Invite your spouse for CANA’s Tuesday night Peer Support

By Funeral Director Daily March 18, 2024

    For the first time that I can remember, the Cremation Association of North America’s (CANA) Peer Support online meeting is asking all funeral workers to invite their spouse for tomorrow night’s group get-together.  According to a recent press release from CANA, here’s why:   “A funeral professional may be called upon as an…

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Friday was a “Great Day” for funeral service

By Funeral Director Daily March 18, 2024

    Friday was March 15 or the “Ides of March”.  And, it appears that Friday, March 15, 2024, was a better day for funeral service than Friday, March 15, 44 BC was for Julius Caesar.   Funeral service has been hit with a lot of bad publicity lately about certain funeral providers not always…

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The “Ides of March” and time for our most-read stories

By Funeral Director Daily March 15, 2024

        It’s the “Ides of March” today — representing the 74th day of the Roman calendar and the day in ancient Rome that was the deadline for settling debts from the previous year. . . .Of course, the “Ides of March”, or the 15th of March, has also became known for betrayal…

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“See No Fees” looks to funeral industry for growth

By Funeral Director Daily March 15, 2024

    If you are an independent funeral home owner you know it is not all about just being a great funeral director and/or embalmer anymore. You need to be a solid business-person and understand how the revenue you take in for your services moves to the bottom line as profits without getting gobbled up…

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Our Take: Park Lawn/Carriage Services 2023 dance ending with no agreement probably worked out best for all concerned

By Funeral Director Daily March 14, 2024

      Back in 2017 when I served on the board of the University of Minnesota I had a hand in the hiring of new Head Football Coach P.J. Fleck.  Coach Fleck is still there and has had some success coaching in the Big Ten.  Outside of the improvement of our team, I have…

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BUSINESS

Are we in the midst of a paradigm shift, from “Services selection” to “Memorialization selection”, by the consumer

By Funeral Director Daily | October 16, 2025

    As things seem to do in my life, circumstances came together this week to have me reflect on changes in the Death Care profession/industry.  First of all, here’s three items that came together…

Hollywood Forever’s “High-Rise” mausoleum and “Premium” products may be the future of cemeteries

By Funeral Director Daily | October 14, 2025

  This information (with photos) from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery announces the opening of their recently completed Gower Mausoleum.  Here’s a paragraph from the cemetery’s recent announcement:   “Hollywood Forever is honored to announce the…

Content planning to boost a funeral home’s online presence

By Funeral Director Daily | October 10, 2025

    Boosting Your Funeral Home’s Online Presence: An Action Plan for Content That Engages and Builds Trust In today’s digital world, a funeral home website is far more than a static brochure. It’s the…

FINANCE

HIllenbrand Industries sold

By Funeral Director Daily | October 17, 2025

    Since they sold Batesville in February 2023, Hillenbrand Industries has been out of the Death Care business.  But, if you are a long-time member of the Death Care community the name Hillenbrand has…

Another private equity purchase on the horizon?

By Funeral Director Daily | October 15, 2025

    There is a lot happening in the Death Care world. . . especially when it comes to Death Care businesses changing hands.  We recently learned that Funeral Partners, one of  Great Britain’s largest…

Pure Cremation’s private equity owner putting the business up for sale

By Funeral Director Daily | October 13, 2025

  I learned through an article from Sky News and in this article from KillBait that Epiris, the private equity firm that acquired London area-based Direct Cremation provider Pure Cremation just over two years ago,…

REGULATIONS

Veteran Cemeteries will continue with burials. . . but what is open and closed on a government shutdown

By Funeral Director Daily | September 29, 2025

  Tomorrow is the last day of the federal government’s fiscal year.  That is not necessarily a big deal except that the new federal budget year begins on Wednesday and as I write this on…

Indiana Court: “Death Doula” does not need a funeral director license

By Funeral Director Daily | September 16, 2025

      According to this issue of the Indianapolis Star an Indiana court of appeals ruled in late August that the State of Indiana “violated the First Amendment rights of a Fort Wayne “death…

Funeral Directors are heroes

By Funeral Director Daily | September 11, 2025

      The beginning of a recent article on the ASD Blog, authored by Jessica Farren, had a quote without, to my knowledge, an author’s acknowledgement.  I will post it here with no acknowledgement…

CEMETERY

Are we in the midst of a paradigm shift, from “Services selection” to “Memorialization selection”, by the consumer

By Funeral Director Daily | October 16, 2025

    As things seem to do in my life, circumstances came together this week to have me reflect on changes in the Death Care profession/industry.  First of all, here’s three items that came together…

Hollywood Forever’s “High-Rise” mausoleum and “Premium” products may be the future of cemeteries

By Funeral Director Daily | October 14, 2025

  This information (with photos) from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery announces the opening of their recently completed Gower Mausoleum.  Here’s a paragraph from the cemetery’s recent announcement:   “Hollywood Forever is honored to announce the…

Park Lawn adds Memorial Gardens in Taos

By Funeral Director Daily | October 6, 2025

  According to this press release from Park Lawn Corporation, the funeral home and cemetery consolidator added what they call their Taos Memorial Gardens adjacent to their existing DeVargas Funeral Home in Taos, New Mexico.…

CREMATION

Are we in the midst of a paradigm shift, from “Services selection” to “Memorialization selection”, by the consumer

By Funeral Director Daily | October 16, 2025

    As things seem to do in my life, circumstances came together this week to have me reflect on changes in the Death Care profession/industry.  First of all, here’s three items that came together…

Pure Cremation’s private equity owner putting the business up for sale

By Funeral Director Daily | October 13, 2025

  I learned through an article from Sky News and in this article from KillBait that Epiris, the private equity firm that acquired London area-based Direct Cremation provider Pure Cremation just over two years ago,…

Can independent funeral home operators undercut “wannabe” national cremation providers on price?

By Funeral Director Daily | October 8, 2025

    The question posed in the headline is interesting.  What is happening in Great Britain may be a precursor of what could happen in North America about the billing amount to consumers for the…

PRENEED

Preneed companies emerge as funeral home lending sources

By Funeral Director Daily | October 3, 2025

    Morgan Stanley, a global financial services firm that provides a wide range of products and services, including investment banking, wealth management, consumer banking, and brokerage services, recently made this comment in an article, “Life…

Co-op Funeralcare increases “Funeral Plan” sales over 17% despite cyberattack

By Funeral Director Daily | October 1, 2025

  An April cyberattack which you can read about here probably cost the parent company of Great Britain’s largest funeral home operator, Co-op Funeralcare, about a US$ 107 million profit swing but didn’t seem to…

Acquiring client families — “Any Which Way You Can”

By Funeral Director Daily | September 30, 2025

    As so often happens in my world I’ve had some real life and/or businesses experiences or discussions in the last week or ten days that has made me think about Death Care.  And,…

PRODUCTS

News for the Profession

By Funeral Director Daily | October 14, 2025

  News from Suppliers and Practitioners that you can use. . . .       From a Press Release from Foveo : Foveo Memorial Services Inc. (“Foveo) and Tukios, one of the profession’s leading…

Hollywood Forever’s “High-Rise” mausoleum and “Premium” products may be the future of cemeteries

By Funeral Director Daily | October 14, 2025

  This information (with photos) from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery announces the opening of their recently completed Gower Mausoleum.  Here’s a paragraph from the cemetery’s recent announcement:   “Hollywood Forever is honored to announce the…

News for the Profession

By Funeral Director Daily | September 30, 2025

    Sunset continues to redefine their process of finding assets for families.  They recently announced that they have a new website that makes the search for assets even easier. Sunset is a free service…