In the past month part of my thoughts have been at the intersection of “Education and Grief”.  And, it has brought me to a way of thinking that maybe the two thoughts need to go together.

You see, during my time as a Board Member of the University of Minnesota I worked to try to get a student-led initiative about having a class on “Financial Literacy” become part of the base, required core of curriculum courses that every student needed to graduate.  It came from a foundation in which students told me, and I’m paraphrasing here, “The University does a great job preparing us to go out in the world and make a great living, but nobody tells us how to manage the income that we earn”.

I came to the conclusion that if we taught students about taxes, interest, mortgages, automobile payments, savings plans, and more we would have a society not only where citizens were more apt to make wise financial decisions but people would be much more aware of how the votes they cast in elections affect their purchasing power and financial future.

I recently made a call to the Provost (the position in charge of the academic side of the college) who was in her last week on the job.  I had helped hire her and got to know her when I was the Chair of the (Academic) Mission Committee for two years.  I had asked her how Financial Literacy had fared in the new curriculum proposals and she let me know that the entire proposal had been voted down by faculty. . . . So, my Financial Literacy ideas for students were back to square zero.

On to grief. . . . As many of you might know, in roughly the last month the past Speaker of the House in Minnesota, Rep. Melissa Hortman, was assasinated.  I can’t say I was a friend of the Speaker or that I even knew her well.  However, University of Minnesota Board Members are selected by the legislature and getting known by them helps one’s chances for success.

I remember encountering Rep. Hortman in a stairwell at the State Office Building.  I wanted to get an appointment with her to push my candidacy and she said something like the following to me, “No need, I’ve read your bio and heard from others. . . I’ll be voting for you”. . . and, she ended up doing so.

So, while we probably didn’t have the same political ideals I can say she was honest, forthright, and ethical in her short discussion with me.  When I heard of the assasination news that moment in the stairwell immediately came back to me and shook me to the soul.

Recently a letter to the editor on the grief of the Hortman assasination was printed in the Minnesota Star and Tribune.  The writer said, “I am grieving a country that has become numb to cruelty.  A nation where the capacity to care is treated as a partisan liability.  Where empathy is mocked, where decency is dismissed as weakness and where powerful. . .are met not with respect but with violence.”

So, here I am — at the intersection of education and grief.  It’s not a position unique to me and former President of the National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD) in Great Britain, John Adams, finds himself at the same spot.  I had the opportunity to sit down with Mr. Adams at the United States NFDA convention in Baltimore in 2022 and learn more about his goals.

One of those goals is to unite education and grief by making a course on Death, Dying, and Bereavement a required course in the British National Curriculum.  To that end he has already had an audience with King Charles and last December addressed the Members of Parliament on the subject where he received very positive responses.  Here’s the latest update on what is happening with his initiative.

Back to Financial Literacy — I won’t give up on my quest to get more people to understand the value of knowing finances and the ramifications in one’s life on how they manage their finances.  Matter of fact, I think in the world we live in there should be a lot more room to learn the “soft sciences” like bereavement and/or financial literacy.

Maybe if we can help with that eduaction our communities can understand the value of empathy and grieve with compassion when we lose our friends and neighbors. . . . And, maybe like John Adams in Great Britain funeral directors, who exhibit that “capacity to care” can lead the way.

Related –– “Death-A Changing Industry” podcast hosted by John Adams.  This episode is titled “What my children taught me about Grieving”

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

It didn’t take long for an investment advisor to get a take on what they think about Matthews International’s 4Q Earnings Report of last week.  The article from Seeking Alpha’s contributer Valkyrie Trading Society is titled, “Matthews International:  Signs of Deleveraging and Margin Improvement”.  You can access the article here.

Here’s a short snippet of what the article says of Matthew’s Memorialization Segment, “Memorialization deserves some focus since it likely contributed to the enthusiasm today. EBITDA is up nicely despite sales declines thanks to inventory costing dynamics, and also the fact that cost-cutting is taking effect in this business. Growth remains inorganic with bolt-ons for the most part, with the opportunity for that continuing, but the important thing is that pricing is improving and the environment for casketed deaths is normalizing post-COVID. . . . “

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

The California attorney general filed a lawsuit earlier this month against the Neptune Society, alleging $100 million was “swindled” from customers who prepaid for cremations.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and three Bay Area prosecutors claim that the Neptune Society and its subsidiary Trident Society broke state laws by failing to hold more than $100 million in a fully refundable trust for customers who signed up for prepaid cremation services.

The lawsuit alleges that the Neptune Society should have kept the money in reserve for  prepaid cremation customers.

“As a result, many of the company’s customers failed to get full refunds if they canceled their contracts, and thousands of other prepaid customers could also lose their money if they cancel,” said a recent story in the Los Angeles Times.

The story reported that the well-known company also falsely claimed to use its own crematoriums when in fact it contracted with others and illegally accelerated payments when customers died, among other misleading business practices.

The company is “swindling customers who were simply trying to look out for their families and prepare for one of life’s most difficult moments,” the attorney general said in a statement.

Beth Dombrowa, a spokeswoman for Neptune and its parent company, Texas-based Service Corp. International, said she could not immediately comment, the L.A. Times reported.

The lawsuit claims that “the Service Corporation International subsidiaries deceive purchasers of a standard package of cremation and merchandise, typically costing $2,500, by leading them to believe that all of their money is refundable.”

The suit alleges Neptune steered 99% of customers to its Standard Neptune Plan, which included both cremation services and related funeral services “products” but then illegally kept about half the money because it was earmarked for products

Neptune thus deceived consumers who thought all their money was protected, as required by California law, the lawsuit claims.

“Consumers should expect the money paid toward future funeral needs will be fully protected and available to pay for the necessary services when the need ultimately arises so family and loved ones are not further burdened,” Marin County Dist. Atty. Lori Frugoli said in a statement, the L.A. Times reported.

Service Corp. International and its subsidiaries are North America’s largest provider of funeral, cremation and cemetery services, including in the Metro Vancouver area.

The lawsuit noted that nearly two-thirds of people in California choose to be cremated, with many choosing to prepay for those services through companies such as Neptune.

The suit seeks civil fines and court orders requiring Neptune and Trident to put the full amount of money collected in the past into trusts and to stop the allegedly deceptive practices.

Neptune Society was established in 1973 in Florida and was purchased by SCI in 2011. It is known as Trident Society in six California locations.

At Sept. 30, of this year, Service Corp. International says it owns and operates 1,477 funeral service locations and 483 cemeteries in 44 states, eight Canadian provinces and Puerto Rico. It markets its services under the “Dignity” brand.

SCI was founded in 1962 by Robert L. Waltrip, a licensed funeral director who grew up in his family’s funeral business; he still serves as chairman of  SCI’s board of directors.

Both SCI and Neptune Society have faced numerous lawsuits in the past.

In 1988, Neptune Society reached a $32-million settlement involving 5,000 plaintiffs who claimed the cremated remains of their deceased relatives were “unceremoniously dumped” in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

In 2014, SCI and its Eden Memorial Park cemetery in California reached an $80.5 million out-of-court settlement with families who claimed the cemetery disturbed the remains of loved ones to fit more deceased in graves.

SCI also reached a $100-million settlement in 2003 involving a class-action filed by families who claimed the remains of their loved ones had been desecrated at two Menorah Gardens cemeteries in Florida.