Death Care Law Blog : Kansas Death Care and Preneed Lawyer & Attorney : Stalter Legal Services Law Firm : Funeral Law, Elder Law : Kansas City

In rejecting the $18 million settlement forced upon IFDA members, an Illinois Circuit Court is telling Merrill Lynch Life Agency to dig deeper into its pocket to compensate funeral homes. As reported by the Springfield Journal-Register, the $18 million represents the revenues the insurance broker received from the sale of key man insurance to the IFDA master trust. Apparently, Merrill Lynch convinced the Illinois Department of Insurance (DOI) that the funeral homes’ damages should be measured in terms of the benefit that Merrill Lynch received. But as the editor of the Memorial Business Journal* suggests, the Circuit Court seems more inclined to consider a ‘deeper’ measure of damages, and that will require the parties to the litigation to assess the master trust’s true loss.

The master trust collapse is framed by a ‘value’ that was set by a fixed return (2%) on consumer deposits. Based on that ‘value’, the loss is reported to be close to $100 million. But, one question funeral directors may be forced to answer will be whether the trust could have attained that value with the investment restrictions imposed by the members and the expenses taken by the IFDA. Another issue that may be raised is whether the IFDA’s past executives and attorneys bear some of the responsibilities for either selecting the investments or approving them. If so, comparative negligence may force the IFDA to shoulder responsibility for a portion of the damages.

The situation begs for a negotiated settlement, and it is unfortunate that time and expense was wasted on an end run with a regulator that had little, if any, authority over the IFDA master trust.
 

*"Reprinted with permission from the March 4, 2010 issue of the Memorial Business Journal. To subscribe please call 609-815-8145."

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The September edition of the Mortuary Management ran an excerpt from a Funeral Monitor article about the California Master Trust suffering a deficit. 

If the story is accurate about the master trust's shortage, the author's speculation about the reasons for the deficit omits a possible factor that has existed for years: the 4% administration fee. 

As explained by the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau's audit guide, California law allows for an annual 4% administration fee.  If the CMT takes the full administration fee allowed by law, no wonder the trust is running a bit short.

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Last week’s exchange between the State Journal-Register and the Illinois Comptroller’s office underscores just how poorly some regulators (and funeral directors) understand the preneed transaction.

The newspaper’s June 24th editorial included the following statement:

The directors allege they didn’t find out about the audit until fall 2007 when the comptroller revoked the IFDA’s license to be the fund’s trustee.

The Comptroller’s office responded two days later with a letter stating they are only responsible for auditing funeral homes and cemeteries that are preneed sellers, and that the IFDA was not a seller. While this position is consistent with that taken by the Comptroller in its September 17, 2007 letter of revocation, it is wrong nonetheless.

State associations serve as a jack-of-all-trades with regard to their master trusts, including administrative agents. But for smaller operators, the association (or its affiliate) typically serves as the preneed seller, discharging compliance and licensing obligations that are too burdensome for the ‘little guy’. With regard to larger members that have a seller's license, contracts between the association and the member determine who is the seller.

One problem with the IFDA situation was that the preneed contracts were so poorly written it may be impossible to tell who the seller is. But, it was the Comptroller that licensed the IFDA as a preneed seller, and it was incumbent upon the Comptroller to have addressed the contract and fiduciary problems before the license was issued.  It is wrong for the Comptroller to now attempt to duck those responsibilities, or to cram a settlement down the throats of funeral directors on any argument that they were the sellers of the IFDA preneed contracts.
 

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The battle to reform Illinois’ preneed funeral law was renewed by the Comptroller’s office with the release of his Amendment to Senate Bill 1862. Reform in Illinois will take months, and the final product may differ substantially from the Comptroller’s proposal. However, SB 1862 flags Mr. Hynes’ priorities, and one of those priorities could force a shotgun marriage between the IFDA and some of the small funeral homes critical of the Association.

The Illinois preneed law authorizes a preneed seller to act as its own trustee when the seller’s preneed funds are less than $500,000. This provision is a reflection of the difficulty and expense encountered by small operators attempting to find affordable trust services. However, the IFDA exploited this provision with regard to its master trust, and consequently, the Comptroller wants to eliminate the self-trusted arrangement.

