Thomas Guillot, owner of the Guillot Funeral Home in Taftville, Connecticut recently announced that he's retiring and selling the firm to another local funeral home owner, Richard Godere of Godere Funeral Home in Taftville. The two men have worked tirelessly to provide a seamless transition to the new ownership of…
Read MoreAccording to a 2023 survey of National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) members, nearly half (45.9%) plan to retire within the next five years; however, less than a quarter (23.7%) say they have a succession plan in place. Just under one-third (29.8%) were fully confident in their business’ ability to withstand…
Read MoreArticle courtesy of Sympathy Brands The funeral home industry is unique in many ways. Perhaps one of its most distinctive attributes is that it is mainly composed of independently owned businesses – nearly 87 percent of funeral homes are family or privately owned. And many of these owner operators have…
Read MoreBy Thomas A. Parmalee On Aug. 1, Service Corporation International, the largest provider of death-care products and services in North America, reported second-quarter adjusted earnings of 83 cents per share compared to 84 cents in the prior-year period. Revenue grew $22.6 million over the prior year quarter to just over $1.0 billion. A day…
Read MoreBy Thomas A. Parmalee The fourth installment of the Funeral and Cemetery Consumer Behavior Study – a service to the profession commissioned by The Foresight Companies – does not disappoint. For the first time, the study, which was carried out by SoCal Approach Marketing and Consulting Group, tracked responses to…
Read MoreAlan Creedy, one of the funeral profession’s most trusted advisers, is extending a generous offer to the readers of FuneralVision.com: Upon request, he will mail you a free copy of his book, “Finish Well: An Exit Guide for Funeral Home Owners.” In an exclusive interview with FuneralVision.com, Creedy shared how…
Read MoreTeresa Carlson, Vice President, Small Business Lending Development Officer Sustainable business growth costs money. In a dry market, securing capital can be difficult. For funeral home owners, it’s often harder. Why is this? To put it plainly, the needs of companies in the funeral industry are difficult to understand when…
Read MoreBy Bill Williams, president/CEO, Funeral Services, Inc. and Wendy Russell Wiener, managing member, WRW Legal, PLLC We are willing to bet that you received a greater rate of return on your “income only” endowment care trust in 2021 than you did in 2022. Of course, the dip in the market…
Read MoreBy Thomas A. Parmalee When I texted Doug Gober asking if he could chat about receiving the ICCFA Educational Foundation’s Lasting Impact Award, he called me back from an unexpected place: Europe. Actually, I should not have been surprised: After all, this is the same Doug Gober who has delivered…
Read MoreBy Thomas A. Parmalee A few years ago, Selected Independent Funeral Homes began noticing an interesting trend: Member firms were being acquired by corporate and private equity investors at an alarming clip. It wasn’t just one or two … it was “a wave,” according to Sarah Pojanowski, general counsel of…
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