Funeral Insurance
I’ve been involved in the funeral business long enough to see the State of Minnesota move, in what I consider a more consumer friendly way, in respect to the business of preneed. I can go back to the 1980’s when we were only allowed to put a consumer’s designated funeral funds into a bank guaranteed…
Read MoreIn this release on Business Wire from the A.M. Best Company issued last week, the insurance ratings firm “has revised the outlook to stable from negative and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-term ICR) of a- of Funeral Directors Life Insurance Company (FDLIC) of Abilene,…
Read MoreEvery once in a while we hear stories of funeral homes being investigated for acts that would be contrary to the laws of their respective states. This weekend we happened to notice two such articles in newspapers that dealt with funeral homes potentially running afoul of the preneed laws of their state. The first article…
Read MoreDeadHappy, the United Kingdoms technical insurance startup that recently received about US $ 5 million in Series A funding, announced in this article from Techcrunch, that they hope to get more involved in the wishes of their insured, including making sure that your funeral is the way you want it. The company was founded in…
Read MoreThis article from the Sydney Morning Herald relates to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) that, according to that article, commenced action last week against funeral and accident insurance company Select AFSL and its director, Russell Howden. The article mentions that the company faces a lawsuit from Australia’s corporate regulator over what they call…
Read MoreI happened to drive by the Douglas County Fairgrounds earlier this week and notice that the fair was already upon us. That signaled to me that the end of summer was not too far off and gave me an idea for writing a post about the fall season being a great time to capitalize on…
Read MoreI wrote a story yesterday on the timing of advertising telling consumers about the benefits of pre-planning one’s own funeral or cremation services. When I did that article I did not envision a follow-up or series of pre-need articles, but a day later here is another angle I have thought about often concerning pre-need and…
Read MoreLast October we brought you a story about an Austin, Texas, funeral home where the Texas Department of Banking (TDB) had opened an investigation. You can read about that story concerning the Austin-Peel and Son Funeral Home here. The investigation was opened because the TDB had reason to believe that the funeral home had illegally…
Read MoreBoth StoneMor Partners and Assurant filed earnings reports in the last couple of days. Both companies are members of the Death Care Index (DCI) of publicly traded companies. StoneMor, which has had permission to file some reports on a delayed term, filed their report for the three months ending June 30, 2018. For that three…
Read MoreAustralia – After a series of high profile abuses of the financial services industry in Australia in the last couple of years, the Australian government commissioned High Court Justice and royal commissioner Kenneth Hayne to investigate the complete financial services industry and come up with some ideas on how to regulate such. That report has…
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