I spent parts of 5 days and 4 nights in New Orleans earlier this week participating in the annual National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) convention. It was a time to learn new things and visit with old friends. And, while there I attended workshops, took part in some […] Read More
Last week we learned through this press release that Better Place Forests was offering a new product to consumers that they felt would appeal to those consumers in a cost-conscious manner. The new product is known as “Spreading Groves” and gives consumers the option of scattering cremated remains […] Read More
Statistics tell us that over 80% of Americans live within one hour of an urban area. If the population of the USA is about 333 million then that leaves the other 20%, or almost 67 million people outside of those urban areas. I’m one of those 67 million […] Read More
Right in the middle of the United States’ National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) annual convention in New Orleans is probably a good time to drop information from a press release that we received in mid-September. That press release, which you can access here, came from PR Newswire […] Read More
Tomorrow I’ll be on my way to the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) convention in New Orleans. I’ll spend three or four days there, see old friends, grasp new products and see innovations for the first time. This is probably true with many funeral service professionals. . . . […] Read More
If you have read Funeral Director Daily for any length of time you would know that I believe that there is an opportunity for increased revenues at funeral homes and cemeteries from what I term as the “Cremation Aftermarket”. My point is that there is a large percentage […] Read More
In the last calendar year – dating back to October 16, 2023 – Matthews International stock, the parent company of Aurora Casket and Matthews Environmental Solutions (cremation), has dropped over 44% in a world, by contrast, where the Dow Jones Industrials have risen over 25% for the same dates. […] Read More
I received a marketing piece from a retirement wealth management company the other day and in looking at it found some statistics on the Baby Boomer generation that I feel pertains to funeral homes, cemeteries, and death care in general. In particular, I wondered how funeral homes […] Read More
Tomorrow will mark the 3rd Tuesday of October and with every 3rd Tuesday comes the Cremation Association of North America (CANA) Peer Support Meeting. Supported by CANA, here’s what their teaser on this month’s subject says: “This month, we will host an open forum for discussion on any […] Read More
Earlier this week we learned that Funeral Directors Life (FDL), based in Abilene, Texas, was approved to sell preneed insurance in the state of Virginia. As you can read from this press release, that announcement, following an earlier announcement making Michigan a legal Funeral Directors Life state, now […] Read More
Last week I read this press release from Service Corporation International (SCI) that was headlined “Service Corporation International announces Leadership Promotions”. As I read through the announcement it reflected the fact that SCI was making some changes in its leadership structure. While I don’t know the exact […] Read More
Better Place Forests (BPF) has been known for being a place where families can have meaningful “in-person” experiences with memorialization in the company forests. Last week we learned of BPF’s acquisition of digital platform Butterfly which will now give the company the addition of “High Tech” digital memorials […] Read More
It’s been almost 100 years since Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Bill into law in 1935. And, contrary to what most people believe, there was a “Lump Sum Death Benefit” (LSDB) applied to that bill that took effect at that time. However, the original LSDB […] Read More
We recently learned of an interesting sale/acquisition story that happened recently in Illinois. This article from the Mendota Reporter will tell you of the sale of the Merritt Funeral Home to the Unger-Horner Funeral Home. It’s interesting to note, according to the article, that the Merritt Funeral […] Read More
If you ask my opinion, American borrowers have been somewhat spoiled by the low interest rates that we had had for almost the last ten years. This article will tell you that from 2015 until into 2022 we never had Prime lending rates higher than 5.5% — and […] Read More
