Business

Indiana’s “Funeral Centric” bank sold — Sale price said to be $40 million

By Funeral Director Daily / February 4, 2026 /

    In a press release issued earlier in January 2026 out of Batesville, Indiana, ClearPoint Federal Bank & Trust made the following statement:   “ClearPoint Federal Bank & Trust, a federally chartered savings bank that has been providing trust and recordkeeping services to the funeral and cemetery industry since 1998, announced today that Community…

What’s your state’s Death Rate? – Above or Below the National Average?

By Funeral Director Daily / February 3, 2026 /

  According to provisional data released from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in January of this year the overall age-adjusted “Death Rate” in the United States for 2025 was about 722 deaths per 100,000 of population.  In the Death Care business we have usually based our historical numbers on a “per 1,000” population number…

Service Corporation purchases two funeral homes in Ontario

By Funeral Director Daily / February 2, 2026 /

  We learned from this article written by Fort Erie Radio that Service Corporation International (SCI) recently purchased two funeral homes in the Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada, community.  According to the article, the Williams Funeral Home and Benner Funeral Services were sold to SCI in January of 2026.   According to the article the funeral…

“Mattering”: Can your funeral home help “It”. . . Can “It” help your funeral home?

By Funeral Director Daily / January 29, 2026 /

  It’s not something I thought about ever.  And, while I sensed some of the psychological needs associated with it, I’d never thought of it in the sense I learned about it last week.   What am I talking about?  —  “Mattering”.  “Mattering” is defined on Gemini Artificial Intelligence as such “. . the universal…

The “Humanity” of Death Care

By Funeral Director Daily / January 28, 2026 /

  Funeral Director Daily publishes lots of articles that deal with the business, or money side of Death Care.  That’s good. . .and readers seem to like it, however, I never want any of us to forget about the “Humanity” side of working in Death Care.   Every so often in my search for editorial…

Meeting your clientele where they are at

By Funeral Director Daily / January 21, 2026 /

  There is no doubt over the past twenty-five years that consumers have made many changes about how they make selections.  And, those selections don’t just relate to furniture styles, automobile styles, or television watching, such as binge watching, decisions.   That’s why the cemeteries and crematories of Hillingdon Council are moving to a seven-day…

Is a 10% credit card interest rate ceiling good news for funeral homes? . . . Maybe not

By Funeral Director Daily / January 20, 2026 /

  Today is January 20.  It is the day that President Trump wanted to institute one of his ideas for making life more “affordable”.  That idea is a 10% cap on interest rates on credit card balances for one year.   A recent Debt.com survey about funeral expenses and death, which you can access an…

What does a “K-Shaped” economy (or Consumer Divergence) mean for Death Care?

By Funeral Director Daily / January 19, 2026 /

  Back in 1971, according to this article from Pew Research Center, 61% of Americans fell into what was called the “Middle Class”.  The same article lists that number as 51% in 1923, and according to Finance & Commerce magazine, “Most economists agree the K-shape (consumer divergence) isn’t a short-term anomaly but a continuation of…

Can we move Death Care from an “Obligation” to an “Experience”?

By Funeral Director Daily / January 16, 2026 /

  Earlier this week I was watching the business news and the channel was reporting on Delta Airlines.  According to the talking heads that I was watching Delta Airlines has done a very good job in building market share by continuing to relate the “Experience” of flying Delta over the simple need to get from…

“When we put our aprons on, we forget about everything else”

By Funeral Director Daily / January 13, 2026 /

    Yesterday’s Funeral Director Daily column dealt with “Demographics” and how that change over time in your business area can lead to gains or losses in Death Call numbers.  With long-term demographic changes in one’s area of business it is difficult and costly to make the changes necessary — such as building a new…