While the Wall Street bail out plan has many flaws, one of its proposals has wide-based support: the concept of increasing the limit on insured deposits to $250,000.  According to the New York Times, the driving force behind this proposal wasn’t the mega-banks, but rather our local banks.  

The Independent Community Bankers of America represents approximately 8,000 local banks, and employed a grassroots approach to prevail over the proposals of the larger financial institutions.  The organization’s president stated that "we might be small, but we’re pretty nimble."   Words funeral directors may want to keep in mind when they attempt to respond to legislative efforts this winter.  

If the Wall Street bail out passes with the $250,000 FDIC limit, small funeral operators will have more flexibility in using deposit accounts as preneed funding.