Business
A recent survey found “mixed cost and price trends in the funeral sector”. The survey conducted by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) of Great Britain probably has some correlation with the same trends happening in the USA. The regulatory authority (CMA) concluded that profitability for large funeral directors fell between 2015…
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Service Corporation International (SCI) conducted their 2nd Quarter 2025 Earnings Call where they answered questions from investment experts about two weeks ago. You can access a copy of the transcript here. During the Question and Answer session of that call SCI’s Executive Vice-President and CFO Eric Tansberger responded to a question about…
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I graduated from high school in 1976. The that time period around the 200th anniversary of our nation brought about profound thought change of women in the workplace. It was about that time, as you can see by the graphic below, that females caught and eventually passed males in college enrollment. Up until…
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Pension funds and endowments have the responsibility of shepherding for safety, growth, and income their assets into a multitude of investments. I’ve learned that most of those types of investors invest in bonds and private debt for income and stocks for short-term growth. Some will invest up to 5% of the assets into…
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The stock of major health care insurer United Health has dropped from $594 per share in April 2025 to Friday’s close at $237 per share. That’s about a 60% drop in value in a little over 3 months. And, from the trends that I’ve been watching and some recent announcements I don’t think…
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Over the last century traditional funeral homes have been known to have a “moat” around them in relation to potential competitors. Those moats have brought about many barriers to entry to the profession and helped many family funeral homes thrive. However, as we move forward some of those advantages for existing funeral homes…
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According to this article from the Beloit (WI) Daily News, funeral home owners Jarod and Tania Williams have acquired the two locations of the Brian Mark Funeral Home. According to the Brian Mark Funeral Home website, which you can access here, the company owned and operated funeral homes in Beloit and Clinton, Wisconsin.…
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My wife sometimes accuses me of being too friendly. You see, I’m okay in a crowded coffee shop or elsewhere, asking if I could share the table with already seated customers. . . .while Angie would simply leave the shop because it was too busy. I try not to be intrusive on…
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The title of this article poses what seems to be a simple question. I don’t think it is. We recently printed an article that brought attention to the fact that Batesville and Tukios “made a deal” that, at least from my point of view, allowed Batesville to concentrate on its “core” business…
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Funeral Director Daily recently published an article on the merits of Guaranteed Preneeds vs. Non-Guaranteed Preneed contracts. In that article we discovered an inflation calculator that helped us explain the costs involved as insurance value grows and the cost to provide a funeral also grows. I had some fun with the calculator and…
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