Business

Is Great Britain the proverbial “canary in the coal mine” for future U.S. death care purchases?

By Funeral Director Daily / August 10, 2022 /

This recent public relations press release indicating that a shift in attitudes of people in Great Britain about how people want to “Say Goodbye” to their loved ones makes one wonder if that shift will find its way across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States. One report found that “sales of direct cremation plans…

Natural burial plans growing in popularity

By Funeral Director Daily / August 9, 2022 /

The Choice Mutual annual survey on American burial preferences, that you can access here, has been released and it shows that preference for Natural Burial dispositions has grown since the 2020 survey while the preference for traditional services and cremation has declined.  To be sure, Natural Burial only shows a preference of 10% of the…

Thinking outside the box on acquisitions

By Funeral Director Daily / August 5, 2022 /

I recently came across this article from the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News.  The article told the story of the Routsong Funeral Home acquiring the Morris Sons “funeral business” of the same community.  What was interesting was that the article told of the Routsong Funeral Home “picking up (the) pre-funded funeral service arrangements for an additional…

The funeral home as the “Heart of the Community”

By Funeral Director Daily / August 3, 2022 /

As I research articles for Funeral Director Daily I come across lots of local newspaper articles dealing with anniversary years of funeral homes.  The vast majority are from small town newspapers and tell of the longevity of many of these family owned firms. Last week I found this article from the Herald-Dispatch of Huntington, West…

Creating “Gathering Time” may be the secret

By Funeral Director Daily / August 2, 2022 /

Probably the biggest value for me in blogging with Funeral Director Daily is the people I have been able to correspond with that I would have never got to know without the blog.  I’ve got lots of new friends who I have never met — almost 3,000 regular readers — many who correspond with me…

Cremation rate at 57%. . . and it’s not coming down anytime soon

By Funeral Director Daily / July 28, 2022 /

I recently read this article from author Harold Ivan Smith from Baptist News.  Smith offers a unique perspective as he attended mortuary school, is a grief educator, and works as a celebrant for Forest Lawn Mortuaries in Palm Springs, California. Smith indicates in his article that cremation was probably about 1% of United States dispositions…

What’s with the “Pull-Forward” effect?

By Funeral Director Daily / July 26, 2022 /

In the early days of the pandemic I was called by a reporter at the Business newspaper, Barron’s, for my opinion on, among other things, what was being termed the “pull-forward” effect of pandemic deaths. The theory at that time was that it appeared that most of those dying from Covid deaths were elderly and…

NFDA President-Elect candidate parallels Military and Mortuary service

By Funeral Director Daily / July 25, 2022 /

Fate determined that this was meant to be an article for Funeral Director Daily.  I’m very familiar with the “Journey to Serve” program launched by the Funeral Service Foundation and the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association (ICCFA) Educational Foundation, in part,  through the work of my friend Jim Price. The other day I noticed…

The cost of a funeral

By Funeral Director Daily / July 21, 2022 /

I recently saw an article in The Hustle that compared the cost of three family outings in 1960 to the cost of those three family outings in 2022 — a period 62 years later.  And, just because I like to compare those types of things with all things “funeral”, I searched out prices that puts…

Will Millennials change death care purchasing?

By Funeral Director Daily / July 20, 2022 /

That age group in the United States termed “Millennials” was born from 1981 to 1994 which makes their ages today range from about 28 years of age to about 41 years of age.  According to one source there are about 72 million of that age group in the United States which represents about 22% of…