Carriage Services, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Carriage Services second quarter 2020 earnings webcast. At this time, all participant lines are in listen-only mode. Later, we will turn back a question and answer session and instructions will follow at that time. If anyone should require assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your touchtone telephone. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to the Carriage Services Management. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. This is Vicki Blinderman, the Chief Accounting Officer at Carriage Services. Today, we'll be discussing the company's record second quarter results for our 2020. A related earnings release was made public yesterday after the market closed. Carriage Services has posted a press release, including supplemental financial tables and information on the investors' page of our website. This audio conference is being recorded and the archive will be made available on our website later today through August 3rd. Replay information for the call can be found in the press release distributed yesterday. On the call today for management are Mel Payne, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Ben Brain, Chief Financial Officer. Today's call will begin with formal remarks for management and followed by a question and answer period. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that during this call, we will make four looking statements. Certain statements on this call, including financial estimates, assumptions, or statements about our plans, future results, expectations, or beliefs, may constitute forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. We make these statements on the basis of our views and assumptions regarding future events, business performance, and other factors at the time we make them, and do not undertake any obligation to provide updates or revise any of these forward-looking statements after the date of this call. whether to reflect the occurrence of events, circumstances, or changes in expectations, except as required by law. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from the results expressed or implied in light of a variety of factors, including factors contained in our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and in our other filings with the SEC. Please note that a reconciliation of non-GAAP measures that may be referred to on this call to equivalent GAAP measures can be found in our earnings press release that was issued yesterday and on the company's website. And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Mel.

Thank you, Vicki. The great blessing of my life is that I found my way into the funeral and cemetery business at age 48 when I co-founded Carriage. It has been an incredible life journey, career journey. and indeed a labor of love, a love affair with our wonderful people ever since that has involved my entire family, my wife, my son, and my daughter, who are big shareholders. The work our people do is more than meaningful. It is noble, and it is necessary beyond description. It is therefore only appropriate that this earnings release, this call, in this transformative year of high performance, be dedicated to all of our wonderful leaders and employees in the portfolio of businesses of Carriage who have risen to the challenge of two once-in-a-lifetime crises over the last four and counting months. Our managing partners, sales managers, and their teams of employees dealing with the fear and uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic and the constantly changing mandated behavioral and social restrictions family by family on the front lines of this battle against an invisible enemy have been and are continuing to do no less courageous, even heroic work than the frontline army of doctors, nurses, and first responders across America. Speaking for all of us, including our board, who are honored and privilege to serve you, our people. We thank you and salute you. The second quarter earnings release published yesterday after the market was not about a record quarterly and first half performance. The release is full of substantive content about our company and represents no less than a statement about the evolution of a radical idea we call our standards operating model. which when well led, executed, and supported, which is obvious in the second quarter and the first half, has the capacity to unleash human performance potential beyond what would normally be thought possible. When the current environment normalizes, we welcome all of you who have a curiosity and an interest to learn more about us and this idea. to visit our home office as our special guest, or even better, arrange a visit to one or more of our businesses to witness up close and personal the uniqueness and what our company is all about, where it matters most in our local businesses. With that, I'll turn it over to Ben.