BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

The Company

Carriage Services, Inc. (“Carriage”, the “Company”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is a leading provider of deathcare services and merchandise in the United States. As of March 31, 2016, we operated 167 funeral homes in 27 states and 32 cemeteries in 11 states.

Our operations are reported in two business segments: Funeral Home Operations and Cemetery Operations. Funeral homes are principally service businesses that provide funeral services (traditional burial and cremation) and sell related merchandise, such as caskets and urns. Cemeteries are primarily sales businesses that provide interment rights (grave sites and mausoleums) and related merchandise, such as markers and memorials.

Principles of Consolidation and Interim Condensed Disclosures

Our unaudited consolidated financial statements include the Company and its subsidiaries. All significant intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated. Our interim consolidated financial statements are unaudited but include all adjustments, which consist of normal, recurring accruals, that are necessary for a fair presentation of our financial position and results of operations as of and for the interim periods presented. Our unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in a manner consistent with the accounting principles described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 unless otherwise disclosed herein, and should be read in conjunction therewith.

Reclassifications

Certain reclassifications have been made to prior period amounts to conform to the current period financial statement presentation with no effect on our previously reported results of operations, consolidated financial position, or cash flows.

Cash and Cash Equivalents

We consider all highly liquid investments purchased with an original maturity of three months or less to be cash equivalents.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of our Consolidated Financial Statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates and judgments, including those related to revenue recognition, realization of accounts receivable, goodwill, intangible assets, property and equipment and deferred tax assets and liabilities. We base our estimates on historical experience, third-party data and assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. The results of these considerations form the basis for making judgments about the amount and timing of revenues and expenses, the carrying value of assets and the recorded amounts of liabilities. Actual results may differ from these estimates and such estimates may change if the underlying conditions or assumptions change. Historical performance should not be viewed as indicative of future performance, as there can be no assurance that our results of operations will be consistent from year to year.

Funeral and Cemetery Operations

We record the revenue from sales of funeral and cemetery merchandise and services when the merchandise is delivered or the service is performed. Sales of cemetery interment rights are recorded as revenue in accordance with the retail land sales provisions for accounting for sales of real estate. This method provides for the recognition of revenue in the period in which the customer’s cumulative payments exceed 10% of the contract price related to the interment right. Costs related to the sales of interment rights, which include real property and other costs related to cemetery development activities, are charged to operations using the specific identification method in the period in which the sale of the interment right is recognized as revenue. We recorded amortization expense for cemetery property of approximately $0.8 million and $1.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2015 and 2016, respectively. Sales taxes collected are recognized on a net basis in our Consolidated Financial Statements.

Allowances for bad debts and customer cancellations are provided at the date that the sale is recognized as revenue and are based on our historical experience and the current economic environment. We also monitor changes in delinquency rates and provide additional bad debt and cancellation reserves when warranted. When preneed sales of funeral services and merchandise are funded through third-party insurance policies, we earn a commission on the sale of the policies. Insurance commissions are recognized as revenues at the point at which the commission is no longer subject to refund, which is typically one year after the policy is issued.

Accounts receivable included approximately $8.2 million and $7.4 million of funeral receivables at December 31, 2015 and March 31, 2016, respectively, and $9.7 million and $10.2 million of cemetery receivables at December 31, 2015 and March 31, 2016, respectively. For 2015 and 2016, accounts receivable also included minor amounts of other receivables. Non-current preneed receivables represented the payments expected to be received beyond one year from the balance sheet date. Non-current preneed receivables consisted of approximately $7.3 million of funeral receivables at December 31, 2015 and March 31, 2016 and $20.7 million and $20.9 million of cemetery receivables at December 31, 2015 and March 31, 2016, respectively. Bad debt expense totaled approximately $0.4 million and $0.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2015 and 2016.

Property, Plant and Equipment

Property, plant and equipment (including equipment under capital leases) are stated at cost. The costs of ordinary maintenance and repairs are charged to operations as incurred, while renewals and betterments are capitalized. Depreciation of property, plant and equipment (including equipment under capital leases) is computed based on the straight-line method.

Property, plant and equipment was comprised of the following at December 31, 2015 and March 31, 2016:



	December 31, 2015			March 31, 2016
	(in thousands)
Land	$	65,433		$	67,868
Buildings and improvements	180,804			180,711
Furniture, equipment and automobiles	71,943			73,301
Property, plant and equipment, at cost	318,180			321,880
Less: accumulated depreciation	(103,306		)	(105,016		)
Property, plant and equipment, net	$	214,874		$	216,864

We recorded depreciation expense of approximately $2.6 million and $2.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2015 and 2016, respectively. During the first quarter of 2016, we acquired real estate for $2.7 million for funeral home expansion projects.

Stock Plans and Stock-Based Compensation

We have stock-based employee and director compensation plans under which we may grant restricted stock, stock options, performance awards and our employee stock purchase plan under which stock may be purchased. We recognize compensation expense in an amount equal to the fair value of the share-based awards expected to vest over the requisite service period. Fair value is determined on the date of the grant. The fair value of options or awards containing options is determined using the Black-Scholes valuation model. The fair value of the performance awards is determined using a Monte-Carlo simulation pricing model.

See Note 11 to the Consolidated Financial Statements included herein for additional information on our stock-based compensation plans.

Presentation of Debt Issuance Costs

Effective January 1, 2016, we adopted the Financial Accounting Standards Board's (“FASB”) new guidance on simplifying the presentation of debt issuance costs. In April 2015, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”), Imputation of Interest (Subtopic 835-30), which requires that entities that have historically presented debt issuance costs as an asset, related to a recognized debt liability, will be required to present those costs as a direct deduction from the carrying value of the related debt liability. This presentation will result in debt issuance costs being presented in the same way debt discounts have historically been addressed. Debt issuances costs of $4.2 million and $4.1 million have been presented as a deduction from the carrying value of the related liabilities in our Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2015 and March 31, 2016, respectively.

Business Combinations

Effective January 1, 2016, we adopted the FASB new guidance on simplifying the accounting for measurement-period adjustments for Business Combinations. In September 2015, the FASB issued ASU, Business Combinations (Topic 805), which requires that an acquirer recognize adjustments to provisional amounts that are identified during the measurement period in the reporting period in which the adjustment amounts are determined. These include the effect on earnings of changes in depreciation, amortization, or other income effects as if the accounting had been completed at the acquisition date. The entity is required to present separately on the face of the income statement or disclose in the notes the portion of the amount recorded in the current period earnings by line item that would have been recorded in previous reporting periods if the adjustment to the provisional amounts had been recognized as of the acquisition date. Our adoption of this ASU did not have a material effect on our financial statements.

Extraordinary and Unusual Items

Effective January 1, 2016, we adopted the FASB new guidance on extraordinary and unusual items. In January 2015, the FASB issued ASU, Extraordinary and Unusual Items (Subtopic 225-20). This ASU eliminates the concept of reporting extraordinary items. Preparers will not have to assess whether a particular event or transaction is extraordinary and likewise, auditors and regulators no longer need to evaluate whether a preparer treated an unusual and/or infrequent item appropriately. The presentation and disclosure guidance for items that are unusual in nature or occur infrequently will be retained and will be expanded to include such items. Our adoption of this ASU did not have a material effect on our financial statements.

Subsequent Events

Management evaluated events and transactions during the period subsequent to March 31, 2016 through the date the financial statements were issued for potential recognition or disclosure in the accompanying financial statements covered by this report. See Note 14 to the Consolidated Financial Statements included herein for additional information regarding subsequent events.