death care
From time to time I either come across unique stories about the death care business or the readers of Funeral Director Daily send them to me. I find a lot of these stories fascinating and very much worth spending time learning about, especially if I want to be the “Death Care” expert in my community.…
Read More
It was announced last week in this press release that Carriage Services, headquartered in Houston, Texas, acquired substantially all of the assets of the Heritage Funeral and Cremation Services and Forest Lawn East Cemetery. The businesses are located in the Charlotte, North Carolina, market territory and consist of three stand alone funeral homes, a cemetery,…
Read More
I visited Baltimore and attended the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) convention earlier this month. In earlier blog posts I’ve told you some overriding impressions that I had from that experience. . . and I told you I would be bringing you, in greater detail, some of my thoughts and observations. One of the phenomena…
Read More
I’ve been a licensed funeral director for about 42 years and in that time I’ve seen all kinds of situations. I’ve served families that are included in the Forbes 400 wealthiest in America and I’ve served families where some of the survivors didn’t know where they would be sleeping that night. Suffice it to say…
Read More
Of the seven companies that comprise the Funeral Director Daily Death Care Index (DCI) Carriage Services was the first company to report earnings for the 3rd Quarter of 2022 and did so Wednesday. Carriage Services, based in Houston, Texas, reported lower comparable numbers in almost every category compared to the same period in 2021.…
Read More
If you follow the stock markets and study them, you might have seen an “Open Letter” that Brad Gerstner, a principal at Altimeter Capital, and stockholder in Meta (formerly Facebook) sent to Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg this week. You can read the letter here. Gerstner is still a stockholder and apparent fan of…
Read More
I attended a somber event last Sunday that at least in part reminded me, among other things, that funerals and memorial services matter to people. And, they are one of the events in a person’s life that can rekindle passionate memories. Last Sunday I attended the church service at tiny East Moe Lutheran Church in…
Read More
It was recently announced by Parting Stone, the company that pioneered solidified remains, and InvoCare, Australia’s leading death care provider, that InvoCare has invested $1 million in Parting Stone. In addition, the two companies will partner to launch Parting Stone Australia, which will be Parting Stone’s first international laboratory. Justin Crowe, founder and Chief Executive…
Read More
If you haven’t noticed that families are continuing to look for new ways to memorialize their loved ones you haven’t been looking. For many of us casketed burial with a monument for memorialization may be what we want or columbarium sheltering of cremated remains in a cemetery with memorialization recognition may be what we want. …
Read More
When you look to the past of funeral home marketing it is pretty accurate to say that many funeral homes “Got their names out there” and then waited for deaths to happen. When I started in the business, our industry was as far from “Pre-Emptive” marketing as any industry. . . it’s just the way…
Read More
