Funeral Director Daily

Illinois funeral home owner says selling to friends “. . makes it easier to walk away from this business I’ve known all my life”

By Funeral Director Daily / October 4, 2024 /

    We learned of an interesting sale/acquisition story that happened recently in Illinois.  This article from the Mendota Reporter will tell you of the sale of the Merritt Funeral Home to the Unger-Horner Funeral Home.   It’s interesting to note, according to the article, that the Merritt Funeral Home has been in the Merritt…

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The Federal Funds interest rate came down, what does that mean for you?

By Funeral Director Daily / October 3, 2024 /

    If you ask my opinion, American borrowers have been somewhat spoiled by the low interest rates that we had had for almost the last ten years.  This article will tell you that from 2015 until into 2022 we never had Prime lending rates higher than 5.5% — and most of the that time…

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Going into business on your own

By Funeral Director Daily / October 2, 2024 /

    I believe that America is still that land of opportunity.  It’s a place where people can not only dream of starting their own business and create upward mobility for their family and themselves through ingenuity and hard work, but is a place where that dream can become reality.   As a matter of…

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The Funeral “Experience”: Creating Value or Angst

By Funeral Director Daily / October 1, 2024 /

      I’ve know for some time that we are living in an “Experience” economy.  Yes, even while we need to spend a larger portion of our dollars on necessities because of the inflation of the past years. . . . .the “Experience” economy has continued to thrive.   Whether it is going to…

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SCI adds San Antonio funeral home locations

By Funeral Director Daily / September 30, 2024 /

    Last week we noticed in this short announcement from Market Screener that Houston-based Service Corporation International (SCI) had acquired the Porter Loring Mortuaries based in San Antonio, Texas.  It appears that the Porter Loring Companies operated three funeral homes in the San Antonio, Texas, market.   According to information gleaned from the San…

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Prelude receives an investment from Cortado Ventures

By Funeral Director Daily / September 27, 2024 /

  The last time we mentioned the upstart preneed company Prelude in Funeral Director Daily was this article back in March 2024 when we first heard of them.  We mentioned that we didn’t know much about them but from their LinkedIn references and website it appeared that they were in the business of helping individual…

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Understanding Natural Organic Reduction Webinar

By Funeral Director Daily / September 26, 2024 /

  Next Wednesday, October 2, the University of Minnesota Program of Mortuary Science will be sharing a webinar entitled “Understanding Natural Organic Reduction” (NOR).   This webinar, conducted by an educational institution would be a great opportunity for funeral professionals to get an introduction into the NOR process.   The live webinar will take place for…

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Florida’s Van Orsdel Funeral & Cremation adds “Water Cremation”

By Funeral Director Daily / September 26, 2024 /

    Fifty years ago services were almost all traditional casketed funerals with earth burials.  Then, for the next 50 years cremation choice by the consumer started building until we now have an approximate 60% cremation rate of disposition across the United States.   So, what is next?  Consumers have started adding eco-friendly options to…

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The Crematory Dilemma: Continued consumer choice vs. the NIMBY attitude

By Funeral Director Daily / September 25, 2024 /

    For over a year and a half Funeral Director Daily has followed the application process of the Evans Funeral Chapel in trying to locate and build a new crematory in the White Marsh area of Baltimore (MD) County.  It now appears, because of a zoning change for the land in question, that the…

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NFDA joins others in quest to delay implementation of Corporate Transparency Act (CTA)

By Funeral Director Daily / September 24, 2024 /

  In early September the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) joined with hundreds of other groups to delay implementation of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) which is set to be implemented on January 1, 2025.  According to Google artificial intelligence (AI),  “The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) went into effect on January 1, 2024. The CTA requires…

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