Today is December 2 and we are into the last month of 2024.  If you are involved in investments — and virtually everybody in this day and age of 401k’s, IRA’s, 529 Plans, and the like is – you have to admit it’s been a pretty good year.  And finally, it has even been a good year for the Funeral Director Daily Death Care Index (DCI).

 

The Funeral Director Daily DCI was started a few years ago to measure the direction of the aggregate Death Care public stock price sentiment.  Very seldom over that time has its numbers kept up with the broader based indexes, but at least for the first 11 months of 2024 it is doing just that.  Up until 2024 it has appeared that the investing public was not as confident in Death Care companies as they were in the overall broad-based market businesses.

 

That seems to have changed for 2024 though as stock price appreciation in public Death Care companies kept up with the marked indexes in general.

 

To be sure, the DCI is not scientific, not price weighted, and offers a very small sample size of companies but does give a general direction of what has happened in the overall Death Care stock market picture.  Over the years, the sample size of the DCI has dwindled as a full 1/2 of the original companies have moved out of the public market for one reason or another.

 

The Funeral Director Daily DCI price is comprised of owning one share of stock in each of the following four public companies who has at least a part of their business touch the Death Care space:  Service Corporation International, Carriage Services, Security National Financial Corporation, and Matthews International.

 

As of the close of business on Friday, November 29, 2024, the composite DCI price stood at $172.38 as compared to the closing price to close out 2023 of $138.68.   That’s an increase of 24.3%

 

When you compare that price to the same numbers for the broader indexes of the stock market, here’s how it compares:

• Death Care Index:  +24.3%
• Dow Jones Industrials:  +18.24%
• NASDAQ:  +28.0%
• S&P 500:  +25.2%

 

And, here’s the fate of each individual company stock that make up the DCI on a Year-to-Date basis:

 

 

The Shrinking members of the DCI — When the DCI was founded by Funeral Director Daily it contained eight public stock members.  Four of those companies, or the Death Care portions of those public companies are no longer in the public realm.  Here’s what happened to each of those companies accompanied by an article on each situation:

 

• StoneMor (Now EverStory) —  Taken private by its largest shareholder Axar Capital
• Assurant — A portion of the company, Assurant Preneed, was sold to CUNA Mutual
• Hillenbrand Industries — Spun off its Death Care company, Batesville, to a private equity firm.  Hillenbrand no longer operates in the Death Care business.
• Park Lawn Corportion — The company was sold and taken private by a group headed by Homesteaders Life Insurance Company.

 

Disclaimer-— The author of this article for Funeral Director Daily holds stock positions in Service Corporation International, Carriage Services, and Security National Financial Corporation.

 

More news from the world of Death Care:

• Special Report–Prince Rupert’s deathcare crisis — Part 2:  Obstacles.  (Note:  Part 1 and Part 3 are also accessible from this link).  The Northern View (British Columbia – Canada)
• AI leads the way for Nova Scotia business that deals with the past.  Saltwire  (Canada)
• Arlington Memorial Park opens first new mausoleum in 30 years.  RoughDraft Atlanta  (GA)
• 60% of United Kingdom adults worry about affording loved ones’ funeral costs, study reveals.  Today’s Wills & Probate (Great Britain)
• NGL partners with Equisoft for pre-need life’s digital modernization.  Life Insurance International

 

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