January 25, 2018
Published by 
Dan Isard on January 25, 2018
Dan Isard on January 25, 2018Dear Cemetery Impossible, I live in a small town and own the local funeral home. There is one cemetery in town. It is a 40-acre cemetery and down to its last salable acre. The current owners have come to me and asked me to buy it. They are asking for $100,000. That doesn’t seem like much. My banker thinks he can do a loan for me through the SBA. My concern is, what happens when it is fully subscribed, which could be within 10 years? I have been told by the owners they are fully compliant with their perpetual care funding requirements. Right Time To Buy Dear Right Time, I have done articles in the past on the issues involved in value, so I won’t waste the column inches to repeat myself again. But a purchase price of […]
January 11, 2018
Published by Dan Isard on January 11, 2018
Dan Isard on January 11, 2018Dear Dan, I just switched to a new casualty insurance broker. Unfortunately, my carrier doesn’t know the funeral business and I now find myself educating the whole company about it. The good news is the agent is Greek, and they have big funerals that will come my way. The big issue is who do I cover? There are two stockholders and me; do I cover each of us? Also, my broker told me we can cover our 1099 employees. Sometimes, I employ these people as pallbearers. Should we do that also? Compfused in Compton Dear Compfused, Allow me to answer your questions one at a time, but let’s also make sure we start at the beginning with the matter of understanding workers’ compensation insurance. Workers’ comp is form of insurance issued by private insurance companies required for […]
December 28, 2017
December 19, 2017
Published by 
Stephanie Ramsey on December 19, 2017
Stephanie Ramsey on December 19, 2017Scenario: David Jackson owns a three-location funeral business in the central United States. He employs more than 20 people. This past summer, David brought on a part-time employee to assist with administrative tasks. The priority was to file the large amount of paperwork that everyone at the primary location had neglected. This part-time employee (Jessica) had worked for the funeral home part time during high school and her summer breaks from college. Jessica was very personable and didn’t seem to mind all the hours she spent filing. At the end of summer, David was confronted by one of his female funeral directors wanting to know why she wasn’t paid as much as another male funeral director. During their conversation, David was made aware of how this employee knew her male counterpart’s salary. Apparently one of the reasons Jessica didn’t mind […]