The advantage of an association master trust is that it provides the requisite economies of scale to provide affordable trust administration to the smallest funeral home operator. But, many Illinois operators shunned the IFDA master trust because of a lack of transparency. The amount of preneed funds held in self-trusted arrangements could be substantial. If the Comptroller seeks to apply the elimination of the self-trusted exception retroactively to existing trusts, the cost of corporate fiduciary services and the scarcity of such fiduciaries may lead these operators back to the IFDA, perhaps with the numbers to force changes at the Association.

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U.S. Senator Roland Burris has been sidestepping questions about his role(s) in the IFDA master trust troubles.  While the Senator was a side issue to a March 30th article published by the Springfield Journal Register, the statement provided by his public-relations specialist may signal just how little Mr. Burris understood about his responsibilities to the Illinois public.

In an effort to shift blame to current Comptroller Dan Hynes, Delmarie Cobb wrote to the paper:

I don’t know what he has to say is relevant given that he left the comptroller’s office in 1991. When he left, the pre-need fund was in the black.

Au contraire, Ms. Cobb.

The $49+ million dollar question is why Comptroller Burris issued a seller’s license to the IFDA when it did not have a corporate fiduciary?

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It didn't take long for an Illinois funeral director to confirm that IFDA members have disagreements with their association leadership. 

Several Illinois funeral homes filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court on January 28th.  The petition, a derivative complaint, seeks remedies and damages on behalf of all Illinois funeral homes that participated in the IFDA master trust.  Various IFDA officers, board members and agents are named the defendants.  The defendants include Merrill Lynch, in its capacities as an advisor to the IFDA. 

The Derivative Complaint asserts facts that indicate the IFDA not only concealed critical information, but mislead funeral directors and consumers.  However, the Complaint does not answer the question from my prior post:  Who is the seller of the IFDA preneed contracts?

Page 20 of the Complaint approaches the issue with a discussion of "Participating Member Firm Agreements", but ultimately sidesteps the question and its legal ramifications. 

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A trade newsletter recently reported on funeral homes forming buying groups to negotiate better terms with casket vendors. Through cooperative alliances, the funeral homes can achieve the numbers required to negotiate better discounts from vendors. Those same economies of scale also benefit preneed programs that utilize trust funding. The larger trust not only provides the operator leverage in negotiating terms with a fiduciary, the trust provides the asset manager the critical mass required for a sophisticated asset allocation model for proper diversification.

However, state laws are often a hurdle to independent funeral homes or cemeteries seeking to form a master trust that would commingle funds from multiple sellers. Laws such as Missouri’s Section 436.031 authorize collective investing by preneed trustees, so long as the funds deposited belong to a single preneed seller. This restriction reflects a legislative concern for the trust’s accounting of deposits, distributions, income and expenses.

Rather than close the door completely on collective investment trusts, the Michigan cemetery law signed into law last week left the door open to a new breed of master trusts.

Section 16 of SB 674 establishes a transition period for Michigan cemeteries to transfer their endowed care trusts to corporate fiduciaries. Subparagraph (2) of that section addresses the traditional master trust established by a single cemetery that has multiple trusts or a master trust among multiple cemeteries with common ownership. The subparagraph also references preneed trusts. The opening for pooling among unrelated trusts comes in subparagraph (3) where Michigan’s cemetery commissioner is given the authority to approve ‘other comparable methods of bundling or pooling of trust or escrow funds for investment purposes’.

The fiduciary services provided by national banks are subject to Federal regulations set out in 12 CFR Part 9 (“Reg 9”), and more specifically, collective investment funds are subject to 12CFR 9.18. State chartered fiduciaries and Office of Thrift Supervision chartered fiduciaries are subject to similar requirements. The fiduciary’s authority to pool preneed trust accounts is derived from 12 CFR 9.18(c)(4). The regulation sends the fiduciary back to state law for its authority, and prohibitions. In the absence of express authority (and express prohibitions), the fiduciary is in ‘no man’s land’ with whether it is required to follow the requirements of Reg 9, which include a written plan, audits and asset valuations.

