Funeral Director tries new suit… | FFFW 247

We’re officially deep into August now, and honestly? It’s treating us pretty well. The sun’s still hanging around, the heat’s taking occasional coffee breaks, and there’s just enough breeze to make you think, “Yeah… I could sit outside for a bit.”

Let’s ride that late-summer energy straight into the weekend with this week’s FFFW!

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Local Funeral Director Claims New Suit Is “Charcoal Gray,” Everyone Else Agrees It’s Definitely Blue

Tensions ran high at Mercy Hollow Funeral Home this week after longtime director Steve Daniels arrived wearing what he proudly described as his “new charcoal gray suit.”

“It’s classic, it’s understated, it says respect,” Steve told reporters while straightening the lapels. “The tag literally said ‘charcoal.’”

Unfortunately, not a single staff member agreed. “That thing’s blue,” said embalmer Carla Jenkins without hesitation. “It’s not even a close call. If you buried me in that, I’d haunt you.”

Even guests at Wednesday’s visitation weighed in. “It’s giving navy,” one mourner whispered to another. “Like, a deep navy, but still navy.”

Steve has doubled down, citing “funeral home lighting” and “fabric undertones” as the real culprit. “Look, I know what gray is,” he insisted, moments before walking past a casket spray and perfectly matching the hydrangeas.

As of press time, the suit has been moved to the back of Steve’s closet, where it reportedly sits between a “black” tuxedo that’s clearly purple and a “tan” blazer that everyone else calls “banana.”

Trivia

Choose the correct answer and you’ll see a puppy. Get it wrong and you’ll see someone hurting themselves.

If you lined up every casket sold in the U.S. in a single year, end to end, about how far would the line stretch?

A) From New York City to Los Angeles
B) From New York City to Los Angeles and back again
C) Around the Earth once

You Otter Be Proud

Here’s some good news going on in the profession.

1. This Milford nonprofit helps families with high funeral costs
2. People Magazine Covers Funeral Profession Story
3. Fifth-generation funeral director Jeff Monreal helps families grieve, celebrate loved ones

In 1956 stock analyst Warren Buffett formed what he called Buffett Partnership and in 1970 acquired a textile company called Berkshire Hathaway.  The company assumed that name and went on to become a diversified holding company with Buffett as the main stockholder and Chairman of the Board.  He’s ran that company with a “value investment” philosophy in both purchasing stock and purchasing and operating whole companies.

On Saturday at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting he announced his retirment come the end of the year.  He will have served as Chairman of the company for over 55 years at that time and will be 95 years of age.  In the meantime he has become the 5th wealthiest American according to this Forbes listing and the 5th wealthiest person in the world according to this “real-time” wealth indicator list by Forbes as of Sunday as I write this article.

Back in 2014 Buffett wrote a letter to his shareholders about what has made Berkshire Hathaway the success that it is today.  I’ve taken that letter and tried to decipher what I think it is that Buffett tries to get across about business leadership and success.  And I believe, these characteristics are universal and would apply in the Death Care business whether you are Tom Ryan, CEO of Service Corporation International (SCI) and oversee a $4 billion budget and the largest Death Care company in the world, or you operate a 40-call rural funeral home, or you operate a supply company to the industry/profession.

In my opinion, these criteria are just good, solid, business traits that any successful business needs to build value over time.

• Character — Buffett says “Character is crucial” and  “A CEO needs to be all in for the company, not for himself“.

• Calm and Decisive —  Buffett says “(A CEO) . . .has to be a rational, calm and decisive individual who has a broad understanding of business and good insights into human behavior.  It’s important as well that he knows his limits.

• Humility —  Buffett says that a CEO needs  “. . .the ability to fight off the ABCs of business decay, which are arrogance, bureaucracy and complacency.”

• Culture and Values — Buffett says “If our non-economic values were to be lost, much of Berkshire’s economic value would collapse as well. ‘Tone at the top’ will be key to maintaining Berkshire’s special culture. . . . . A CEO’s behavior has a huge impact on managers down the line. . . ”

Buffett also says that “Managing Berkshire (or any other company) is primarily a job of capital allocation, coupled with the selection and retention of outstanding managers to captain our operating subsidiaries.”

