Debt, Demographics, and Disruption

By Funeral Director Daily June 20, 2025

  Are we living in the age of Debt, Demographics, and Disruption?  And, if we are, are there parallels from life and investing that might also move into the Death Care realm?   I heard the phrase “Debt, Demographics, and Disruption” when I sat down to catch my breath on Wednesday afternoon after returning from…

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Dignity Funeral Directors not afraid to make changes, returns to profitability

By Funeral Director Daily June 19, 2025

    Dignity Funeral Directors is now the name of a company once known as public company Dignity plc that was taken private in 2023.   The company is a funeral service provider based in the United Kingdom.  They recently reported their 2024 financials to the Companies House in Great Britain and in that report,…

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OneRoom brings Revenue Generation to your streaming

By Funeral Director Daily June 18, 2025

    We recently received a press release from OneRoom, a trusted leader in funeral streaming.  The press release made known that the company has launched its new “Rev Gen Bundle” – defined as a way to make every stream work harder for your funeral home. With Tribute Buttons and Pre-Need Pathways, funeral homes can…

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Sunset regulations, Hollywood, Guest writers, and Out-of-the-Box thinking dominate “Most Read” articles of the past 30 days

By Funeral Director Daily June 17, 2025

  Once again it is time for Funeral Director Daily to give our readers a 2nd chance to read articles that they may have missed in the past 30 days.  We’ve highlighted the Top 5 most read from May 15 to June 15 below.   The articles again show the variety of topics that Funeral…

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Consumer group calls for “cutting out the funeral director as middleman” on direct cremations

By Funeral Director Daily June 17, 2025

    We noticed in this article last week that a consumer group has asked for the removal of funeral directors as “the middleman in cremations, saying it’s costing people money”.  Among other things, the group says “it gives them (funeral directors) the opportunity to “hook people into a package deal” charging grieving families for…

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BUSINESS

Trust your instincts, don’t always follow the herd with business decisions

By Funeral Director Daily | December 22, 2025

  If you own, operate, or manage a funeral home or cemetery you get lots of advice — including from Funeral Director Daily at times.  However, I’ve also learned over 40+ years of business ownership…

New York audit of state funeral industry finds “Red flags”

By Funeral Director Daily | December 19, 2025

    A recent report (November 2025) from the State of New York Department of Health with the results of an audit “which covered April 2019 through November 2023, concluded that the state Department of…

More Americans take on debt to cover funerals

By Funeral Director Daily | December 12, 2025

  I came across this recent article from USA Today titled “Americans are going into debt over death.  Here are affordability tips.”  Reading that article led me to a survey and results from Debt.com and…

FINANCE

Pinnacle Funeral Service makes Green Bay acquisition

By Funeral Director Daily | December 18, 2025

  We learned earlier this week that Pinnacle Funeral Service, a funeral home owner and operator based in St. Petersburg, Florida, has acquired the Malcore Funeral Home & Crematory as well as Simply Cremation in…

Hillenbrand sale progressing, but some questions remain

By Funeral Director Daily | December 17, 2025

I had almost forgot that Hillenbrand Inc., the former parent company of Batesville, had itself agreed to be sold to Lone Star Funds last August (2025).  I was reminded of that transaction from this recent…

Park Lawn purchases 8 funeral homes in greater Oklahoma City

By Funeral Director Daily | December 15, 2025

  Late last week we received this press release that indicates that Park Lawn Corporation acquired eight stand-alone funeral homes in locations spanning the greater Oklahoma City market.  It represents Park Lawn’s entrance into the…

REGULATIONS

New York audit of state funeral industry finds “Red flags”

By Funeral Director Daily | December 19, 2025

    A recent report (November 2025) from the State of New York Department of Health with the results of an audit “which covered April 2019 through November 2023, concluded that the state Department of…

Missing body causing problems between family and cemetery

By Funeral Director Daily | December 3, 2025

    According to details in this article from CBC Canada Royal Air Force glider pilot veteran Gordon Patrick was buried at the Green Acres Cemetery outside of Winnipeg, Manitoba, following his death in 1973. …

Subject of iconic “Homecoming” photo died on Veterans Day

By Funeral Director Daily | November 28, 2025

  This is Thanksgiving weekend — a time to reflect and give thanks for the lives we are living.  Those of you who are old enough will remember back in 1973 a time when our…

CEMETERY

Cremations, and now tariffs creating headwinds for monument dealers

By Funeral Director Daily | December 16, 2025

  American monument dealers have become accustomed to dealing with the rising cremation rates in the country and the dwindling sales opportunities for cemetery monuments that fact brings.   But now, according to this recent…

The Green Funeral movement is alive in New York City

By Funeral Director Daily | December 11, 2025

  Amy Cunningham is a friend of mine.  She was a writer/editor who has become a funeral director and she has teased me that I was a funeral director who has became a writer/editor with…

Opinion: The Jewish Faith and Cremation

By Funeral Director Daily | December 10, 2025

  I grew up in the very homogeneous community of Alexandria, Minnesota.  From this Wikipedia article you can see that the city at the time of my growing up had a population of a little…

CREMATION

Cremations, and now tariffs creating headwinds for monument dealers

By Funeral Director Daily | December 16, 2025

  American monument dealers have become accustomed to dealing with the rising cremation rates in the country and the dwindling sales opportunities for cemetery monuments that fact brings.   But now, according to this recent…

Opinion: The Jewish Faith and Cremation

By Funeral Director Daily | December 10, 2025

  I grew up in the very homogeneous community of Alexandria, Minnesota.  From this Wikipedia article you can see that the city at the time of my growing up had a population of a little…

Does KFC have a template for Death Care?

By Funeral Director Daily | November 24, 2025

  Alex Fasciano, an analyst for CFRA Research suggests that quick service restaurant player KFC’s (formerly Kentucky Fried Chicken) strategy is “. .centered on driving growth through brand relevance, marketing innovation, (and) operational excellence. .…

PRENEED

More Americans take on debt to cover funerals

By Funeral Director Daily | December 12, 2025

  I came across this recent article from USA Today titled “Americans are going into debt over death.  Here are affordability tips.”  Reading that article led me to a survey and results from Debt.com and…

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…

PRODUCTS

Cremations, and now tariffs creating headwinds for monument dealers

By Funeral Director Daily | December 16, 2025

  American monument dealers have become accustomed to dealing with the rising cremation rates in the country and the dwindling sales opportunities for cemetery monuments that fact brings.   But now, according to this recent…

The Green Funeral movement is alive in New York City

By Funeral Director Daily | December 11, 2025

  Amy Cunningham is a friend of mine.  She was a writer/editor who has become a funeral director and she has teased me that I was a funeral director who has became a writer/editor with…

More breakthrough technologies from OneRoom available

By Funeral Director Daily | December 5, 2025

  The streaming, recording, and re-watching of Death Care memorial events is becoming more and more a staple of what consumers are now expecting from their Death Care event professional.  And much like any new…