The Changing Face of Funeral Service Education

By Funeral Director Daily November 1, 2018

Jack Mitchell’s great-great-great uncle started the Mitchell Wiedefeld Funeral Home in Baltimore in 1837.  According to an article and news report from WBAL- TV that you can read and see here, it is one of the oldest funeral homes in Baltimore and has a rich history. Mitchell is quoted in the article when he says,…

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Funeral Service in the Courts

By Funeral Director Daily October 31, 2018

Today we are bringing you two items that relate to the death care industry being in the courts.  The first item that you can read about here involves the Trump administration and its Department of Justice filing a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in defense of a funeral home owner who was sued and…

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SCI Keeps Chugging Along

By Funeral Director Daily October 30, 2018

Death care public company and industry leader Service Corporation International announced 3rd Quarter results yesterday and with the announcement came earnings news of $0.37 per share for the quarter compared to $0.29 per share in the same quarter one year ago.  Total revenues, which include acquisitions, are up for the quarter to over $778 million…

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The Revenue Drop

By Funeral Director Daily October 30, 2018

While I did not attend the recent National Funeral Director’s Association gathering in Salt Lake City, I recently visited with an attendee about the gathering.  One of the things that this veteran funeral director told me was that he cannot remember a time when so many traditional funeral home owners talked about revenue declines and…

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Funeral Home Firms announce Dividends

By Funeral Director Daily October 29, 2018

Last week public market funeral home and cemetery operators Park Lawn Corporation and Carriage Services made announcements about their dividends to stockholders going forward. In an article that you can read here Park Lawn Corporation announced that they will be paying a monthly dividend in November of $C 0.038 per share – which on an…

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BUSINESS

Dead people don’t pay taxes

By Funeral Director Daily | October 21, 2025

    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

By Funeral Director Daily | October 16, 2025

    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…

Hollywood Forever’s “High-Rise” mausoleum and “Premium” products may be the future of cemeteries

By Funeral Director Daily | October 14, 2025

  This information (with photos) from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery announces the opening of their recently completed Gower Mausoleum.  Here’s a paragraph from the cemetery’s recent announcement:   “Hollywood Forever is honored to announce the…

FINANCE

PlotBox acquires MIS

By Funeral Director Daily | October 20, 2025

    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,…

HIllenbrand Industries sold

By Funeral Director Daily | October 17, 2025

    Since they sold Batesville in February 2023, Hillenbrand Industries has been out of the Death Care business.  But, if you are a long-time member of the Death Care community the name Hillenbrand has…

Another private equity purchase on the horizon?

By Funeral Director Daily | October 15, 2025

    There is a lot happening in the Death Care world. . . especially when it comes to Death Care businesses changing hands.  We recently learned that Funeral Partners, one of  Great Britain’s largest…

REGULATIONS

Dead people don’t pay taxes

By Funeral Director Daily | October 21, 2025

    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

By Funeral Director Daily | September 29, 2025

  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…

Indiana Court: “Death Doula” does not need a funeral director license

By Funeral Director Daily | September 16, 2025

      According to this issue of the Indianapolis Star an Indiana court of appeals ruled in late August that the State of Indiana “violated the First Amendment rights of a Fort Wayne “death…

CEMETERY

Dead people don’t pay taxes

By Funeral Director Daily | October 21, 2025

    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

By Funeral Director Daily | October 16, 2025

    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…

Hollywood Forever’s “High-Rise” mausoleum and “Premium” products may be the future of cemeteries

By Funeral Director Daily | October 14, 2025

  This information (with photos) from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery announces the opening of their recently completed Gower Mausoleum.  Here’s a paragraph from the cemetery’s recent announcement:   “Hollywood Forever is honored to announce the…

CREMATION

Are we in the midst of a paradigm shift, from “Services selection” to “Memorialization selection”, by the consumer

By Funeral Director Daily | October 16, 2025

    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

By Funeral Director Daily | October 13, 2025

  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,…

Can independent funeral home operators undercut “wannabe” national cremation providers on price?

By Funeral Director Daily | October 8, 2025

    The question posed in the headline is interesting.  What is happening in Great Britain may be a precursor of what could happen in North America about the billing amount to consumers for the…

PRENEED

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…

Acquiring client families — “Any Which Way You Can”

By Funeral Director Daily | September 30, 2025

    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

PlotBox acquires MIS

By Funeral Director Daily | October 20, 2025

    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

By Funeral Director Daily | October 14, 2025

  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…

Hollywood Forever’s “High-Rise” mausoleum and “Premium” products may be the future of cemeteries

By Funeral Director Daily | October 14, 2025

  This information (with photos) from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery announces the opening of their recently completed Gower Mausoleum.  Here’s a paragraph from the cemetery’s recent announcement:   “Hollywood Forever is honored to announce the…