Posts

Uvalde funeral directors say “They’ll never be the same”

By Funeral Director Daily / September 22, 2022 /

Back when I was in mortuary school I read a book entitled something like “Who takes care of the Caretaker“.  While there are other books with titles similar to that published later than the 1970’s I cannot locate the book I read, nor do I remember the author of it. Quite frankly, that’s not real…

FDLIC acquires American Life and Annuity Company

By Funeral Director Daily / September 21, 2022 /

We learned late last week in this press release that Funeral Directors Life Insurance Company (FDLIC) of Abilene, Texas, acquired the American Life and Annuity Company (ALAC) of Hot Springs, Arkansas.  According to the press release “effective immediately, FDLIC will work to support existing ALAC policyholders and Arkansas funeral homes”.  Again, according to the press…

Propel Funeral Partners shows growth with 2022 Annual Report

By Funeral Director Daily / September 20, 2022 /

Propel Funeral Partners, the public company that owns and operates funeral homes, cremation facilities, cemeteries, and related infrastructure in Australia and New Zealand, announced their Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) results in late August, and did so by showing growth all across their reporting numbers. The company that began in 2012 with 278 funeral services reported…

SCI settles “Deceptive sales” lawsuit for $209 million

By Funeral Director Daily / September 20, 2022 /

Service Corporation International (SCI) has agreed to provide up to $209 million in refunds to settle a federal class-action lawsuit alleging it deceived 87,000 Florida customers who purchased its prepaid plans according to this article from last week from Yahoo News. According to the article SCI Direct (formerly called Neptune Society Management Corporation) was named…

Top read stories and more information for you

By Funeral Director Daily / September 19, 2022 /

It is our custom at Funeral Director Daily to post the top-read stories of the past 30 days at the middle of every month.  Just in case you missed one or two of them.  . here they are. In addition we are putting out some information for that you may find useful pertaining to the…

Mortuary school enrollment jumps 24% in 2021, even bigger jump expected this year

By Funeral Director Daily / September 19, 2022 /

One of the few positives to come out of the Covid-19 pandemic may be the way that funeral directors were perceived by the public.  There’s no doubt that during the pandemic funeral directors were seen as unselfish heroes in many communities for the way they handled the high number of deaths. And it may be,…

Are funeral home’s values getting hit with a “Double Whammy”

By Funeral Director Daily / September 16, 2022 /

A sale, or commerce if you will, occurs when a willing buyer and a willing seller reach agreement on a price for a good or service and then that price is paid from the buyer to the seller to mark the transaction.  While we don’t always think of it in that term, transactions like this…

Seeking Alpha article touts Matthews International as “cheap dividend stock to consider”

By Funeral Director Daily / September 15, 2022 /

On the same day that the Dow Jones Industrials average dropped the deepest in the past two years (Tuesday, September 13) Seeking Alpha author Austin Rogers opined in this article that death care conglomerate Matthews International (MATW) would be one of his Top 3 picks to choose as a stock in the category “Cheap Dividend…

Americans would rather talk about any subject than death

By Funeral Director Daily / September 15, 2022 /

Recently I came across this article from the Insurance NewsNet based on a survey from health insurer, Ethos.  The article was based on what traditionally taboo subjects would people be willing to talk about.  Turns out that 81% of the people were willing to talk about Money, but at the bottom of the list came…

The succession dilemma of rural funeral home ownership

By Funeral Director Daily / September 14, 2022 /

Over the past several weeks I’ve had several instances which caused me to wonder “What is going to happen to rural America’s home town, home-owned, funeral homes.”  Again, it has not been one thing, but a string of instances that have made me wonder about that. For instance, I know of firms in my state…