For this post we are focused on Issues 18 through 21of the FTC’s Notice to revise the Funeral Rule. With these issues the FTC is responding to consumer advocates assertions that the GPL does not adequately disclose incidental costs associated with direct cremations or immediate burials. With regard to immediate burials, advocates do not
Compliance
Funeral Rule Revisions: Mark Up on Trade Services
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Compliance
The FTC’s second area of concern for Funeral Rule revisions is titled Crematory Fees and Additional Costs. For this post, we are going to look at Issues 16 and 17. Funeral consumer advocates are focused on the fact that many funeral homes do not own their own crematory and therefore outsource that service to…
FTC’s 40 Issues: Confirming Delivery of Price Lists to the Online Shopper
By Bill Stalter on
With Issues No. 10 through 15 of the FTC’s Funeral Rule notice, the agency begins inquiries on how to ensure the online shopper has access to all of the funeral home’s price lists before making any selections. Would it be sufficient to require the funeral home’s website to provide links for downloading the GPL (and…
The FTC’s Seven Areas of Concern: Funeral Rule Revisions
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Compliance, Consumer Advocates
As discussed in our prior post, the FTC’s rulemaking notice for amending the Funeral Rule requests public comment on 40 Issues. Those 40 issues are grouped by the FTC in the following 7 categories of potential amendments:
- Electronic price disclosure – whether and how funeral providers should be required to display or distribute price information
…
FTC’s “Forty Issues” and the Funeral Rule Comment Period: Time to Get Serious
By Bill Stalter on
By a posting made November 1, the Federal Trade Commission gave formal notice of its intent to revise the Funeral Rule and opened a 60 day comment period. The notice is quite lengthy and signals that that the FTC wants major revisions to the Funeral Rule that go well beyond whether to require the posting…
The Missouri Preneed Trust acquisition: What were you thinking?
By Bill Stalter on
The Missouri Preneed Trust: What were you thinking?
Investment markets are down, and preneed trusts are hurting. But one Missouri preneed trust is probably hurting more than others. When the Missouri Funeral Directors and Embalmers Association cheerfully announced the acquisition of the Missouri Preneed Trust program by its own MFT, we were shocked. The Missouri…
NPS Receivership Wind Down: Does this foreshadow an end to Missouri Third Party Sellers?
By Bill Stalter on
Late in 2021, PNC Bank threw in the towel. After years of litigation and two appeals, PNC Bank agreed to a settlement with the NPS special deputy receiver. Last month, our Illinois clients began receiving POC notices from the SDR that a portion of their claims for inflation would be honored. Payment of funeral home…
Missouri Preneed Portability: Contract Transfers
By Bill Stalter on
We are continuing with our posts to correct the misstatements made by the MFDEA in its May 24th video on Missouri law and preneed portability. At minute 28:50 of the video, the association’s general counsel states that with regard to the transfer of preneed contracts, a successor seller must execute a State Board affidavit…
Portability and Missouri Preneed Law: Seller Expenses
By Bill Stalter on
A few weeks ago the Missouri Embalmers and Funeral Directors Association posted a YouTube video explaining their take on preneed portability under Missouri law. The MFDEA frequently posts videos in response to industry queries, and for the association to spend 37 minutes on portability suggests that it is fielding numerous requests from MFT providers. The…
Preneed Fraud: What Statute of Limitations?
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Compliance, Uncategorized
A former Kentucky funeral director has been charged with multiple felony preneed thefts, some of which occurred 25 years ago. Various news sources report that Donald Creech began pocketing consumer preneed payments as early as 1996. The consumer preneed payments were to have been forwarded to the Kentucky Funeral Directors Association’s master trust. Until he…