Sources from several states recently contacted this office about a new policy implemented by a national cemetery corporation. That cemetery corporation began requiring a “Memorial Survey, Layout, Inspection, and Assessment Fee” for monuments that are to be purchased from third party monument companies. The cemetery corporation advised that they were blending the administrative, staffing, and
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Defining the Right of Sepulcher with a POA: An Express Power that Can Not be Implied
A Missouri funeral director recently called for advice. He received a first call for an individual that died without a spouse or children. The deceased had a surviving parent and several siblings, but a distant relative was asserting the right of sepulcher by virtue of a durable power of attorney. The funeral director had reviewed…
NFDA Consumer Survey: An Uptick in Facebook Traffic and Consumer Planning
The Memorial Business Journal (the NFDA’s weekly newsletter) has been drilling down into the NFDA’s 2024 Consumer Awareness and Preferences Survey. With the FTC’s Funeral Rule amendment looming, the July 4th MBJ edition was of particular interest to us. The Survey found that 92% of the survey respondents use Facebook, with most of those…
Mom’s Dementia and the empty house: Using the power of attorney to move on
One of the most difficult challenges for a financial POA agent is the parent’s empty house. Dementia has robbed the parent of the life skills needed to continue living at home and the health care POA agent has already made the decision to move Mom to an assisted living facility. As time passes, it becomes…
The Final Chapter of NPS: a Messy Ending
After almost 16 years, the NPS receivership is coming to a close. But the final chapter will mark a messy end for funeral homes that have consumers with an orphaned NPS contract and those funeral homes that did not heed the SDR’s 2020 notice about lost earnings.
One of the receivership’s final steps will be…
Avoiding Downgrades: Coupling the Preneed Contract with a Power of Attorney
The traditional funeral and burial remains the preference of many individuals. Understanding that this type of arrangement will be more expensive, many of those individuals purchase a preneed contract to spare their survivors a financial burden. But what happens when a child does not respect their parent’s preference for a traditional funeral and burial? Upon…
Mining the Internet for a Power of Attorney form: Is a Free Form Better than Nothing?
Free power of attorney forms may not provide what the client needs. …
Continue Reading Mining the Internet for a Power of Attorney form: Is a Free Form Better than Nothing?
Transition Plans and the Client with Dementia: Caregiver Challenges
A recent Guardian article offers excellent advice to caregivers for individuals with dementia. The author, Cynthia Dearborn, shared her experiences about caring for a father with vascular dementia. Cynthia described how her father’s short-term memory became severely impaired, along with his judgment and reasoning skills. I am having a similar experience with a Transition Plans’…
End of Life Forums: Well Intended, but Sometimes Misleading
We find the AgingCare website to be a good source information for end of life planning. The website includes a forum for readers to post questions and offer their experiences. However, readers need to be careful when the forum is used to seek legal help on end of life issues. One such topic thread began…
Missouri SB32: A New Audit Direction
With our next few posts we will dive deeper into SB32, the Missouri preneed legislation intended to provide the State Board a new audit direction and some new enforcement tools. Our first issue will be the change in course on preneed audits.
The bill would amend section 436.470 by adding the following new section:
3. …