Preneed
Every once in a while I will come across a survey on some aspect of the death care world that doesn’t quite jive with what I’ve been led to believe. Normally when that happens I’ll find out the survey was constructed and completed by some one from outside the traditional death care world. When that…
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In a follow-up to what Funeral Director Daily reported in March, this press release will inform you that Madison, Wisconsin, based CUNA Mutual Group has closed on its acquisition of Assurant Global Preneed. The press release states that the purchase price was approximately $1.35 billion. Assurant CEO Alan Colberg said this in the release, “This…
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Earlier this week the largest funeral home and cemetery operator in North America, Service Corporation International (SCI), revealed their results for the 2nd Quarter of 2021. It was a much anticipated report as it would mark a comparison with the 2nd Quarter of 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic was flourishing and funeral homes and cemeteries…
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I can remember back to a time when I thought sending out direct mailing pieces for preneed funeral planning was too forward and bordered on being in bad taste. At that time we were always worried about offending someone who had an illness in the family or who recently had a death in the family. …
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I’ve operated and managed a thriving funeral home. If you’ve been there and done it. . . you know it is 24/7/365. . . .not many days go by when you don’t worry about something. And, I’ve dealt with grieving family members, regulators, and the consumer movement too. When you operate a community funeral home,…
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Our funeral home will celebrate 150 years of service in 2022. However, we have really only helped families pre-arrange and pre-finance funerals since about 1964 — about 60 years. And, in those early years, it really wasn’t about pre-planning and pre-financing consumer funerals, but about setting up payment options or trusts for those helped through…
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An article entitled “Relational Spending in Funerals: Caring for others loved and lost” appeared in the March edition of the Journal of Consumer Psychology. The research for the article was done by assistant marketing Professor Sarah Whitley of the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business. In this article about the study you can read…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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