Preneed: A Pandora's Box of Problems
Search the internet for “cemetery” and “friends of” and you will find a number of independent maintenance associations. We’re not referring to Facebook groups that organize volunteer events for an abandoned cemetery, but rather we want to highlight those formal organizations established to provide continuing financial assistance to an active cemetery.
As a cemetery nears…
We believe three fiduciary powers are crucial to reviving cemetery care funds: investment diversification, unitrust elections and the power to adjust. It has been more than 12 years since we first posted about the need to repair cemetery care funds (Cemetery Endowed Care Funds and the Fixed Income Investment). That post touched on…
In a recent Washington Post article, supporters of a Lost Cause monument unsuccessfully argued to have a Confederate statue moved from a county courthouse steps to a local cemetery. The article sets out some of the counter-challenge arguments we described in our prior post. But eventually the small community of Isle of Wright rejected…
While the greater public sentiment has turned against statues honoring the Confederacy, cemetery operators should anticipate a counter-challenge to the removal of a Lost Cause monument. Support for the Lost Cause monument can be just as fervent as the calls for its removal. With emotions running high in both directions, the removal of the Lost…
If a racial justice challenge is made against a Lost Cause monument, the cemetery’s regulations typically vest authority in the cemetery to remove monuments deemed offensive. Through their rules and regulations, cemeteries reserve the authority to deem what is, or is not, offensive. The following were taken from cemetery websites found through a Google search…
Cemeteries that contain a Lost Cause monument are the most susceptible to a racial justice challenge. For purposes of our posts, a Lost Cause monument is a Confederate statue or obelisk erected between 1890 and 1920. As discussed in this attached article, Confederate memorial societies actively erected Lost Cause monuments during that period, with obelisks…
A cemetery may not be where one would expect to find the racial justice movement, but several Kansas City area cemeteries have been challenged about Confederate monuments found within their boundaries. An October 2020 Kansas City Star article reported on Fairview Cemetery in Liberty, Forest Hill & Calvary Cemetery in south Kansas City and Union…
Financial relief is coming to Missouri counties with cemeteries. House Bill 443 would allow county commissioners to withdraw principal from perpetual care funds to pay for cemetery maintenance. When combined with the authorities granted counties four years ago by HB 51, Missouri county commissioners can now diversify cemetery perpetual care trusts and restate those trusts…
In our prior post, we recommended that the Evergreen Cemetery Association explore the Minnesota trust code provisions regarding the trustee’s power to adjust (501C.1112). This is something other “excluded” cemeteries should also consider. By excluded, we mean cemeteries owned by associations, churches, cities or counties that are typically excluded from regulation of…
The Funeral Director Daily recently wrote about the Evergreen Cemetery Association in Brainerd, Minnesota. Like so many cemeteries, Evergreen is running a deficit and its board is worried about the future. The Funeral Director Daily suggests the situation cries out for a relaxation of government restrictions over the Association’s care fund. If the cemetery could…