Funeral Director Daily

Goetz to leave Carriage Services?

By Funeral Director Daily / July 1, 2020 /

This morning we noticed a news release from Market Exclusive that you can see here pertaining to a K-1 filing from Carriage Services. The filing informed the public that effective June 26, 2020, President and Chief Operating Officer William W. Goetz had resigned from those positions at Carriage Services as well as had resigned from…

America’s cemetery problems

By Funeral Director Daily / July 1, 2020 /

Summer is, historically, a time that relatives visit the graves of long deceased members of the family. Generally, between Memorial Day and Labor Day many families pack up for an afternoon and take a short trip to visit and do some upkeep on the family graves. Others visit when they get back to their hometowns…

Will the “re-opening” of America move the needle on funeral home revenue?

By Funeral Director Daily / June 15, 2020 /

Last week has had a lot of COVID world firsts for me. Let’s see, I left my county for the first time since March, albeit about one block south of the county line to attend a hybrid graduation party. I also ate inside a restaurant on Wednesday for the first time since March when one…

The battle to build a cemetery

By Funeral Director Daily / June 9, 2020 /

New Orleans, Louisiana, is known as a great American city. Because the city sits about 15-18 feet below sea level and has levies protecting the city its cemeteries are well known for their unique above ground burials in some places. Because of some of these type of land issues, the city itself has found itself…

Keeping the business flowing

By Funeral Director Daily / June 3, 2020 /

I love the idea of “American ingenuity”. To me it means the thought process that is developed to keep things moving ahead even when the system to do so has been upended. And, around the world this Spring, the system has truly been upended with the advent of the COVID-19 situation. However, if you are…

Is StoneMor bouncing back?

By Funeral Director Daily / May 20, 2020 /

StoneMor, Inc., the Pennsylvania based funeral home and cemetery operator reported their First Quarter of 2020 results last week. These results cover the period from January 1 to March 31, 2020. You can see a summary of the report here. The company operates 319 cemeteries and 88 funeral homes in the United States and Puerto…

Calverton National Cemetery suspends group flag placements

By Funeral Director Daily / May 8, 2020 /

It was announced this week that Calverton National Cemetery, a property of the National Cemetery Administration and reserved for our nation’s honored veterans and their dependents, will be suspending their tradition of allowing groups to place American flags at grave sites for Memorial Day “because of the health risks posed by the coronavirus”. Calverton National…

Funeral homes open. . . . funeral homes close

By Funeral Director Daily / May 6, 2020 /

Entrepreneurship, business ownership, and the like is not for the faint of heart. But, it can be unbelievably rewarding — not only for the income and assets one may build up with a successful business — but also for the opportunity to be your own boss and command the rudder of your own ship. It…

Seeking Alpha: Death care stocks to benefit from pent up demand

By Funeral Director Daily / April 20, 2020 /

Seeking Alpha published an opinion piece from writer Malvin Spooner on Saturday, April 18, which theorized that death care public companies Service Corporation International (SCI) and Carriage Services (CSV) will benefit from what Spooner characterized as “pent up demand”. You can read the full article here. Spooner says that “the death care industry stocks have…

COVID-19 and funeral homes: Where are we. . .where are we going

By Funeral Director Daily / April 10, 2020 /

The other day I received a phone call from a national writer doing a story on how the COVID-19 pandemic is and will affect funeral homes now and into the future. I shared some of my thoughts and I don’t know if that reporter will use them or not, but I thought I would recount…