The New York Department of Motor Vehicles warns its citizens to plan ahead when it comes to obtaining or renewing their driver’s license. The busiest days of the month are the first and last days of the month. The first day of the month is busy from those who want to beat the rush or
June 2009
A Change in Accounting: Missouri’s new preneed law
By Bill Stalter on
For twenty-five years, Missouri funeral directors have had it easy with regard to accounting for consumers’ preneed payments. Chapter 436 required the preneed seller to maintain 80% of the preneed contract sales price in trust. The Missouri law also allowed the preneed seller to withdraw income so long as the 80% threshold was maintained. Consequently…
Cemeteries, funeral homes, and conflicts
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Cemeteries, Funeral
John Penton has a valid point.
Funeral homes and cemeteries compete for the vault sale. And, the price of a grave space will impact what a family will pay for a traditional funeral and burial. So, when a cemetery faces economic challenges that impact the maintenance of graves, should competing funeral directors be allowed to…
Rules are Rules
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Cemeteries
Rules and regulations provide an important framework for the operation and maintenance of a cemetery. However, cemeteries should retain the flexibility to revise their rules to adapt to changes in operations, business and customs. It’s difficult to understand why a cemetery would risk complaints and the prospect of losing business by rigidly adhering to a set…
Insurable interest and the IFDA master trust
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in IFDA
The Illinois Division of Insurance made the right call: the IFDA master trust does not have an insurable interest in the lives of the members who participate in the trust.
A preneed trust is intended to fund the liability that arises when the preneed beneficiary dies and a funeral must be provided. Accordingly, it…
Hurry Up and Wait: Missouri’s SB1
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Legislation, Preneed
A little more than a month has lapsed since the Missouri legislature passed a reform preneed bill, but the death care industry remains stuck in neutral until Governor Nixon signs SB1 into law.
With an effective date of August 28th looming two months away, regulators and funeral homes (and cemeteries) face licensing and document deadlines. The State Board…
Redefining Preneed
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Legislation, Preneed
Federal and state regulators can not quite agree on how to define the preneed transaction. Federal regulators tend to view the preneed transaction as a current sale of goods and services (where the delivery is deferred until a future date). In contrast, state regulators are increasingly defining the transaction in terms that defer consummation of…
My way, or the highway: reasonable cemetery rules
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Cemeteries
Like homeowner’s covenants, ownership of an interment right in a burial space comes subject to the cemetery’s published rules. Cemetery rules are used to regulate such issues as the planting of trees and shrubs, establishing uniform requirements for markers, the removal of decorations, and a transfer of the interment right. Consequently, it’s common for states…