A Missouri funeral home client recently had a consumer with a trust funded contract cancel their prearranged funeral and request a refund. The contract was sold subsequent to the 2009 law change, which provides the consumer a refund equal to all payments in excess of a 5% origination fee. Missouri law allows sellers to withdraw
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Avoid the Long Spring Lines: File your Missouri Preneed Renewals Early
By Bill Stalter on
Missouri’s preneed seller and provider license renewals expire October 31st of each year, and many funeral directors approach this deadline like they would their tax return: if it is in the mail by Halloween I’m good. But, dozens of Missouri funeral directors found otherwise this past year when they were summoned to appear before…
Missouri Preneed Records: Disbursements
By Bill Stalter on
When the State Board first discussed the seller records proposal in December 2015, the disbursements records drew complaints from industry members that the examination process was delving too deeply into how funeral homes were conducting their business. Some comments were directed at whether examiners would review statements of goods and services to determine if consumers…
Missouri Preneed Records: Trustee’s Deposit Records
By Bill Stalter on
In our prior post (Missouri Seller Exams: Timely Deposits), we discussed the receipt and deposit records that funeral homes may be required to maintain. However, to demonstrate that they are complying with the preneed law’s deposit requirements, funeral homes will also be dependent upon the records generated by their funding source to confirm…
Missouri Seller Exams: Trustee Recordkeeping and Disbursements
By Bill Stalter on
The clock is on for the second round of Missouri preneed audits financial examinations, and the Missouri Division of Professional Registration wants to avoid the slow start that plagued the process 5 years ago. Although the State Board has yet to approve the Division’s proposals for seller recordkeeping and the scope of the exams, exam…
Active Supervision of An Industry Board: Let’s Start with What it Ain’t.
By Bill Stalter on
Last week we posted the Federal Trade Commission’s Active Supervision Guidelines for industry boards. The Guidelines set some substantial standards for the independent state agency or attorney general that provides supervision over an industry board. When that agency or attorney fails to satisfy the supervision requirements, the industry members are exposed to personal liability when…
Missouri Funeral Trust: Time to Put Up or Shut Up?
By Bill Stalter on
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…
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…