Preneed
“Focus” is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “the center of interest or activity”. We hear the word a lot. For instance if you want to improve your golf game you might be told, depending on your present strengths, to “focus” on your weakness. . . and improve it, whether that is driving…
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Yesterday we took a look at how funeral merchants should expect their clients to pay for the services that they select. Our article took a look at crowdfunding, credit cards, savings, and, of course, preneed funding. And, we concluded that as good as it is to get payment done and out of the…
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I ran across this article the other day that is entitled, “Financing a Funeral: Crowdfunding, insurance, credit cards, loans, and payment plans”. The article comes from a publication called “The Enlightened Mindset” and appears directed towards the consumer. I don’t think it is a “bad” article, but you can also tell it is not…
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Last week was a great week to be inside in Minnesota. While many people were trying to get home for the holidays we had temperatures of 15 below zero with winds gusting into the 30 mph zone. That made it a good time for me to hunker down and get a little reading and…
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I happened to look at the cash sitting in my Money Market account the other day and noticed I was receiving more interest than I had been recently. I took out my calculator and realized that my John Hancock Money Market account was paying me 3% interest. For savers, that’s the upside of the Federal…
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I recently read this story in the Buffalo (NY) News that is entitled, “Two men planned what would happen after their deaths. Why did they end up in unmarked graves?” The story documents the plights of two men who, by most death care experts opinion, did everything that they should have done about their future deaths…
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I visited Baltimore and attended the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) convention earlier this month. In earlier blog posts I’ve told you some overriding impressions that I had from that experience. . . and I told you I would be bringing you, in greater detail, some of my thoughts and observations. One of the phenomena…
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When you look to the past of funeral home marketing it is pretty accurate to say that many funeral homes “Got their names out there” and then waited for deaths to happen. When I started in the business, our industry was as far from “Pre-Emptive” marketing as any industry. . . it’s just the way…
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We learned late last week in this press release that Funeral Directors Life Insurance Company (FDLIC) of Abilene, Texas, acquired the American Life and Annuity Company (ALAC) of Hot Springs, Arkansas. According to the press release “effective immediately, FDLIC will work to support existing ALAC policyholders and Arkansas funeral homes”. Again, according to the press…
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Service Corporation International (SCI) has agreed to provide up to $209 million in refunds to settle a federal class-action lawsuit alleging it deceived 87,000 Florida customers who purchased its prepaid plans according to this article from last week from Yahoo News. According to the article SCI Direct (formerly called Neptune Society Management Corporation) was named…
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