death care
Since I started this blog in 2017 and continuously look for interesting topics for the readers, I’ve come to anticipate the annual research paper from Sun Life entitled the Sun Life Cost of Dying Report. While it comes out of Great Britain it is a great resource for me and what I have come to…
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I’m a licensed health and life insurance agent. I received my license and started a Preneed Funeral insurance agency back when Minnesota first allowed funeral directors to do so in the 1990’s. It was a boon to our business as we could now write Preneed policies and receive a commission on them. Our funeral home…
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In the last couple of issues of NFDA’s Memorial Business Journal, author and editor Edward Defort, has introduced us to funeral director, owner, and entrepreneur David Hernandez. Hernandez has funeral service operations in New Jersey, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. And, he’s a man after my own heart because he understands that a successful funeral “business”…
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There is no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic has greatly influenced and impacted the death care industry over the past two years. In general, there has been more deaths and less public services of such deaths. One might argue, especially in larger markets, that the increased number of deaths has more than made up in…
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Hillenbrand Industries, parent company of Batesville Casket, reported their Fiscal Year 2022 1st Quarter last week. The First Quarter of their fiscal year represents the months of October, November, and December 2021. You can read the entire report on the company’s 1Q 2022 here. While Hillenbrand Industries is a conglomerate of companies, they still…
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If you follow the trends in death care you will notice that not only increased cremation continues to happen, but so does interest in alkaline hydrolysis, recomposition, and other “green burial” practices. According to this article, in New Hampshire 18-year old Anya Nicoll and state legislator Jerry Knirk are working towards changing a 1971 state…
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How would your funeral home come out in terms of profitability if you advertised a pricing method billed as “Pay what you want”? Now, Caledonia Cremation is not your normal “Mom and Pop” funeral/cremation shop, but their January promotion is unique. Here’s what they say on their promotional website which you can access here: “Everyone…
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I recently finished Bill O’Reilly’s book “Killing the Mob”. It is one of about a dozen books in a series by O’Reilly all with the “Killing” titles. I’ve learned that “Killing” is just the title series and the books are really about the history of people, movements, and time periods. Of the books I’ve read…
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Matthews International, the parent company of Aurora Caskets and Matthews Cremation products reported their 1st Quarter 2022 financial results last week. It should be noted that Matthews fiscal year begins in October so these results are for the October thru December 2021 period. Of interest to us at Funeral Director Daily are the results of…
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It’s been called a “hipster” funeral home. That’s at least what one person labeled Brooklyn, New York’s new contemporary funeral home, Sparrow. Erica Hill, a co-owner of Sparrow says this of comments like that, “Yes, we look different than what you expect a funeral home to be, but that’s okay.” According to this article in…
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