With today being the last day in the business calendar of the first eight months of the year and April to June reports all in, I thought it might be a good time to find out where the Death Care Index is sitting in relation to the stock market in general. The Death Care Index,…
On Tuesday the Hormel Corporation announced a new employee benefit available to all United States Hormel Corporation employees. This benefit, that they are calling “Inspired Pathways”, will pay for two-years of community or junior college tuition for all children of the aforementioned Hormel employees. You can read an article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune here…
Last week I came across this article from USA Today and I also saw news reports about President Trump’s brother, Robert Trump, who had died and his funeral services were held at the White House. The article mentions that White House funerals are rare. It seems that when dignitaries die and there is a…
To our readers: Before we get into our feature article of the day I want to apologize to readers who did not receive distributed copies of Funeral Director Daily last Wednesday and Thursday. Unfortunately, we ran into issues where we simply outgrew our former distributor of Funeral Director Daily emails, Twitter, and Facebook postings. The…
For almost 35 years I operated a funeral home and most of what I did there I thoroughly enjoyed. . . especially the part that was directly working with the families that were in need of funeral service help at the time. I felt privileged that they would let me into the family discussions…
BUSINESS
Creedy, Jefferson form advisory firm
Long-time Death Care executives and advisors Alan Creedy and Danny Jefferson have again joined together to form a new firm to help those in the business. A press release issued earlier this week…
Slow the erosion, relocate graves, or letting nature take its course. . . .
When it comes to a cemetery on a river bank and the river has moved the shoreline back over 20 feet in the past 30 years and you now realize that in the…
Washington crematories stymied by air quality regulations
Washington State cremation owners and operators find themselves in somewhat of a Catch-22 when it comes to new cremation equipment. According to this article from the Seattle Times Pacific Northwest Magazine old cremation machines…
FINANCE
Investors shy away from Death Care stocks
The price of equity ownership (stocks) in public companies is a function of supply and demand. The more people that want to own the stock (equity or ownership in the company) the higher the…
2025 Business Story of the Year: “Rise of the Regionals”
If you would ask Gemini Artificial Intelligence what percentage of funeral homes will be sold in the next five years, here is the answer that you will be given: “While an exact percentage…
The Question: “How does the economy look for 2026?” , The Answer: “Depends on who you ask?”
The overall economy and, more importantly, the way consumers and Death Care clientele feel about their individual situations has some effect on purchases of Death Care products and services– both Pre-Need and At-Need. It’s…
REGULATIONS
Slacking into the New Year
We’ve noticed at Funeral Director Daily that readership drops by about 33% in the last half of December. It was particularly noticeable this year as we reached a record of over 21,000 page views…
Bill back on the table to increase Social Security Lump-Sum Death Benefit
Back in September 2024 Funeral Director Daily let you know that the Social Secuirty Survivor Benefits Equity Act had been introduced to the the United States House of Representatives. While the bill failed to…
New York audit of state funeral industry finds “Red flags”
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…
CEMETERY
Slow the erosion, relocate graves, or letting nature take its course. . . .
When it comes to a cemetery on a river bank and the river has moved the shoreline back over 20 feet in the past 30 years and you now realize that in the…
Cremations, and now tariffs creating headwinds for monument dealers
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
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…
CREMATION
Washington crematories stymied by air quality regulations
Washington State cremation owners and operators find themselves in somewhat of a Catch-22 when it comes to new cremation equipment. According to this article from the Seattle Times Pacific Northwest Magazine old cremation machines…
Cremations, and now tariffs creating headwinds for monument dealers
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
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…
PRENEED
More Americans take on debt to cover funerals
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
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…
PRODUCTS
Creedy, Jefferson form advisory firm
Long-time Death Care executives and advisors Alan Creedy and Danny Jefferson have again joined together to form a new firm to help those in the business. A press release issued earlier this week…
Washington crematories stymied by air quality regulations
Washington State cremation owners and operators find themselves in somewhat of a Catch-22 when it comes to new cremation equipment. According to this article from the Seattle Times Pacific Northwest Magazine old cremation machines…
The Trend for 2026: Technology keeps on coming
I’ve been thinking about this “Trends” article for the past month. I was going to originally title the article “Back to the Future” on the premise that I’ve seen two trends emerging this…
