Finance

Your funeral home’s cash-flow: Investment vs. Enjoyment

By Funeral Director Daily / September 15, 2025 /

    I read a lot of different articles.  Recently I read an article about investing that contrasted “Dividend Investing” and “Growth Investing”.  The article was very interesting but it also made me think about my time as a funeral home owner and how I managed the profits, or cash-flow, of the business.   In…

Read More

Carriage Services jumps back into acquisitions with Central Florida purchase

By Funeral Director Daily / September 12, 2025 /

  It’s been pretty easy to recognize that the management team that replaced founder and long-time CEO Melvin Payne at Carriage Services has been building the foundations of the business in order to begin once again making acquisitions for growth.  That has probably been a necessary strategy but it also was noted by some investors…

Read More

Death Care Index flat Year-to-Date. . . .Carriage Services shows share price growth

By Funeral Director Daily / September 8, 2025 /

    There is no doubt that while many investors (and President Trump) have waited for the Federal Reserve to set lower interest rates going forward and negotiated tariff rates lots of other investors have simply stayed invested and have found gains in the stocks of the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and…

Read More

Funeral directors’ “premium-financed insurance” lawsuit to proceed

By Funeral Director Daily / September 4, 2025 /

  According to this recent article from Insurance News Net, an August decision from the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana will allow a 2024 filed lawsuit to proceed for Montana funeral directors who claim a “premium financing scheme cost them millions”.   Again, according to the article, the plaintiffs operate the Stevenson…

Read More

Pennsylvania funeral home acquires “down and out” operator

By Funeral Director Daily / August 26, 2025 /

    There’s always a risk when a funeral home firm acquires another location.  There’s even more risk when a funeral home acquires a location that has had its license suspended by a state board of funeral directors.   However, as you can read and view in this report from Pennsylvania’s WTAJ-TV News that’s exactly…

Read More

Seeking Alpha author: “This is a turning point for Carriage Services to pursue acquisitions and grow its core funeral and cemetery businesses”

By Funeral Director Daily / August 21, 2025 /

  A recent opinion article from Seeking Alpha author Lighting Rock Research concludes that “After two years of deleveraging and portfolio optimization, I think this is a turning point for Carriage Services to pursue acquisitions and grow its core funeral and cemetery businesses.”   Here are a couple of bullet points from the article whereby…

Read More

Security National reports 2Q 2025. Is their Mortuary segment representative of U.S. situation?

By Funeral Director Daily / August 19, 2025 /

    Security National Financial Corporation (SNFC), the Utah-based company that has interests in the pre-planning, insurance assignment, mortuary, and cemetery business reported their 2nd Quarter results of 2025 last week.   To sum up the company’s results, both of the 2nd Quarter 2025 and 6-month 2025 financials show an “overall” increase in revenue but…

Read More

SCI’s Executive VP and CFO Eric Tanzberger: “. . we’re going to invest capital to the highest return.”

By Funeral Director Daily / August 15, 2025 /

    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…

Read More

Pension funds investment in Cremation is an interesting development

By Funeral Director Daily / August 13, 2025 /

    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…

Read More

Carriage Services announces 2Q Report: “Back to Acquisitions”

By Funeral Director Daily / August 11, 2025 /

    Funeral Director Daily published this article about 17 months ago that was headlined “Carriage Services’ Mel Payne transitions to advisory role at company”.   The article went on to say that Mr. Payne, who was the founder, Chairman, and CEO of Carriage Services had been in those positions since 1991.   If you have…

Read More