This time last year, the hot topic before the Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors was the staff’s proposed regulation to define what constitutes adequate records of a preneed seller. The proposal was revised more than once during 2016, but it was eventually tabled by the Board before any consensus could be reached. This blog discussed several of the industry’s concerns about the proposal in a series of posts last year (click here to view those posts).
We still believe those concerns merit an open discussion before the State Board. Last summer, the State Board did little to facilitate any discussion with licensees. Having since filed an administrative hearing commission complaint over the inadequacies of one seller’s records, the Board may still be reluctant. Guidelines are needed, and the Board should be listening to licensees about defining reasonable record requirements.