We recently came across a couple of brief articles pertaining to existing funeral homes making additions to their operation in order to add new revenue. The first of these articles is from the Hastings (Minnesota) Star Gazette and you can find it here. It pertains to the Ellis Funeral Home of Hastings breaking ground for…
I was driving into a board meeting on Monday and listening to one of the business channels on Sirius Radio. The topic that came up and was being discussed was the potential acquisition of Fox by either Disney or Comcast. As you may know, Fox was given an acquisition offer by Disney last December at…
Later tonight the El Cajon (California) Planning Commission will have the opportunity to approve an application to approve the first crematory in that city. According to an article in East County Magazine that you can read here, Robert Zakar, owner of El Cajon Mortuary, is seeking to add on-site cremation services to his existing funeral…
Late last Wednesday a jury in Montana issued a verdict against a Montana funeral home for coercing a widow client into pursuing a cremation for her husband against his “final wishes” for earth burial. You can read about the case in the Great Falls Tribune here. According to the article, Robert Yeager, age 64 died…
InvoCare Limited, the market leading funeral home firm in Australia, announced Friday that it will be closing on two acquisitions from the South Island of New Zealand on June 22. You can read a clip about this from Motley Fool Australia here. The company will acquire Hope and Sons Funeral Directors in Dunedin and Whitestone…
BUSINESS
Demographic changes will drive business. . .and your funeral home’s value
I came across this recent article from Yahoo Finance titled “Climate change is ending the Sun Belt boom” and it reminded me how demographics can and will affect the operations of your funeral…
Moving preneed thoughts to the consumer mind
I think it is a pretty well established fact that if a funeral home can get families to talk about what they want to have done at their eventual death the funeral home…
Unclaimed bodies: Growing and a threat to your financial success?
If you do research like I do about the Death Care profession you come across lots of articles that talk about county morgues running out of room to hold human remains. And, one…
FINANCE
Demographic changes will drive business. . .and your funeral home’s value
I came across this recent article from Yahoo Finance titled “Climate change is ending the Sun Belt boom” and it reminded me how demographics can and will affect the operations of your funeral…
Hoff Funeral Home and Cremation Service adds to their Minnesota holdings. . and more Hoff news
It was recently announced in this article from the Fillmore County Journal that Hoff Funeral and Cremation Service recently acquired the former Riley Funeral Homes in both Lanesboro and Chatfield, bringing their number…
Will Carriage Services be next?
It’s been less than a month since a partnership of Homesteaders Life and private equity firm Birch Hill Partners announced their intention to acquire 100% of public funeral home and cemetery operator Park…
REGULATIONS
Unclaimed bodies: Growing and a threat to your financial success?
If you do research like I do about the Death Care profession you come across lots of articles that talk about county morgues running out of room to hold human remains. And, one…
A roadblock in Delaware
All states have some type of restriction on who can fill in and file death certificates online. And, in most states, that responsibility lies many times with licensed funeral directors and morticians. This…
The story of the “Last Signer” of the Declaration of Independence
A rallying cry for colonists in pre-independent America was “No taxes without representation”. That basically referred to the act of taxing the colonies through British laws where colonists had no say, or vote, in…
CEMETERY
Grimes family buys cemeteries, prepares for the 3rd generation
Johnny and Stacey Grimes are the owners of the Grimes Funeral Home in Kerrville, Texas, and according to this article from the Hill Country Community Journal they recently purchased the two Garden of…
Synergy is working for the Wilbert Group
“Synergy” is an interesting word and one that is almost always used when companies align, merge, or are aquired. It is defined as such, “the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations,…
Musgrove’s announce plan for new “Court of Honor”
We are just a weekend away from honoring our veterans with Memorial Day celebrations across the country. In word we received last month we learned that Musgrove Family Mortuaries and Cemeteries was getting…
CREMATION
Cremation has grown to a rate where growth is now “decelerating”
It was back in June when the Cremation Association of North America (CANA) issued its 2024 Annual Statistical Report. That report showed as CANA said, “. . . “the national cremation rate has grown…
Unclaimed bodies: Growing and a threat to your financial success?
If you do research like I do about the Death Care profession you come across lots of articles that talk about county morgues running out of room to hold human remains. And, one…
Synergy is working for the Wilbert Group
“Synergy” is an interesting word and one that is almost always used when companies align, merge, or are aquired. It is defined as such, “the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations,…
PRENEED
Moving preneed thoughts to the consumer mind
I think it is a pretty well established fact that if a funeral home can get families to talk about what they want to have done at their eventual death the funeral home…
Will Carriage Services be next?
It’s been less than a month since a partnership of Homesteaders Life and private equity firm Birch Hill Partners announced their intention to acquire 100% of public funeral home and cemetery operator Park…
Global Atlantic, SCI form preneed partnership
It was announced in this press release yesterday from Global Atlantic Financial Group (Global Atlantic) that the company had formed a partnership with the largest provider of funeral, cemetery, and cremation services in…
PRODUCTS
Cremation has grown to a rate where growth is now “decelerating”
It was back in June when the Cremation Association of North America (CANA) issued its 2024 Annual Statistical Report. That report showed as CANA said, “. . . “the national cremation rate has grown…
Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie, Chevrolet. . . and digging graves
According to this article from Mac’s Motor City Garage “Chevrolet truly was working to be all things to all Americans. If the carmaker had its way, every American would be driving a Chevy.…
Synergy is working for the Wilbert Group
“Synergy” is an interesting word and one that is almost always used when companies align, merge, or are aquired. It is defined as such, “the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations,…
