Latest / On Deathcare / Proposed NFDA Merger, SCI Strategy Shift, and Oklahoma Casket Regulation

Transcript

Proposed NFDA Merger, SCI Strategy Shift, and Oklahoma Casket Regulation · On Deathcare

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, I am Tony Russo from On Deathcare,
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: and this is The Rest, your weekly rundown of news from around funeral service.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Got a ton of stuff to talk about, and I want to get into it pretty quickly.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about the NFDA.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And selected proposed merger.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: I've got some insights based on my reporting
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: on SCI's recent earnings call plus other news that I've picked up here and there
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: from local papers and stuff that you guys have sent me.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Before we get into it, I do want to thank my paid subscribers for all of their support.
• 0:40
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• 0:43
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• 0:49
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• 0:52
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• 0:56
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• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: I got a bunch of new paid subscribers this week,
• 1:06
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• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: the reasons that I'm doing this,
• 1:13
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• 1:16
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• 1:22
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• 1:24
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• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm happy that you're reading.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm happy that you're watching.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: And most of all, I'm happy that you're Giving me feedback.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, and then we'll get into it, along those lines, thank you for all the feedback.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: I do not dodge negative feedback.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: If I get something wrong,
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: or if you don't like the way I put something,
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: or if I put something in a way that doesn't make any sense at all,
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: there's no way for me to know unless you tell me.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I genuinely appreciate all of the emails that I get giving me story advice,
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: giving me suggestions for what I got wrong, and taking me to task for actual and
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if they're mistakes, mistakes.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think that they're disagreements.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, taking me to task and keeping me honest is really, really important.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you for all of you who pitch in to make this as good as it can be.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: And now, let's get into it.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Selected independent funeral homes and the NFDA would like to merge
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: if their membership will let them.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And they sent out a raft of information telling everyone why this is the best thing
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: that could have happened to them.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: They have this great tagline.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's called Better Together.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they're going to evoke that Jack Johnson song.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you guys know that Jack Johnson song.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's 20 years old.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: That was the first thing that I thought about.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Better Together is not super descriptive
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: and I think this makes it super super not super descriptive
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: if you're just catching up.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: The idea behind the merger is that the number
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: of independent funeral homes is shrinking
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: and essentially selected independent funeral homes needs some protection from
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: the world that they are living in.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: So they have gone to the NFDA or the NFDA went to them and said we could have a merger.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And the way the merger would work is that if you are...
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Not a member of selected independent funeral homes.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: You'll get to stay that way.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you won't be able to become a member unless you're invited and
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: unless you meet their very specific standards.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And if you do those two things,
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: you'll have the privilege of paying a little bit extra
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: For your NFDA membership each year.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as I saw it, I'm like, this is just an unpleasant thing to foist on good people.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Details about the application and review process for
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: the selected designation will be available in fall of 2027.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: No selected benefits will be available to NFDA members who do not have
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: the selected designation.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: So to translate that into English,
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: you should vote for this merger and then after the merger passes,
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: They'll tell you what kind of benefits you'll get if you're not a selected member.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: I actually just did a story, and I'll link to it, about a buying group.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: There are lots of buying groups out there.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: What's difficult about Selected is that it is not an open organization.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: It is not for you.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Asked to join.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's like the Masons.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact,
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if they put a hood on you or any of that,
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: but it's not something that's openly accessible.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: And this idea that the NFDA needs to make things more divisive.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Is just shocking to me.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I get you want to do a favor for a friend, maybe,
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: but if I were an NFDA member,
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: which I am not,
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: as I mentioned,
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be more than a little offended at being asked to help keep afloat An entity
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: that I would never ever be welcome in or invited to join.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're one of those people who knows they're never going to be invited
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: to join Selected or that you will never have the money to join Selected
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: or you're not that type of participant,
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: it's going to be tough to see if Membership shrinks when people don't see
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: the benefit of being a member.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the other thing that they were really,
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: really unclear about, because maybe it's just me, right?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I read it and I don't understand it because I'm not bright enough.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: But it's unclear how the discounts work if you are a selected member and
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: an NFDA member after this new negotiation.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: I guess everyone has to negotiate new discounts,
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: new deals, new preferred vendors, all of those things.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are a vendor,
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: then you'll have to have an NFDA price and then an NFDA slash selected price.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it just seems like an awful lot of work for whatever benefits selected gives
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: to whichever vendor.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: I was shocked.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: I was dumbfounded by the press release,
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: and then I continued to read into it,
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: and every word just made it look more extractive on both sides.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I am sure I'm wrong,
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: but I'll tell you what,
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: I reached out to my subscribers and I said, what am I missing here?
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't have anything positive that I can repeat.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Please, I would love to hear the other side of this.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: I just can't imagine what it could be.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a working class guy and this kind of not for you.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: I've got the Groucho Marx, right?
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think I wouldn't be a member of any club that would have me.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I've covered other industries and getting people to join more
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: and more things is getting more and more difficult.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: There is a link to all of the NFDA's work that they've done on this
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: to explain what's going on and to their And I want to be clear,
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: I would love someone to tell me what I'm missing.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Why the NFDA needs to save selected independent funeral homes as an organization.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Why save them and not any of the other struggling organizations on the planet.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, link to all of those things in the show notes.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Service Corporation International recently released its earnings report.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I have my coverage on it at the On Death Care website
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: and subscribers have already gotten it in their email boxes.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: The financials weren't terribly interesting.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: They did fine and they expect to continue to do fine for 2026.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: No huge surprises as far as anybody either knows or is willing to say.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: But what was really interesting was the way they spoke
