Funeral Director Daily

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…

Loss of Cemetery Revenue Causes Tricky Response

By Funeral Director Daily / May 5, 2017 /

A friendly but complicated twist has occurred in a cemetery that contains the remains of border towns in Hebron, Illinois.  According to an article in the Lake Geneva News the Linn-Hebron Cemetery was started many years ago by members of the Linn Presbyterian Church, which used to be located in Hebron, Illinois, and started the…

SCI Announces First Quarter Results

By Funeral Director Daily / May 4, 2017 /

In a Press Release dated April 26, 2017, Service Corporation International announced that they earned $0.38 per share in the first quarter as compared to their 2016 result of $0.28 for the same time period.  Tom Ryan, the company’s CEO explained, ” Strong preneed cemetery sales production and an increase in funeral services performed were…

Smaller Firms Adding Crematories

By Funeral Director Daily / May 3, 2017 /

An article that appeared in the Green County Daily World of Linton, Indiana, caught my attention the other day.  It was entitled “Walton’s install crematory at Welch & Cornet Funeral Home in Worthington”. I read the article and then did a little research.  The article states that the crematory will be the first in Greene…

Living the Dream in Pelham, New York

By Funeral Director Daily / May 2, 2017 /

I recently discovered an inspiring article about a young man and his quest to be involved in funeral service on the web-site IrishCentral.com.  The article centers around Irish born Clive Anderson, age 34, who now owns his own funeral home in Yonkers, New York.  It is a true tale of a young man who saw…

Arizona Teen Good Deed is “Life-Changing”

By Funeral Director Daily / May 1, 2017 /

It was recently reported on the web-site AZFamily.com that a teenager from Chandler, Arizona, found out that his good deed and Eagle Scout project was “Life-Changing” to him.  Adrian Dozal, 16, used a personal connection to an Arizona cemetery to create a project to bring the cemetery back from disrepair and in the process learned…