The Michigan law seems to appreciate that Reg 9 requirements go beyond what should be required of a preneed master trust, and appropriately, make the non-traditional master trust subject to a case-by-case approval. The test will be whether the proposed pooling arrangement has sufficient accounting procedures to protect participating operators and their consumers. Missouri is particularly sensitive to this issue in light of the NPS failure, and its procedures for trust rollovers.

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The IFDA master trust turned a new page today, and for participating funeral homes, the first step in a long recovery process.  With the appointment of Merrill Lynch Bank & Trust as a temporary trustee, the association begins the process of looking for a permanent trustee.  The appointment also coincides with the trust's accounts being put on a mark-to-market basis. 

The mark-to-market approach taken by the IFDA master trust will mean that the trust's value will be allocated among the preneed contracts each month. Until the benefits of key man insurance purchased by the master trust are realized, funeral directors will be servicing contracts for far less than they were promised.  It was not clear from the Q&A circulated to funeral directors whether insurance proceeds will be allocated to preneed contracts serviced while the actuary study is being performed. 

Funeral directors who left the IFDA master trust for NPS must feel whipsawed by these circumstances.  

Missouri funeral directors questioning reporting requirements being considered by the legislature should note that the IFDA reports its preneed contract values to consumers annually. 

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Mortuary Management’s July/August Colleague Wisdom column underscores how difficult it can be to run a trade association. I can empathize with the funeral home operators who took the time to provide their thoughts. As an attorney who specializes in the death care industry, I have to weigh the costs and benefits of membership in trade associations from two industries.

Every so often, the American Bar Association calls to solicit my renewal to the ABA. I was an ABA member back in 1986, the first year out of law school. After that first year membership, I never renewed again. Yet, they continue to call. And I will continue to decline, because the ABA is not a resource that is worth the cost (to me).   

In contrast, I do belong to the Missouri Bar Association.   The MBA provides services and programs that justify its membership costs to me. The MBA is not only a good source for forms and information, it provides some reasonable discounts for continuing education classes. However, I have not found that to be same for the Kansas Bar Association. The KBA seems to be marketing primarily to the trial attorney bar (a reflection of an economic reality).

If comments published in The Colleague Wisdom are representative of the funeral industry, the article reflects that funeral directors also tend to look more to their state association for the services and programs they need. It should come as no surprise but the level of satisfaction among funeral directors varies greatly. It is difficult to compare state associations because each has its own unique set of factors or hurdles. However, there seems to be certain common standards.

The Colleague Wisdom comments provide some insight to what industry members expect from an association, and why some do not participate. The comments also touch upon the revenues that subsidize the association. As Mr. Wigger so succinctly states: membership in a state association is a matter of weighing the costs vs. the benefits. One reality is that an association must impose costs in order to have the funds needed for programs and services that will attract membership. It is also a reality that some industry members will complain no matter what the cost. 

Some of the Colleague Wisdom comments have been highlighted in yellow, green and pink. The yellow comments seem to reflect an association’s perceived values. The green comments make note of a source of revenue, and the pink comments reflect criticisms. Associations need to be sensitive to criticism, and adapt to the membership’s needs. In order to do so, the association must seek input (even if it is done so by a coded survey). 

Now for the obligatory preneed comments:

Funeral directors who are opposed to preneed will need to appreciate that master trusts are an important source of revenue for association programs and organizational expenses. The master trust is an even more important revenue source for associations in states where continuing education is not required. But as one Colleague Wisdom commentator points out, association leadership must be careful with regard to the master trust becoming a competitor to its own members. In a sense, the master trust cannot help but be a competitor to larger independents that have their own preneed administration. The master trust may be the only way for the small operator to effectively compete for the preneed sale. Accordingly, it will become incumbent for association leadership to diffuse these situations through cooperation and attempts to find mutual benefits. 

Association leadership must also be careful that the master trust does not become a source of dissatisfaction when earnings and/or expense expectations are not met. Disclosures, accountability, frequent communications, innovation and leadership will be crucial to retaining membership satisfaction. 

With the NPS failure, associations may have an opportunity to expand their master trusts. But to do so, some state associations need to assess why funeral homes turned to NPS in the first place. Some funeral homes did succumb to the promises of profit, or looked forward to the Rep visit, but many did so out of dissatisfaction with their master trust. For some funeral directors (like those in Illinois), the state association may have a difficult task in regaining the membership’s faith.

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