Thomas Ryan: I don’t know that it’s pent-up demand because we saw pretty strong throughout. I think it could be a combination of two things. One, we’ve built a lot of fabulous inventory out there and really across the entire country. And so having more availability is going to lead to more higher end sales. So I think some of our continued growth when you think about the markets being down 20% and all that and all the things you’d expect to happen, some of that could be the fact that, hey, look, we’ve got it in more places than it wasn’t there and maybe more spectacular stuff that we had before and that’s going to entice people into that high end category. So we feel good. There’s a lot of available inventory and we’re going to, as we mentioned, flip a few of those projects, bigger projects across the country and would anticipate selling into those projects at a high rate.
Albert Rice: Okay. Obviously, like last couple of years, you ended up on a strong note with the acquisitions in the fourth quarter. Is that the way you think acquisitions are just going to be really skewed to the fourth quarter getting ahead of the year-end taxes and maybe just comment on your pipeline that you’re seeing now?
Thomas Ryan: There’s definitely people trying to get year-end, and I think there’s some facts associated with that. The pipeline looks good. We don’t €“ there’s not a lot of huge, huge deals, but I’d say the deal activity is very good. We’re seeing a lot of people that we’re talking to. And so we expect to have a really good 2023 and hopefully get a few more in the first three quarters of the year. But it is pretty typical, like I said, for people, they really don’t want to cross that year-end threshold. So there’s a real mad rush to get done. A.J., you are right. So good year coming up, we believe, and a lot of things going on.
Albert Rice: Anything different on pricing for deals that you’re seeing?
Thomas Ryan: Not really. I think the whole €“ what’s your normalized volume discussion was always interesting. And I think that’s actually getting more clarity as we get into this year versus let’s say two years ago where you’re arguing about was 2021 a good base year to grow off of which we never believed. So I’d say that part is even easier and I’d say the pricing expectation they’re still a little higher than they were three or four years ago, but manageable.
Albert Rice: Okay. Maybe last question. Any update on the discussions around the funeral rule, what you’re hearing from the FTC or otherwise, any commentary there?
Thomas Ryan: We €“ the comment period was up in January this year. We submitted a very similar response to reiterate our position. But we had €“ it’s about 700 to 750 responses that they think they have to go through at this point in time. So A.J., the timing is just open. We really don’t know. I mean, this started three years ago that we started talking about it. I think someone said the last time that we had a change 20 years ago or so. It took eight to 10 years to even make that change. So I think the timing is very uncertain. I think you can read the papers yesterday and today, the FTC has got a lot on their plate. I’m not sure that with the quality of the industry in total dealing with this customer and getting very, very high marks. I’m not sure this is any type of burning platform for the FTC to deal with sooner rather than later. So we’ll just have to wait and see.
