Yesterday we wrote about an article in Chicago Business which featured a story on Chicago area funeral homes that were seeing a drop in margins and a drop in number of calls. The end result of that fact was that many of the smaller firms were actually closing their doors for good. Funeral Director Daily…
Read MoreOver the weekend I read a very interesting article that was posted to Chicago Business. The contents of the article will come as no surprise to you — it is about the difficulty of funeral homes retaining margins and call volume and closing because of not being able to do that. One of the funeral…
Read MoreHere is some news from around the world of funeral service in the last week. KCBS of the San Francisco Bay Area reports that the Mare Island Naval Cemetery has been declared a “National Disgrace” by a Navy captain. The 160 year old cemetery, founded in 1854, is not a part of the VA system…
Read MoreI came across a couple of articles this week that once again reminded me that not everyone in the funeral industry is above board when it comes to serving client families or doing the right thing when others are not watching. First of all, the Arkansas attorney general reached an agreement with Arkansas Funeral Care…
Read MoreBUSINESS
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…
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
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
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…
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…