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One of the weaknesses of Chapter 436, Missouri’s preneed law, is that it provides the State Board few enforcement powers beyond disciplining the preneed seller’s license.  There are plenty of examples of preneed sellers obstructing the State Board’s efforts to obtain preneed records.  At least one resorted to litigation as a delay tactic.  The prospect…

With this post we will examine the new “Preneed Audit Fund” that SB32 proposes to create.  Missouri funeral homes are already quite familiar with the state contract fee that was authorized in 2009 by Senate Bill No. 1.  Per that law, the State Board began charging a fee on each preneed contract sold.  That contract…

It would seem that the Missouri Legislature has grown impatient with the funeral industry’s efforts to regulate preneed.  New legislation, Senate Bill No. 32, would establish a two tier approach to preneed oversight.  This law would create a threshold whereby the State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors would be required to notify the…

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…

Dear Senator Schatz,

We appreciate that your Senate Appointment Committee has a packed hearing date for April 20th.  So, the Missouri funeral industry not represented by the Missouri Funeral Directors and Embalmers Association requests a single question be asked of Ms. Solon:

If confirmed as executive director of the Division of Professional Registration…

This past August we received an email from the Gottcha Board asking about availability to attend a closed meeting call.  Anticipating a client was in trouble, we responded that we would accommodate the Board’s request.  However, the Board’s purpose for the call was to make an inquiry about representation to resolve the dispute with the…

This past Friday morning, news outlets across the country picked up an Associated Press story regarding Governor Parson’s October ouster of Missouri’s Gottcha Board.  (For those not familiar with the Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, the tag “Gottcha Board” was first given to the Board in 2020 by the Missouri Funeral…

The State of Missouri seems hell-bent on creating work for Jefferson City attorneys.  As we reported earlier this summer (You were Warned!), the Division of Professional Registration blundered in its first move to control how the State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors conducts inspections of funeral homes.  Since then, the Division has…

In our third post on Missouri’s endowed care cemetery audits we look at the request for the cemetery’s legal documents.  The current audit notice  requests copies of the cemetery’s trust agreement, rules and regulations, contract forms, deed forms, brochures and any other materials making an endowed care representation.  In essence, the audit is going to…

Our previous post discussed care fund audits and the tracking of a cemetery’s property sales and care fund liability.  The next step of the audit process is following the money to the care fund trust (and the back from the trust to the cemetery).  For these purposes, the Missouri audit notice requests trust statements from…