I think that statement really resonates with Death Care businesses, especially funeral homes. When one is operating a funeral home how you allocate your capital. . .whether you choose to add on to your structure, build a new structure, acquire another location, pay staff, increase benefits, or increase marketing is an extremely important decision one needs to make from time to time. . . . and, can have positive or negative consequences.

For instance, getting the allocation of capital wrong by building an additional facility which may increase the work load of staff and not giving pay or benefit increases to that staff could have dire consequences.  One needs to look at all of the options and probably get advice from your own staff and mentors so you have differing options to look at.  A new facility with a loss of well-known and well-thought of staff could become a big drain on financial resources, especially if they take with them some of the business you were counting on.

And that second point, about selecting and retention of outstanding managers is really about who you hire to carry out your business philosophies.  Again, whether you are SCI and hiring your management team or you are a single-operator firm going out to hire that first employee the choice is crucial.  It is imperative that one not make mistakes in hiring.

My experience also leads me to agree with Buffett that “Culture and Values” are extememly important.  When I began my career in owning a funeral home I had $30 between twice monthly paychecks for discretionary personal purchases.  However, our funeral home values at the time were to give unwavering personal service, to admit if we were wrong about something and refund money back if our service was not up to the level the client family expected, to serve without requiring payment — even offering free services if necessary, no questions asked, to those that could not pay, to never “up-sell” client families, and to take care of families first and worry about our business and personal situations later.

When I left the business 33 years later those were our same values and I’m of the opinion that it was those rock-solid values that built the business during those times.  Even though there were lean times at the start the foundation of never changing our values, or losing our humility and empathy as our success grew,  and providing the services that clientele expected regardless of their financial situation and our business situation, these values paid off over time.

Related — Warren Buffet Wikipedia page

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  I found it interesting that when I wrote this article I started to get a thought process on why America has such political dysfunction.  I realized that “our politics” have none of the values that Buffett says are needed for building value-increasing, stable companies.

Let’s look at politics. . .

Character:  Most of us agree that character is lacking.  Most of our politicians will go against their own beliefs to simply vote with their party and stop the movement of another party or to save their own seat in Congress.  i.e. most of us believe that politicians don’t have the “Character” to stand up for their own convictions when in the minority of their party.

Calm and Decisive:  There is no way you could describe most politicians as “calm”. . . . .They are out speaking against their opponents, in whatever way possible, to try to win favor with voters. . . .it is certainly more calamity than calm.

Humility:  This speaks for itself. . . .every politician has “their” answer and will not ever give an opposition politician the compliment that “their idea might be a good one” for the country.  “Their idea” is always the best (in their own mind).

Culture and Values:  Again, this speaks for itself. . . . Over and over again each party talks about “paring the budget” when they are in power or running for office.  But when the other party suggests it, they then call it a “cutting of services”.  It’s ironic how that happens over and over and over again. . . i.e. one’s culture and values change with the leadership.  With the culture and values changing so drastically every four years (or so) at the top it is impossible to build a value oriented culture.

Maybe it would be smart if our policital leaders looked to 95-year old Warren Buffett on how to build our country for value and growth.

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

South Carolina Gets Tough on Deathcare; Should Other States Follow Suit?

Unlike most other industries, deathcare doesn’t like the spotlight. Why? Because it seems the press hardly ever presents a friendly focus on all the good to be found within the profession. The bad apples who pop up in the headlines every few years are often so horrible that they spoil the whole bunch. Not only do these evildoers put the profession on the defensive and resurrect long-dead-and-buried Jessica Mitford-inspired consumer concerns; they also seem to put governments in the awkward, yet urgent, position of putting laws into place to prevent these events from happening again.

On July 3, 2024, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed House Bill 4116 into law, updating, changing, or introducing regulations throughout virtually every aspect of deathcare, from preneed to cremation to general funeral home operations. Although the South Carolina Board of Funeral Service graciously summarized 13 of the most impactful changes, they also noted that this was not an exhaustive list; House Bill 4116 packed quite an expansive punch.

Why now?

South Carolina isn’t the first state to address deathcare rules in 2024, with many following the lead of Colorado. Certainly, no one — deathcare pros and consumers alike —  could fault Colorado legislators for reinstating licensing requirements after the recent, tragic events at Return to Nature and Sunset Mesa. The state’s distinction as the only no-license-no-problem oasis for the funeral profession was called into question, scrutinized, and ultimately blamed for the atrocities that occurred there — especially when it was widely publicized that Return to Nature co-owner Jon Hallford was not a licensed funeral director. Colorado quickly responded to the criticism, ultimately and efficiently rolling out a new set of laws in May 2024.

