Funeral Director Daily

New Advisory Group formed at Foundation Partners

By Funeral Director Daily / March 12, 2025 /

    New Foundation Partners Group CEO John Smith didn’t waste any time in forming a group of former owners to learn more about the Death Care business.  Smith, with lots of management experience but none in the Death Care realm was hired by Foundation Partners Group (FPG) earlier in 2025.  Here’s a Funeral Director…

The “Economy” and possible effects on Death Care

By Funeral Director Daily / March 11, 2025 /

    I’m writing this article on Tuesday morning ahead of President Trump’s address to Congress and at a time when certain investors seem to have lost some faith in the markets as the Dow Jones Industrial Average is currently down over 700 points on the day.  The world can change between last Tuesday and…

Fact can be stranger than fiction: Lone funeral home in one of America’s highest per capita income counties struggles

By Funeral Director Daily / March 6, 2025 /

Many of us have gotten accustomed to watching the television series “Yellowstone” in recent years.  While that series takes place in Montana, a county in Wyoming that borders Idaho and Montana contains 40% of Yellowstone National Park’s total area.  Teton County of Wyoming, also “had the highest average incomes per capita of any county in…

Carriage Services Earnings Call: Lots of cliches come to mind

By Funeral Director Daily / March 5, 2025 /

  I recently read the Carriage Services Earnings Call transcript from last week which pertained to the company’s 4th Quarter of 2024 as well as their financial year end for 2024.  It’s interesting that as I read the transcript, which you can access here from Seeking Alpha, several well-meaning cliches came to my mind. .…

The “Loop Living Cocoon” finds partners, acceptance

By Funeral Director Daily / March 4, 2025 /

  New products come to market all the time. The issues for companies with new products include how to make potential consumers aware of them and how to distribute the product to those consumers.   The Loop Biotech “Living Cocoon” is a new poduct for green burials.  According to an article in Funeral Service Times…

Carriage Services: Executing on Plan?

By Funeral Director Daily / March 3, 2025 /

  Last week public funeral home and cemetery consolidator and operator Carriage Services released their 4th Quarter 2024 and Year End 2024 financial results.  One of the items that the company mentioned in the press release which you can read here is “lower volumes we began experiencing in October”.   I mention that simply because…

Batesville wins patent infringement case

By Funeral Director Daily / February 28, 2025 /

    Earlier this week Funeral Director Daily learned from this press release from Batesville that “the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana awarded summary judgment in favor of Batesville Casket Company, LLC and Batesville Services, LLC and against Vandor Group, Inc., rejecting Vandor’s claims that Batesville’s cardboard rental insert, which the…

The Rise of Luxury Funerals

By Funeral Director Daily / February 27, 2025 /

    It’s hard to think of the rise of luxury funerals when we hear about all the low-cost cremation services and read articles such as this one titled “More Mainers are leaning on state help to pay for funerals, cremations” that was published earlier this month in the Sun Journal of Maine.   Yet,…

Are you “Branded” correctly (for the future)?

By Funeral Director Daily / February 26, 2025 /

    Some time ago I served on a private company’s ad hoc board helping the owners navigate some upcoming issues.  The business happened to consist of family-owned turkey farms and a turkey brokerage business.  While it was a little bit out of my expertise I learned an immense amount, not only of the turkey…

My Opinion: “Mailed cremation remains are a problem waiting to happen”

By Funeral Director Daily / February 25, 2025 /

    Earlier this month the United States Postal Services issued a notice that related “effective March 1, 2025, customers will be required to use USPS Priority Mail Express Cremated Remains boxes (BOX-CRE) for all cremated remains shipments. This includes remains shipped as jewelry, blown glass or other artisan works of art.”   There is no doubt that cremation,…