For obvious reasons, life insurance is the preneed funding choice for many funeral directors. One hundred percent trusting laws give proactive preneed organizations no choice but to use insurance funding. Insurance provides the commissions needed to finance marketing and a sales force, and, maybe as important, relieves the funeral home from preneed accounting and administration.
Administration
The Independent Preneed Trustee: In a Perfect World
By Bill Stalter on
A breakdown in communications between the CFDA and the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau has resulted in the California Attorney General filing a lawsuit that can be appropriately described as vitriolic. The “California lawsuit” could provide some valuable ‘what to avoid” lessons for regulators in other states.
In an unusual move, the Bureau went…
Preneed Reporting: drilling down to each consumer
By Bill Stalter on
For most Illinois funeral homes, March 15th is the due date for the filing of their preneed data with the Comptroller’s office. For those funeral homes that bolted from the IFDA after the master trust melt down, this has been an extremely frustrating process. The majority of funeral homes must file on line, with supporting…
We were too busy
By Bill Stalter on
The Texas preneed regulator may have left some consumers scratching their head. On September 16th, the Department of Banking issued a press release that a cease and desist order had been issued to prohibit a Lubbock funeral home from selling trust-funded prepaid funeral contracts. But, a Lubbock newspaper reported comments from the Department of Banking…
A Reasonable and Necessary Trustee Fee: penny wise and pound foolish
By Bill Stalter on
The Special Deputy Receiver for NPS recently reported the company’s “negative net worth” to be just short of one billion dollars. Rightfully, regulators are looking at the NPS fiduciaries for culpability in the losses that will be sustained by consumers and funeral homes in the years to come. In the meantime, Missouri state officials are working…