The Missouri Funeral Trust now faces the predicament we predicted a few months ago (The MFT’s Catch 22). The Court recently granted the State’s motion to dismiss, and dropped the State Board from the lawsuit. The main motivation for the lawsuit was probably to gain leverage in bringing a long and frustrating
Exams/audits
Missouri’s Second Round of Exams: The Committee’s Role
By Bill Stalter on
In September we posted about a regulation proposal that sought to define the role of a sub-committee of the Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors (Missouri’s Financial Examination Committee: What Role?). While the Board eventually gave its staff instructions to revise that proposal, the regulation has yet to resurface. Instead, the…
Missouri’s Second Round of Exams: Exit Interviews
By Bill Stalter on
In a prior post we alluded to Missouri preneed sellers’ complaints about the examination process, and that the follow up process to the on-site review has been unnecessarily burdensome. Subsequent to the examiner’s departure from the funeral home, the seller received an exception list of missing contracts or documents, which the seller can often quickly…
Missouri Second Round of Exams: 100% Reviews
By Bill Stalter on
The Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors and the Board’s staff are engaged in an awkward exercise of establishing audit policies for the state’s preneed industry. The staff, employees of the Division of Professional Registration, must take the lead in making recommendations to the Board. The Board then must approve the recommendations, or…
Missouri Preneed Examinations: Round 2
By Bill Stalter on
When the Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors meet on January 6th, the main topic of discussion will be the scope of the next round of preneed financial examinations. With the passage of Senate Bill No. 1 in 2009, the State Board was given the responsibility of conducting a preneed examination…
New Missouri Preneed Recordkeeping Requirements: base records and uniformity
By Bill Stalter on
The Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors will meet December 9th, and their agenda includes a proposed regulation for new preneed recordkeeping requirements. Borrowing perhaps from other states’ preneed audit manuals, the regulation sets out a list of journals, ledgers, documents that a preneed seller would be required to maintain. For an…
Chasing Preneed’s Bad Apples
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Associations, Exams/audits
In September of last year, the Columbus Dispatch published a story critical of the Ohio State Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers. Examining the Board’s efforts to address preneed fraud, the story reported that prosecutions of funeral directors were more the result of consumer complaints than Board inspections. That must have struck a nerve…
Missouri’s Financial Examination Committee: What role?
By Bill Stalter on
When the Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors meet this week, the role of the Board’s Financial Examination Committee will be discussed. As established, the Financial Examination Committee was intended to expedite the exam process. The initial Committee consisted of the Board’s public member and a former industry member who had previously acknowledged…
Missouri’s Next Round of Preneed Examinations: Drilling Deeper?
By Bill Stalter on
When the Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors meets this week, their staff will be seeking input regarding the scope of the second round of preneed audits. Each preneed seller is to be audited at least once every five years, and the first round of audits was ‘concluded’ this year. Included on…
Missouri Audits: What’s in store for round 2?
By Bill Stalter on
The Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors will meet August 4th and 5th to discuss legislation, regulation drafts and changes to the examination process. The State Board examiners are completing the first audit of each preneed seller, and the scope and procedures for the next round of preneed audits will be discussed. Use…