Preneed

Assurant announces dividend, more news

By Funeral Director Daily / July 10, 2020 /

World-wide financial services company Assurant announced yesterday a quarterly dividend in the amount of $0.63 which is the same amount that had previously been in place for preceding quarters.  You can read of their announcement here. Assurant is one of the eight stocks that make up the Death Care Index (DCI).  They pertain to the…

News you can use for the weekend

By Funeral Director Daily / July 10, 2020 /

As we head into another great summer weekend, here is some industry news that you can use. Funeral Directors Life Named “Great Place to Work” Funeral Directors Life was recently named as one of the 2020 Best Workplaces in Texas by Great Place to Work and Fortune.  Funeral Directors Life was honored with the 26th…

Homesteaders to offer webinar

By Funeral Director Daily / July 8, 2020 /

We have learned that Homesteaders Life Company is offering a free webinar on Friday, July 10, to take place at 11 am Eastern Time, 10 am Central Time. The webinar is entitled “Bouncing Back after COVID-19 — Strategies to heal and thrive in life and business“.  You can learn more about the webinar and register…

The savings rate and what it can do for preneed and cemetery sales

By Funeral Director Daily / June 1, 2020 /

It’s not even noon on Sunday yet and I’ve had a pretty good day already.  Minnesota has allowed churches to open at 25% of capacity so my wife and I attended church today, albeit wearing masks and sitting far from anybody else, for the first time since mid-March.  Also, singing was banned for just instrumental…

Random thoughts: Building market share through preneed. . . .CBS Interactive’s “The Future of Funerals’ series

By Funeral Director Daily / May 28, 2020 /

For almost 40 years our funeral home has had advertising for preneed clientele based on the premise, “Like an umbrella in a sudden shower, some things are good to have before they are needed”.  In different ways on radio, print, and online we go on to explain that preneed funeral insurance is one of those…

Citizens preneed division sales decline slightly

By Funeral Director Daily / May 11, 2020 /

Citizens Inc., the Austin, Texas, based public company that delves in the preneed funeral insurance market among other products announced a slight earnings per share improvement for the entire company with their 1st Quarter 2020 results over their results for Q1 2019. The company has a Life Insurance segment that primarily issues ordinary whole life…

Inside the numbers with SCI

By Funeral Director Daily / May 7, 2020 /

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…

Time to ramp up Preneed

By Funeral Director Daily / April 23, 2020 /

I’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…

Funeral Directors helping funeral directors

By Funeral Director Daily / April 2, 2020 /

When 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…

Do the Diligence. . . a cautionary tale

By Funeral Director Daily / February 25, 2020 /

Even 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…