21,000 page views in November only to see the latter half of December come in with run-rates of page views at less than…

Bill back on the table to increase Social Security Lump-Sum Death Benefit

By Funeral Director Daily / January 2, 2026 /

  Back in September 2024 Funeral Director Daily let you know that the Social Secuirty Survivor Benefits Equity Act had been introduced to the the United States House of Representatives.  While the bill failed to go anywhere at that time – possibly because of the impending Presidential election and eventual change of leadership – as…

The Trend for 2026: Technology keeps on coming

By Funeral Director Daily / December 31, 2025 /

    I’ve been thinking about this “Trends” article for the past month.  I was going to originally title the article “Back to the Future” on the premise that I’ve seen two trends emerging this year in Death Care.  Those trends were (1) The movement “back” towards more simple and natural burials and other disposition…