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: about how they'll be doing their pre-need.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And again, most of this is in my story and I would encourage you to read the story.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's more detailed than I'm going to be here.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: But a really interesting aspect of it was they decided that they were going to move
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: from a primarily commission basis for their representatives
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: and make it primarily salary basis.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: For their pre-need representatives with the hope that they can keep people longer
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: and have them better trained and have them converting better and burn
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: through fewer people as they discover that they do or don't like selling pre-need
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: the hard way.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: The other really interesting aspect of it is they are going to double down on seminars.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, Lunch and Learns, those kinds of things.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to have more of them.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's going to be their primary attack mode, their primary driver.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you may recall that in March,
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: I wrote a story,
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think I called it, SCI doesn't want your funeral home, only your business.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: They talked about going into other people's backyards and finding the business there.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe that this is the way they're going about it.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: But what was really interesting to me was And if you didn't
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: You absolutely should hear that interview because it's a good interview.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: She's really bright and forthright.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: But she said that Heritage is also looking less at buildings and more at businesses.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: And...
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Along those lines,
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: and she said this at the end,
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: she said,
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: there has to be a way to keep funeral service from becoming just,
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: care centers and
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: crematories and having still some personal connections in it.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: But it's getting tougher, especially as real estate continues to go through the roof.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Your business might be worth more separate from your real estate.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: And everyone's saying that.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: But what are those implications?
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And what SCI has done really well,
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: and I think hopes to continue to do really well,
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: is to have those businesses because the way that they've been able to compound
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: the interest on their pre-need sales,
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: where that's legal and possible, is phenomenal.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that is really where the long-term...
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Money is, you know, the long term value of a business.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think that that brings in other things like, you know, are your families happy?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Are your employees satisfied?
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: But as far as driving revenue, I mean,
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: there's not a secret that this is the way to do it and it's becoming less
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: and less.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: I would love some feedback on this if you'd like to let me know how you feel
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: about this notion about buying businesses but not
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love your take on it.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: So you can reach me at my email address.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: It is bytonyrusso at gmail.com.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: That is B-Y-T-O-N-Y-R-U-S-S-O at gmail.com.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to get a conversation started around this.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, link of the show notes.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Unique Green is back in the news after a kind of very public and farcical,
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think, temper tantrum in front of cameras after her arraignment.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: I put a link to the video here.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to replay it only because I don't want to take advantage.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is the kind of thing that You don't want to be making fun of
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: because it's serious, but it's also, like I said, it's just, it's farcical.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you'll recall that Unique Green has been a false funeral director several times.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: And the Texas Funeral Service Commission kept just saying,
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: like, you better stop telling people you're a funeral director or else...
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but, uh, Unique Green did not stop telling people she was a funeral director.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: She's been arrested a couple of times, um,
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: and released most recently,
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: as I said last week,
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: because it looked like,
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: uh, her arrest was, uh, either tangled up with or botched by, um,
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: But this story, she embezzled, embezzled.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: She attempted to steal $22 million from one of the decedents in her care by forgery,
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: which is how she was able to get all of the documents that she did get from
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: the Texas Funeral Service Commission.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to not say it,
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: but it's part of my ongoing coverage of the Texas Funeral Service Commission.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I figured that I would tell you I didn't miss it and then give you a link to
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: the video in case you wanted to see it yourself.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: I've mentioned this story before and this disclaimer before, so I'll go ahead and do both.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: I don't work for the Institute of Justice.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's just that they defend a lot of people who are trying to get into death care or
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: who are just trying to do business in death care and aren't allowed because
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: of archaic and anti-competitive laws.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: For example,
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: there's been this couple in Oklahoma who made their own caskets
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: and making your own casket is apparently against the law in Oklahoma selling
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: a casket if you're not a funeral director.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's against a law in Oklahoma and this feels very much like the Indiana death doula thing.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: The state absolutely refuses to acknowledge that this is an unfair law and
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: that it is just designed to protect the casket manufacturers and doesn't serve
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: the consumers and it doesn't serve the state and it doesn't even serve
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: the funeral directors.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: But they fined the couple for $1,000.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: The couple fought the fine and the Oklahoma Funeral Board levied the fine
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: and is continuing to pursue this case.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: But the couple won their first challenge and the state now has to decide
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: if they want to continue to fight this in court or give up.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'll put a link in the show notes to my interview with Tonya Marsh,
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: who is a law professor and a death care specialist,
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: because you should just hear the way that laws work in this country.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to forget.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: How backwards things can be.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: So the reason probably that Oklahoma continues to fight this is it's easier
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: to lose this fight and to say, okay, well,
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: this one person can do it and then just continue to prosecute this law
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: as they feel like it rather than change the law and make it
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: a little bit more equitable.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: That will do it for this time.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: The rest has been an On Deathcare production.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was written, edited,
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: videoed,
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: transmogrified, all the things by me, Tony Russo, having an absolute blast doing it.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for tuning in and for staying with me.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is getting shared more and more often, which is just so flattering.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I say it every week and this is a week, so I'm saying it again and I'm meaning it again.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: I know how valuable your time is.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for taking the half hour or so to listen to my take on the news.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope you continue to find it valuable.
• 17:31
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• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: And if you find your subscription valuable enough, I hope that you'll become a paid subscriber.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: You can do all those things by going to OnDeathCare.com.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you have any criticisms,
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: particularly criticisms,
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: but I'm always happy for a little bit of praise if you have some lying around,
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: you can email me.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: My email address is bytonyrusso at gmail.com.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: That is b-y-t-o-n-y-r-u-s-s-o at gmail.com.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: You can also just reply to the email that this came in,
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: or you can write something down in the comments.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: I respond to everything.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Again, thanks so much.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great week and we will check in with you next time.