Business

2021 Final Stats: Death rates rise, life-expectancy drops in U.S.

By Funeral Director Daily / December 26, 2022 /

  According to this article from the Los Angeles Times, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) released final death statistics for the calendar year 2021 last week.   It’s interesting to note that the death rate (the percentage of Americans who die in a given year) has risen at the same time that life expectancy…

A Funeral Director’s Christmas

By Funeral Director Daily / December 23, 2022 /

  I’ve entitled this article “A Funeral Director’s Christmas“.  But, I will tell you, I’m not so sure that I would know a funeral director’s Christmas if I saw one.   For me, I’ve been licensed 42 years now as a funeral director.  So, in a couple of days I’ll be going on my 42nd…

CLA’s economic advice for 2023: Ignore the Headlines

By Funeral Director Daily / December 22, 2022 /

  Our friends at Clifton Larson Allen have sent out a short white paper entitled “2023 Economic Outlook:  Ignore the Headlines”.  You can access the paper here.   The white paper lists three key insights for businesses to consider: Will there be a recession or not? There will be both Tailwind and Headwind economic indicators…

Here’s a look from one perspective on the mergers and acquisitions market for 2023

By Funeral Director Daily / December 22, 2022 /

  Editor’s Note:  In keeping with Funeral Director Daily’s recent trend at year-end we are bringing you more information on what to look for as we move into 2023.  The following is from (with permission) the Foundation Partners Group (FPG) website and is an interview with FPG’s Zach Mayer, the head of the company’s Nationwide…

Adapting to Change in 2023

By Funeral Director Daily / December 20, 2022 /

  Editor’s Note:  Today’s article comes from the blog at OneRoom.  It comes on the heels of a recent Funeral Director Daily article by Jake Johnson entitled  “A funeral home owner’s guide to prepping for 2023″.   Here’s OneRoom’s article on “Adapting to Change in 2023“:   As our environment continues to experience frequent change, safeguarding…

The Holidays and Grief

By Funeral Director Daily / December 19, 2022 /

Today marks the beginning of the Christmas week.  For many of us that means that we will be joyously reunited with family members we don’t get to see very often.  However, for almost three million American families it will be the first Christmas with a loved one missing from the celebration.  For them, it will…

The interesting ownership of New York’s Pinelawn Cemetery

By Funeral Director Daily / December 15, 2022 /

I live in flyover country so I don’t pretend to be an expert on the customs and traditions of New York’s funeral and cemetery business.  However, I’ve been in the death care business my entire life and never had heard of the business set-up of New York’s Pinelawn Cemetery.   I read a recent article…

The Producer Price Index and what it may mean for Death Care in 2023

By Funeral Director Daily / December 12, 2022 /

I was on my way to a local chapter board meeting of Junior Achievement on Friday morning and listening to business radio.  It was at that time that the Producer Price Index (PPI) for the month of November was announced as well as was the PPI for the service industry.  Just for the record, the…

The New Pioneers

By Funeral Director Daily / December 9, 2022 /

Part of what I’ve always done is watch the trends.  I wasn’t the first to put a crematory in my funeral home, but I did see the trends and was the first in my county to do so.  I also wasn’t the first funeral home to add staff to concentrate on preneed funeral planning and…

Debating the Federal Trade Commission “Funeral Rule”

By Funeral Director Daily / December 7, 2022 /

I was a little bit flattered and humbled when death care experts Alan Creedy and Danny Jefferson picked up Funeral Director Daily’s article on the upcoming process of “retaining and modernizing” the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) “Funeral Rule” as the topic for their latest “Two Guys and a Question” podcast. You can click here to…