Colorado lawmakers are expected to vote today on a bill that will make owning a mortuary or crematory and also owning a body broker business at the same time illegal. You may have been following the happenings at Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors of Montrose, Colorado, this past winter that has prompted this action. According to…
Hillenbrand Industries reported 2nd quarter results last week. Hillenbrand, long known as the parent company of Batesville Caskets, has been, of late, driven by its entry into the Processed Equipment arena. The company reported a net loss for the quarter which was the result of taking a $63 million dollar charge against the carrying value…
Death care conglomerate Matthews International, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, posted their 2nd quarter earnings report of Fiscal Year 2018 last week. Here’s what President and CEO Joseph C. Bartolacci said of the report, “The company’s results for the fiscal 2018 second quarter were in line with our internal expectation and we are on track to…
If you have followed the death care industry in Australia you would see that large public companies InvoCare and Propel Funeral Partners are seeking to gain market share via acquisitions. This is nothing new in the funeral industry where unit “roll-ups” have been in vogue since the 1960’s. If you are a free-market person you…
I present you this article published yesterday from investor opinion site Seeking Alpha on the potential upside of StoneMor Partners. It is a good read and, like most articles pertaining to the death care industry, there is something to take from it. Funeral Director Daily take: I will tell you, however, as a 35 year industry…
BUSINESS
Knowing the value of the “Front-Line” worker
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve had the opportunity to visit with many from the “Death Care” or “Funeral” industry. Those discussions made me realize that our profession has came a long…
Banks report “Weaker loan demand”, Consumers pull back on credit: What does that mean for your funeral home?
During this week I read two articles and when I did I wondered how the subject of each might affect funeral homes and the funeral business going forward. The articles included this one…
The “Tom Johnson Memorial Classic” raises over $150k in three days
Last week I again had the privilige to attend what is now known as the “Tom Johnson Memorial Classic“. The “Classic” is part golf, part Death Care, but is really all about “Relationship…
FINANCE
SCI settles California issue, looks forward to moving ahead with insurance funded preneed there
Earlier in May the Attorney General of the State of California issued a press release which you can read here announcing an agreement with Service Corporation International (SCI) over an eight-year dispute on…
Park Lawn enters 2024 “Leaner” and more reliant on the “Funeral side”
Park Lawn Corporation revealed their 1st Quarter of 2024 financials last week and you can access them here. The 1st Quarter of 2024 marks the first quarter of operations for the company coming…
Matthews works through “flat-market” quarter
Editor’s Note: This was our feature article for last Friday morning. However, for some reason still unknown to us, the server we contract to support our website was down for a few hours early…
REGULATIONS
SCI settles California issue, looks forward to moving ahead with insurance funded preneed there
Earlier in May the Attorney General of the State of California issued a press release which you can read here announcing an agreement with Service Corporation International (SCI) over an eight-year dispute on…
Federal Trade Commission bans “Non-Compete” agreements
“This rule affects every segment of the American economy and in a simple 3-2 vote destroys billions of dollars in value that employers have spent in compensation for a covenant not to compete”. …
Dignity, care, and respect. . . bringing the fallen home
On Saturday night I was at a movie, came home and turned the television on to catch the news and learned of the missile bombardment of Israel that Iran took responsibility for. Now,…
CEMETERY
Here’s a unique way to blend land preservation with urn burials
Funeral directing company A.W. Lymn of Nottinghamshire, Great Britain, has been giving the green light to construct an ancient style facility for the disposition of cremated human remains. As this article maintains, “they…
County governments seem to have lots of problems, are human remains another one?
Funeral Director Daily recently learned through this article from Public Media for Central Pennyslvania that Centre County will be building a 160-unit columbarium in Zion, Pennsylvania, to house urns that have went…
America’s military cemeteries face financial backlog for upkeep and improvements
Kansas United States Senator Jerry Moran recently testified at a United States Senate Veterans Affairs Committee meeting that “When mourning a death the last thing a grieving family needs is some bureaucratic hurdle…
CREMATION
Here’s a unique way to blend land preservation with urn burials
Funeral directing company A.W. Lymn of Nottinghamshire, Great Britain, has been giving the green light to construct an ancient style facility for the disposition of cremated human remains. As this article maintains, “they…
Our take: Post-Cremation products are here to stay
One of my friends attended the latest convention of the International Cemetery, Cremation, and Funeral Association (ICCFA) and reported to me that “there were a crazy amount of post-cremation product vendors exhibiting available options”. And,…
Take a cue from Apple. . . Sell more services
Apple has been seeing sales of its iPhone declining. The product, which makes up about 1/2 of the company’s sales, dropped in sales revenue another 10% in the last quarter according to…
PRENEED
SCI settles California issue, looks forward to moving ahead with insurance funded preneed there
Earlier in May the Attorney General of the State of California issued a press release which you can read here announcing an agreement with Service Corporation International (SCI) over an eight-year dispute on…
Banks report “Weaker loan demand”, Consumers pull back on credit: What does that mean for your funeral home?
During this week I read two articles and when I did I wondered how the subject of each might affect funeral homes and the funeral business going forward. The articles included this one…
Take Ring Ring Marketing for a Test Drive
When it comes to technology I am a confessed “Novice”. And personally, with Social Media I am pretty quiet too. . . . or maybe my life is dull enough that none of…
PRODUCTS
Here’s a unique way to blend land preservation with urn burials
Funeral directing company A.W. Lymn of Nottinghamshire, Great Britain, has been giving the green light to construct an ancient style facility for the disposition of cremated human remains. As this article maintains, “they…
Our take: Post-Cremation products are here to stay
One of my friends attended the latest convention of the International Cemetery, Cremation, and Funeral Association (ICCFA) and reported to me that “there were a crazy amount of post-cremation product vendors exhibiting available options”. And,…
Take a cue from Apple. . . Sell more services
Apple has been seeing sales of its iPhone declining. The product, which makes up about 1/2 of the company’s sales, dropped in sales revenue another 10% in the last quarter according to…
