Financial writer Benen Ling published on Seeking Alpha an article on the United States public funeral home and cemetery companies last week. He titled his article, “These Death stocks are barely clinging to life”. You can read the article here. Ling writes a good article and makes some great points about our profession and the…
In recent months at Funeral Director Daily we have kept up with what we think are some of the newer ways to memorialize that consumers are thinking about such as alkaline hydrolysis, recombination (human composting), potential outdoor cremation and the like. Until we saw this article we had forgot all about Celestis Memorial Spaceflights –…
This week the Minneapolis Star Tribune did a really good piece on the role of the “Specialty” funeral director in our society. What they referred to as the “Specialty” funeral director those of us in the industry have referred to as the “trade” service. You can read the article here. The basics of the article…
A written article and video news story from NBC Connecticut that you can see here tells the story of the death and eventual burial of Ms. Tessa Pascarella. The story is one of the difficulty of having a green burial on land you own and how that can be accomplished. To me, it is also…
Last week a short article was written and published by the business channel CNBC on the merits of investing in death care company Service Corporation International. You can read that article here. The article states that in the majority of the last economic downturns that Service Corporation has fared better than most stocks due to…
BUSINESS
Green cemetery case ending up in Federal Court
According to Gemini AI, “(the number of) articles can indicate short-term reactions, they can also foretell longer-term trends by reflecting shifts in public and business attention and sentiment”. And, if you read the number…
Small volume firms need to know their potential value
Within the last month Death Care marketing expert Glenn Gould contributed to a Funeral Director Daily article with this comment, “There are too many funeral homes. NFDA estimated 15,500 firms in 2023; 30%…
. . Dream things that never were and say “Why not”
When Ted Kennedy eulogized his brother Bobby (RFK) at his funeral following his assasination in 1968 he made this comment about what RFK had at one time said about his ability to look…
FINANCE
Small volume firms need to know their potential value
Within the last month Death Care marketing expert Glenn Gould contributed to a Funeral Director Daily article with this comment, “There are too many funeral homes. NFDA estimated 15,500 firms in 2023; 30%…
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…
REGULATIONS
Green cemetery case ending up in Federal Court
According to Gemini AI, “(the number of) articles can indicate short-term reactions, they can also foretell longer-term trends by reflecting shifts in public and business attention and sentiment”. And, if you read the number…
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…
CEMETERY
Green cemetery case ending up in Federal Court
According to Gemini AI, “(the number of) articles can indicate short-term reactions, they can also foretell longer-term trends by reflecting shifts in public and business attention and sentiment”. And, if you read the number…
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…
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…
