Preneed

Is SCI’s value in their “float”?

By Funeral Director Daily / June 2, 2021 /

I’m a fan of Warren Buffett and his company, Berkshire Hathaway.  Matter of fact, I enjoy reading his annual shareholder letter because it just doesn’t tell how his businesses are doing, it explains to the reader why he is in those businesses and how he makes money for his shareholders. Back in 1936 a gentleman…

Policygenius says “Life insurance prices continue to be stable”

By Funeral Director Daily / May 20, 2021 /

Life insurance rates, at least for the time being, are holding stable regardless of the excess deaths due to Covid-19 in 2020.  A recent press release from Policygenius, that you can access here, says that “The May index shows life insurance pricing stability, despite an increase in the U.S. death rate evident in data recently…

Will preneed methods change?

By Funeral Director Daily / May 7, 2021 /

As many times happens with me, I learn something from a  news item or items and then try to convert that knowledge to the funeral industry and try to figure out if or how what I’ve learned will translate to our profession. So was the case this week when I saw some public relations for…

Report: Headstone market hot

By Funeral Director Daily / April 27, 2021 /

A big part of our mission at Funeral Director Daily is to look around the death care industry and report what we see happening in the profession back to our fellow funeral directors.  Our thought is that those fellow funeral directors were much like I was in my 35 year front-line funeral service career —…

Pure Cremation unveils new advertising spots

By Funeral Director Daily / April 9, 2021 /

Only about a week ago Funeral Director Daily brought to our readers some new promotional spots by direct cremation start-up Solace.  We told you that we liked them and then linked them for you to view.  You can see that article here. We also told you in that article that we have been big fans…

Canada’s Eirene teams with Assurant for online pre-pay option. . more news to know

By Funeral Director Daily / April 8, 2021 /

Toronto based cremation provider Eirene announced last week in this announcement that they would be teaming up with Assurant Life of Canada (ALOC), an affiliate of Assurant Inc., to allow for Canadians to be able to pre-pay for cremations online as part of their estate planning.  Eirene bills itself, on their website as, “High quality,…

Assurant Preneed acquired by CUNA

By Funeral Director Daily / March 15, 2021 /

CUNA Mutual Group announced last week in this press release that it intends to acquire the preneed funeral business of global conglomerate Assurant.  We told you late last year, in this article, that Assurant was expected to move on from the preneed business as it concentrated on other business elements. The reported purchase price by…

Preneed is the answer

By Funeral Director Daily / March 10, 2021 /

This article picks up on yesterday’s discussion of what could happen as more crematories are built expanding the supply of crematories in the United States.  Yesterday’s discussion then went to the thought process and question of, “Will this excess capacity in cremation move cremation to a lower and lower retail cost as death care companies…

WilbertEDU a success. . . more CEU sessions offered

By Funeral Director Daily / March 8, 2021 /

Three months ago in December 2020 Funeral Director Daily told you of a program Wilbert would be offering to death care professionals that would help those professionals keep up with their Continuing Education Units (CEU) at the end of the year.  We concluded that it was a great venture by Wilbert that would be really…

Do we listen to the consumer

By Funeral Director Daily / March 4, 2021 /

Funeral home owners, cemetery operators, preneed professionals.  We’re the experts in the death care profession.  We know the business, we understand the clientele, and we know what is good for everybody.  Or do we? I’m guessing that is somewhat how the buggy whip manufacturers, horse livery operators, and sales reps in that industry thought of…