It’s been an interesting first quarter if you are invested in the stock market. We’ve seen interest rates continue to rise and we’ve seen popular opinion on what that might do to technology companies vary. In addition, we’ve seen technology companies reduce their workforce even as some of their stock prices have increased.…
The other day as I was reading some information on the current stock market I saw this quote, “Narrowing leadership is rarely a good thing for market health”. The quote pertained to the current tech company stock market and pointed out that leadership, as referenced by value gains, in that segment had narrowed…
This article from Business News Australia, that came out on Monday, March 27, indicates that Australia’s largest provider of death care services, InvoCare has rejected a non-solicited offer of $Aus 1.8 billion (United States $1.2 billion) from American private equity player TPG Global made earlier this month. According to the article, TPG…
Not so many years ago the role of the funeral director or mortician in a community was to prepare the deceased for burial and coordinate all services between the family that was requesting services and the church body that was delivering those services. . . .which most of the time consisted of a…
Last week I had not even finished putting up Friday’s article which dealt with an acquisition when I was notified of another public company acquisition. This time the announcement came from Carriage Services and announced its acquisition of a group of three funeral homes, two cemeteries, and a cremation center based in the…
BUSINESS
Most people just don’t understand . . . .
It’s Monday, October 27, and much of the Death Care universe is centered in Chicago, Illinois, attending the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) International Convention & Expo. I had my schedule of the convention…
Dead people don’t pay taxes
In early October North America’s largest purveyor of Death Care services, Service Corporation International (SCI), received an approved zoning ruling to build Funeraria del Angel, a funeral home and cemetery in San Antonio,…
Are we in the midst of a paradigm shift, from “Services selection” to “Memorialization selection”, by the consumer
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…
FINANCE
There must be profits in Direct Cremation
With the NFDA convention going on in Chicago I thought that I would give attendees something to talk about while exploring the Expo floor. It was only a couple of weeks ago that…
Seeking Alpha author on SCI stock: “You might want to hold this one until your last breath”
Seeking Alpha contributiing author Daniel Jones published an article this week titled, “Service Corporation International: You might want to hold this one until your last breath”. It is a very interesting article that…
Rollings Funeral Services makes acquisitions
Funeral Director Daily recently learned that Rollings Funeral Service, based in Georgia, made a couple of acquisitions involving more than 100-year old family funeral homes. Over the summer they purchased the McCombs Funeral Home of…
REGULATIONS
Dead people don’t pay taxes
In early October North America’s largest purveyor of Death Care services, Service Corporation International (SCI), received an approved zoning ruling to build Funeraria del Angel, a funeral home and cemetery in San Antonio,…
Veteran Cemeteries will continue with burials. . . but what is open and closed on a government shutdown
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
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…
CEMETERY
Dead people don’t pay taxes
In early October North America’s largest purveyor of Death Care services, Service Corporation International (SCI), received an approved zoning ruling to build Funeraria del Angel, a funeral home and cemetery in San Antonio,…
Are we in the midst of a paradigm shift, from “Services selection” to “Memorialization selection”, by the consumer
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
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…
CREMATION
There must be profits in Direct Cremation
With the NFDA convention going on in Chicago I thought that I would give attendees something to talk about while exploring the Expo floor. It was only a couple of weeks ago that…
Are we in the midst of a paradigm shift, from “Services selection” to “Memorialization selection”, by the consumer
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
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,…
PRENEED
Preneed companies emerge as funeral home lending sources
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
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”
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
Here’s a new product everyone in the cremation business could use
I operated a crematory at our funeral home and one of the tasks I very much disliked was transfering cremation remains into the very popular “vase-shaped” urns. You see, while the vase-shaped urn has…
PlotBox acquires MIS
In this press release issued last week you can read that PlotBox has acquired MIS (sometimes referred to as HMIS). The PlotBox website brings about this statement about the integration of the companies,…
News for the Profession
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…