But would a license have prevented Hallford and his wife/business partner from committing their horrific crimes? In reality, there’s little proven correlation to deathcare transgressions and state licensing requirements — or funeral-related laws in general. Many, many states with a slew of strict regulations have weathered their own share of scandals; unfortunately, for some people rules and laws are simply inconsequential in their decision-making processes.

However, as Funeral Director Daily’s Tom Anderson recently shared, the recent spate of unethical actions at home and abroad are certainly “leading government authorities almost everywhere to take a hard look at their rules and laws of conduct in the profession.”

A mix of impacts

The state of South Carolina seemed to have been ahead of the game, though, as they introduced the initial draft of House Bill 4116 back in March 2023, post-Sunset Mesa but well before news of Return to Nature hit the headlines. When first introduced, the proposed law included both consumer- and profession-friendly changes, such as barring convicted felons from selling preneed insurance and requiring that cremations be performed only by employees trained to perform them.

The final version of the bill, though, included many more provisions and requirements that amended the state’s Funeral Practice Act, Safe Cremation Act, and Consumer Affairs Preneed Funeral Contract regulations, including:

• Changed definition of “cremation” to include alkaline hydrolysis;
• Removed requirement to keep at least six adult caskets in an onsite room;
• Prohibited the issuance of an operating permit if a funeral home name includes the name of a person without a license;
• Prohibited unlicensed persons to work in a licensed business;
• Prohibited embalmers or directors to practice if they’ve been convicted of or pled guilty to a crime that impacts performance of deathcare duties;
• Updated continuing education hours from three to four per year, with one hour being an ethics course; 
• Increased fines for violating the Safe Cremation Act from $5,000 to $25,000;
• Increased penalties for violating preneed laws;
• Allowed managers to live up to 75 miles from a funeral home (up from 25 miles previously); and 
• Required crematory operators to register with the Board.

Changes like the addition of alkaline hydrolysis and elimination of managers’ residency requirements may open up opportunities for South Carolina’s deathcare professionals and will most likely be eagerly embraced. However, the majority of these provisions are preventive and/or punitive in nature, put in place to both head off problematic behavior within the profession and to reassure consumers that the folks who are caring for their loved ones are qualified and licensed. Regardless, it’s a lot for these professionals to digest all at once, especially as the law immediately went into effect the day it was signed.

The state of other states

Colorado and South Carolina aren’t the only states that have updated their deathcare laws or have proposed related legislation this year. Most lawmakers have cited the much-publicized events in Colorado as the impetus for their actions, while some are responding to issues uncovered in their own districts.

For example, Illinois’ Integrity in Death Care Act, which takes effect in January 2025, will require deathcare establishments to establish a chain of custody system to track a deceased person from death to final disposition. The law was prompted after a Carlinville, Illinois funeral home gave at least 80 families the wrong cremains in 2023. At the time, this was not a criminal act in the state; however, the new law makes this act a felony.

Likewise, a new law in Florida that gives the state more authority to investigate questionable funeral homes was prompted by the actions of a Jacksonville funeral director who is facing 20 criminal charges for abandoning bodies in his mortuary and stealing funds from families.

The aftermath

Given the public’s probable perception of deathcare today (thanks to the worst actors), it’s not likely that any state will relax their deathcare rules. If anything, the profession can probably expect more legislators to start scrutinizing their current laws and potentially put new or stricter restrictions in place.

For the most part, these new guidelines should ultimately safeguard the reputation of the profession as a whole and further protect consumers from people like the Hallfords of Return to Nature and Sunset Mesa’s Megan Hess. And while state associations and other deathcare organizations are sure to support the reasoning and motivation behind these moves, they’re also carefully calculating the impact to the profession as a whole. Deathcare workers can expect these entities to work on their behalf to discourage legislation that seriously hinders qualifying, training, or hiring staff; requires massive operational overhauls; or will result in significant expenses that could bankrupt some businesses.

Regardless of the industry, no measure can or will be 100% effective, as Chris Farmer, general counsel for the National Funeral Directors Association, recently shared. 

“Even in the most stringent states, somebody’s going to do something bad,” Farmer said. “You can’t prevent it.”