death care
November 11th brings back memories in many countries. It’s not just Veteran’s Day in America. . . it is a day of remembrance all over Europe. Originally referred to as Armistice Day (Armistice, in Latin, means to “stand arms”). It was at 11 am on November 11 (11/11) in 1918 that an agreement was reached…
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We’ve all talked about it and see it out in the profession — a lack of trained and licensed funeral directors to combat the coming years when America faces a wave of Baby Boomer deaths. Without the influx of new professionals, many funeral homes will be understaffed which can lead to a vicious cycle of…
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Because I report on them, and partly because I just like learning what is happening, I generally read the “Earnings Call Transcripts” that take place every quarter between the public company death care executives and the financial brokers that cover their companies. If you’ve never read these they end up being a “give and take”…
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I’ve worked almost my entire career under the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) “Funeral Rule”. The rule, for all practical purposes, required me to introduce “price” into the conversation whenever someone either called the funeral home or walked into the funeral home and asked about funeral, cremation, or memorial services. It also required me to hand…
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Last week death care property owner and operator StoneMor announced, in this press release, that they had completed their merger with Axar Capital Management whereby StoneMor will become a private and wholly owned subsidiary of Axar Capital Management. Prior to this “take private” movement, which was announced in this May 25, 2022, press release, Axar…
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The streets of Death Care and the avenues of Entertainment don’t seem to collide too often at an intersection. But every once in a while they do and when they do it generally leads to some publicity. According to this article from Bloomberg that intersection just happened with a highly performing music video by artist…
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North America’s largest business in the death care industry, Service Corporation International (SCI) reported their 3rd Quarter 2022 financial results earlier this week. The results show a decline of about 5.5% in total revenues for the quarter as compared to the same quarter of 2021. The 3Q 2022 revenue number was $977.7 million as compared…
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It was in June 1980 when I was a rookie funeral director that a gentleman stepped into our funeral home and we were introduced for the first time. The gentleman was another young funeral director who had left the world of funeral directing to become a representative of one of the major casket companies. That…
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In this press release from PR Newswire you can read about Orlando based Foundation Partners Group and its acquisition of Solace Cremation, the Portland, Oregon, based direct-to-consumer cremation services business. Solace operates in the Oregon, California, and Florida markets at this time. The purchase will allow, according to the release, Foundation Partners Group to have geographic…
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It’s November and if you haven’t organized your budget for the 2023 calendar year yet, it is about time to get started. I always did my final work on the budget when November 1 came around and by the 15th of the month it was set for the coming year. I found the easiest way…
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