Preneed
Last week we brought you an initial report on Service Corporation International’s report of their 1st Quarter 2020 results. We also promised that we would go “inside the numbers” to see what other financial information we could find that may be of benefit to all of you who own or manage funeral homes. Today, we…
Read MoreI’ve seen no data to prove this but anecdotally several people have told me, or I have read, that funeral pre-arrangement sales have drifted downward during the past month or so of sheltering at home due to the coronavirus. That would only makes sense because many of the clients who pre-arrange are not only seeking…
Read MoreWhen a crisis comes upon you – you have a choice. You can shudder in a corner or you can face it and do all you can to be part of the solution. I believe that funeral professionals and funeral business suppliers are those that want to be part of the solution. In that vein…
Read MoreEven before Robert Waltrip bought that second location in Houston in the early 1960’s there were lots of funeral homes that changed hands. And, I’m guessing that over the years about 99% of those business transactions, especially the transferring of a funeral home to a new owner in a small community, went off without a…
Read MoreChalk this incident up to “This should never happen” but it did. In this article from the Bucks County Courier Times of Pennsylvania we learn of the tale of Richard Geisinger who died in 2013. The article tells the story of how Mr. Geisinger, who had pre-arrangements for a casketed burial, was instead cremated and…
Read MoreAccording to this article from the Manistee News, a former funeral home manager has pleaded guilty to taking over $223,000 in pre-need funds. The plea would assure the defendent, Mr. Denis Johnson, age 69, of Manistee, Michigan, that he would serve no jail time as long as restitution to the approximately 60-70 victims is completed…
Read MoreIn a press release dated today out of Murray, Utah, we learned that the Security National Financial Corporation (SNFC) has closed on its purchase of the Kilpatrick Life Insurance Company domiciled in Louisiana. Both companies operate to some degree in the pre-need funeral funding insurance market. You can read the press release as provided from…
Read MoreWe received a couple of articles out of Springfield, Illinois, today concerning a southern Illinois funeral director who has been sentenced to prison for his role in failing to deposit payments for preneed funeral services. You can read about the case in these articles from WGN Web and from KFVS 12. According to the articles,…
Read MoreI’ve been involved in the funeral business long enough to see the State of Minnesota move, in what I consider a more consumer friendly way, in respect to the business of preneed. I can go back to the 1980’s when we were only allowed to put a consumer’s designated funeral funds into a bank guaranteed…
Read More
