Funeral Director Daily

Starmark acquires AMA Containers

By Funeral Director Daily / April 19, 2024 /

It was announced earlier this week that Starmark, a leading manufacturer of innovative funeral products, has acquired AMA Containers.  AMA was originally founded in 1991 as Airline Mortuary Associates.   Starmark, according to the press release, was founded in 2004 and since that time have provided what they call “Sensible Solutions®” for cremation.   The press…

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The paradox that is killing funeral service

By Funeral Director Daily / April 18, 2024 /

    Last week Angie and I attended a visitation service for a neighbor at the funeral home I used to own and operate.  While there we witnessed first hand the care the family was receiving and we could just tell that the friends and neighbors who stopped by, and the stories they told, were…

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Seeking Alpha has a recent opinion on Carriage Services

By Funeral Director Daily / April 17, 2024 /

    Every once in a while the writers at Seeking Alpha put out an article on one of the Death Care Index stocks — Carriage Services, Service Corporation International, Park Lawn Corporation, Security National Financial Corporation, and Matthews International.  When they do, we like to pass that information along to our readers.   On…

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Operational issues take center stage for the last 30 days

By Funeral Director Daily / April 16, 2024 /

    Every thirty days Funeral Director Daily runs this little section where we recap the Top Read articles of the past 30 days.  From my point of view as the author of all of the articles I get a sense of what has been of interest to funeral professionals during that time period. .…

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Empathy startup raises an additional $47 million

By Funeral Director Daily / April 16, 2024 /

      In the recent past I served as Board Chairman for a large Senior population health and living company for three years and as Chairman for a smaller home care and hospice company for about five years.  All told, I’ve had over a dozen years of that leadership service in those industries.  …

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Don’t miss CANA Peer Support tomorrow night

By Funeral Director Daily / April 15, 2024 /

    If you have been a funeral director for any length of time you have had one of those “cases that sticks with us”.  You’ve been in that situation where what happened or the family you served, or events you could not control “tested your composure in front of a grieving family”.   Licensed…

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Dignity, care, and respect. . . bringing the fallen home

By Funeral Director Daily / April 15, 2024 /

    On Saturday night I was at a movie, came home and turned the television on to catch the news and learned of the missile bombardment of Israel that Iran took responsibility for.  Now, I don’t know all the nuances of the political world that comes into these types of situations around the world,…

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Has Inflation hit your bottom line yet?

By Funeral Director Daily / April 12, 2024 /

  There is no doubt that the cost of inflation in doing business will affect the bottom line of businesses unless they do something to counter the effect.  It’s a pretty simple equation in the “View from the Top” that if business sales are the same then the upward inflationary costs of labor, utilities, advertising,…

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Security National Financial CEO on their Memorial Segment: “Growth. . .is our goal”

By Funeral Director Daily / April 11, 2024 /

  It took awhile, but Security National Financial Corporation (SNFC) finally got around to posting the results of the company’s 2023 year just last week.  And, there is no doubt that SNFC’s Memorial Segment was one of the highlights of that report as that segment reported 10% revenue growth and 38% Earnings before Taxes growth…

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Dylan said it first, “The times, they are a-changin”

By Funeral Director Daily / April 10, 2024 /

    Sometimes I find my inspiration for these writings in the oddest of places. . . Yet, I seem to have this ability to relate things that I see in everyday life to the funeral profession and funeral business.  It happened again this past weekend.   On Friday I received a phone call from…

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