Funeral Director Daily

Global Atlantic, SCI form preneed partnership

By Funeral Director Daily / July 9, 2024 /

    It was announced in this press release yesterday from Global Atlantic Financial Group (Global Atlantic) that the company had formed a partnership with the largest provider of funeral, cemetery, and cremation services in North America, Service Corporation International (SCI).   Announced in the press release as a “10-year partnership, Global Atlantic says it…

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Don’t miss this CX learning opportunity

By Funeral Director Daily / July 8, 2024 /

  A quote from John R. Dijulius III goes like this “If you want to see how a company is doing today, look at their current sales; if you want to know how a company will perform in the future, look at their current Customer Satisfaction scores”.   Customer satisfaction has always been a goal…

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Matthews International, EV automaker Tesla at odds over lawsuit

By Funeral Director Daily / July 8, 2024 /

    Matthews International is a company that according to this rating action from Fitch, collects 45% of its revenue from its Memorialization Segment and also brings home approximately 60% of its EBITDA from that source.  As you may know, Matthews International is the parent company of Aurora Casket and Matthews Cremation and  other death…

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Minnesota’s “Transfer Care Specialist” category is now effective

By Funeral Director Daily / July 5, 2024 /

    In an effort to help alleviate some of the worker shortages in the funeral home profession the State of Minnesota Legislature passed what is known as the “Transfer Care Specialist” category for funeral homes this past session.  That category of workers became effective on July 1 and is now in effect.   In…

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The story of the “Last Signer” of the Declaration of Independence

By Funeral Director Daily / July 4, 2024 /

  A rallying cry for colonists in pre-independent America was “No taxes without representation”.  That basically referred to the act of taxing the colonies through British laws where colonists had no say, or vote, in the matter.   However, most people don’t realize that one of the last indignities for this growing independence movement was…

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Nebraska board member proposes columbarium under the football field

By Funeral Director Daily / July 3, 2024 /

    The University of Nebraska is evidently facing a $58 million budget shortfall  for the coming season and ideas to eliminate it are coming forward.  One such idea mentioned in this article, proposed by Nebraska regent Barbara Weitz, is to build a columbarium under the football field where departed fans can have their cremated…

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Recent reviews of Death Care credit

By Funeral Director Daily / July 2, 2024 /

    In the last couple of weeks Funeral Director Daily has noticed three companies involved in the Death Care business being under review.   You can read a short commentary from either Fitch Ratings or A.M. Best on the following companies:   Matthews International Heritage Life Insurance Company Homesteaders Life Insurance Company   Enter your…

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Public consumer funeral operating companies show stock price growth in first-half of 2024

By Funeral Director Daily / July 2, 2024 /

    The Funeral Director Daily Death Care Index (DCI) which consists of five stocks that deal in Death Care in some way continued to move lower in the 2nd Quarter of 2024 which ended last Friday.  As a matter of fact, the only stock in the DCI that moved forward in the 2nd Quarter…

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Politics, political correctness, and your funeral home

By Funeral Director Daily / July 1, 2024 /

    It was almost impossible last week to live in the United States and not know or hear about the Presidential Debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.  Even if you didn’t want to know it was happening, you knew anyway because it dominated the news and announcements on almost every…

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Lots of competition. . .lots of opportunity

By Funeral Director Daily / June 28, 2024 /

    I received the July 2024 edition of The Director and read many of the articles.  One that interested me was authored by Curtis Rostad and was titled “Prices vs. The Internet”.  I enjoyed the entire article and think the author makes a great point, but what really captivated me was his perception that almost…

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