Acquisitions, mergers, new owners seem to be the norm now in funeral service

By Funeral Director Daily April 9, 2025

  It’s been predicted that the next couple of years could see massive ownership changes in the business of funeral homes.  While the public companies in the business generally let us know of their acquisitions via press releases and quarterly earnings reports it is a little harder to get an idea on what is happening…

Trump’s tariffs and caskets

By Funeral Director Daily April 8, 2025

    The tariffs that President Trump put into effect this week seems to be the subject in every room that I step into.  We even talked about it at after church coffee on Sunday.  So, why not try to give some type of opinion on how those tariffs will affect the major manufactured product…

A perception that seems to be getting tougher and tougher to shake

By Funeral Director Daily April 7, 2025

    I was home last Wednesday in the late afternoon waiting out a rain-delay while trying to watch my Minnesota Twins battle the White Sox in Chicago.  At the same time I was watching an early April winter storm dropping over a foot of snow outside my family room window.   During this time…

Death Care Index holds its own against other indexes for 1Q 2025

By Funeral Director Daily April 7, 2025

  Funeral Director Daily’s analysis of the Death Care Index (DCI) for the 1st Quarter of 2025 shows that the four public companies that comprise the index held up favorably as a whole when compared against the larger followed indexes such as the Nasdaq, the S&P 500, and the Dow Jones Industrial averages.   Editors…

“Funeral Coverage Act” would provide another resource for funeral costs

By Funeral Director Daily April 4, 2025

  Funeral Director Daily first reported on the “Funeral Coverage Act”, a proposed amendment to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to treat distributions from health savings accounts (HSA) for funeral expenses of the account beneficiary as qualified distributions last March.  (You can see that article here).  However, the bill never made its complete movement…

BUSINESS

Service Corporation purchases two funeral homes in Ontario

By Funeral Director Daily | February 2, 2026

  We learned from this article written by Fort Erie Radio that Service Corporation International (SCI) recently purchased two funeral homes in the Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada, community.  According to the article, the Williams Funeral…

“Mattering”: Can your funeral home help “It”. . . Can “It” help your funeral home?

By Funeral Director Daily | January 29, 2026

  It’s not something I thought about ever.  And, while I sensed some of the psychological needs associated with it, I’d never thought of it in the sense I learned about it last week.  …

The “Humanity” of Death Care

By Funeral Director Daily | January 28, 2026

  Funeral Director Daily publishes lots of articles that deal with the business, or money side of Death Care.  That’s good. . .and readers seem to like it, however, I never want any of us…

FINANCE

Service Corporation purchases two funeral homes in Ontario

By Funeral Director Daily | February 2, 2026

  We learned from this article written by Fort Erie Radio that Service Corporation International (SCI) recently purchased two funeral homes in the Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada, community.  According to the article, the Williams Funeral…

Seeking Alpha authors “Bullish” on SCI

By Funeral Director Daily | January 27, 2026

  When you follow the public companies in Death Care like I do it is unusual to find articles about them appearing very often.  But, last week two separate authors of Seeking Alpha gave opinions…

What’s with Private Equity?

By Funeral Director Daily | January 26, 2026

  I guess “Private” means “Privacy” and that is probably why it is so difficult to get information on how the Private Equity market is doing.  The status of the industry is, however, of much…

REGULATIONS

Offender to be dis-interred and removed from Fort Sam Houston National Military Cemetery

By Funeral Director Daily | January 30, 2026

  Texas Senator John Cornyn authored a bill that was passed by the Senate, the House, and signed into law by President Trump in late December 2025, that was included in the 2026 National Defense…

Veterans’ Affairs recently grants $77 million to state-operated veteran cemeteries

By Funeral Director Daily | January 22, 2026

    According to this recent article in Newsweek “The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has awarded more than $77 million in new grants aimed at expanding and improving state-operated Veterans cemeteries.  The funding, announced…

Cemetery legal dispute ends in disinterment

By Funeral Director Daily | January 15, 2026

  A lengthy legal case of about four years that involved a Service Corporation International (SCI) cemetery and also included a well-known and succesful business family has ended in a disinterment ruling of the keepsakes…

CEMETERY

Offender to be dis-interred and removed from Fort Sam Houston National Military Cemetery

By Funeral Director Daily | January 30, 2026

  Texas Senator John Cornyn authored a bill that was passed by the Senate, the House, and signed into law by President Trump in late December 2025, that was included in the 2026 National Defense…

The “Humanity” of Death Care

By Funeral Director Daily | January 28, 2026

  Funeral Director Daily publishes lots of articles that deal with the business, or money side of Death Care.  That’s good. . .and readers seem to like it, however, I never want any of us…

Veterans’ Affairs recently grants $77 million to state-operated veteran cemeteries

By Funeral Director Daily | January 22, 2026

    According to this recent article in Newsweek “The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has awarded more than $77 million in new grants aimed at expanding and improving state-operated Veterans cemeteries.  The funding, announced…

CREMATION

Veterans’ Affairs recently grants $77 million to state-operated veteran cemeteries

By Funeral Director Daily | January 22, 2026

    According to this recent article in Newsweek “The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has awarded more than $77 million in new grants aimed at expanding and improving state-operated Veterans cemeteries.  The funding, announced…

Washington crematories stymied by air quality regulations

By Funeral Director Daily | January 7, 2026

  Washington State cremation owners and operators find themselves in somewhat of a Catch-22 when it comes to new cremation equipment.  According to this article from the Seattle Times Pacific Northwest Magazine old cremation machines…

Cremations, and now tariffs creating headwinds for monument dealers

By Funeral Director Daily | December 16, 2025

  American monument dealers have become accustomed to dealing with the rising cremation rates in the country and the dwindling sales opportunities for cemetery monuments that fact brings.   But now, according to this recent…

PRENEED

Is a 10% credit card interest rate ceiling good news for funeral homes? . . . Maybe not

By Funeral Director Daily | January 20, 2026

  Today is January 20.  It is the day that President Trump wanted to institute one of his ideas for making life more “affordable”.  That idea is a 10% cap on interest rates on credit…

Can you the provide the opportunity for additional Preneed sales in the 1st Quarter of 2026?

By Funeral Director Daily | January 14, 2026

  “Strike when the iron is hot“.  That’s a 15th-century saying that came from the blacksmith trade and meant to suggest that the blacksmith should “bend the metal when it is hot and somewhat flexible”. …

More Americans take on debt to cover funerals

By Funeral Director Daily | December 12, 2025

  I came across this recent article from USA Today titled “Americans are going into debt over death.  Here are affordability tips.”  Reading that article led me to a survey and results from Debt.com and…

PRODUCTS

Is a 10% credit card interest rate ceiling good news for funeral homes? . . . Maybe not

By Funeral Director Daily | January 20, 2026

  Today is January 20.  It is the day that President Trump wanted to institute one of his ideas for making life more “affordable”.  That idea is a 10% cap on interest rates on credit…

Can you the provide the opportunity for additional Preneed sales in the 1st Quarter of 2026?

By Funeral Director Daily | January 14, 2026

  “Strike when the iron is hot“.  That’s a 15th-century saying that came from the blacksmith trade and meant to suggest that the blacksmith should “bend the metal when it is hot and somewhat flexible”. …

Creedy, Jefferson form advisory firm

By Funeral Director Daily | January 9, 2026

    Long-time Death Care executives and advisors Alan Creedy and Danny Jefferson have again joined together to form a new firm to help those in the business.  A press release issued earlier this week…