William Stalter is the founder of Stalter Legal Services and the Preneed Resource Company. Bill focuses his law practice on preneed and death care compliance, serving banks, funeral homes, crematories, and cemeteries. He has written multiple published articles
By Bill Stalter on Posted in Care Funds,CemeteriesThese are tough times for cemeteries. Too many planned on a steady revenues from grave sales, and have not trusted enough funds for future maintenance expenses. Grave sale revenues have been dramatically cut by the public’s acceptance of cremation. Subsequent to the Great Recession of 2008, many of our funeral home clients reported a significant… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in Care Funds,CemeteriesEffective July 1st, the cemetery laws of Virginia and Georgia are each amended to authorize fixed distributions from cemetery perpetual care trusts. They join Florida, Tennessee, Michigan, Missouri and Iowa in embracing some form of the unitrust option for cemetery care fund distributions. The unitrust option is a dramatic departure from the net income distributions… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in CemeteriesPreneed planning often begins with the purchase of a cemetery plot or cremation niche. If that purchase includes a marker or monument, the cemetery will typically seek to deliver the marker so that it may avoid cost increases incurred with regard to granite and bronze. But, many of us do not like to be reminded… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in Cemeteries,Cemetery Development,Legislation,Preneed,Preneed Development,Trust FundedIn an unusual move for a death care regulator, the Federal Trade Commission weighed in on the preneed turf war that has erupted between Pennsylvania funeral directors and StoneMor Partners. At the request of the chairman for a Pennsylvania legislative committee, the FTC responded with a detailed letter warning against various bill proposals aimed at… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in Care Funds,CemeteriesThe International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association (ICCFA) made an old but persuasive argument to get the IRS to exempt cemetery care trusts from the Medicare tax that will fund ObamaCare. As discussed in a prior post, the IRS had initially proposed to apply the tax to both cemetery care trusts and preneed trusts. With… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in Care Funds,Cemeteries A cemetery operator recently expressed his frustration with the trust officer of his care fund trust. An examination of the trust had cited the operator for inappropriate distributions from principal with regard to expense payments. We suggested to the operator that it is very common for trustees to set up care fund accounts with a… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in CemeteriesIn its past two newsletters, my local chapter of the Funeral Consumer Alliance has reported on the difficulties in finding cemeteries that permit natural burials. In the Spring newsletter, the FCA of Greater KC reported on how the Catholic Cemeteries of Northeast Kansas was reconsidering natural burials at one of its six cemeteries. In the… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in CemeteriesAs cemeteries struggle with harsh economic conditions, regulators are bound to look at their ‘problem cemeteries’ and weigh whether legal proceedings are necessary to preserve the care funds mandated by state law. To the extent such proceedings are premised in part on how capital gains are defined and whether distributions from capital gains are an… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in CemeteriesHere is proof that readership of newspapers is going down. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel called a few weeks back about a Wisconsin legislative bill that sought investment freedom for cemetery trust funds. With the legislative battle that was waged a year ago in Wisconsin, we had expected the bill might represent a renewed effort to… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in Cemeteries,RecordkeepingA cemetery client once lamented that he was tired of being the last in line. He was alluding to the reality that when there is a death, families call the funeral home before the cemetery. As part of the final arrangements, the funeral home will often sell the family a vault and marker, and deprive… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in Administration,Cemeteries,Funeral,PreneedFor 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.… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in Cemeteries,PreneedAs alluded to in our prior post, the cemetery’s ability to deliver burial rights and merchandise prior to death complicates the preneed transaction. In a post, we labeled this the ‘bucket factor’ (Cemetery Preneed Oversight: the bucket factor). In addition to burial spaces, cemeteries can deliver markers, monuments, vases, urns, outer containers and vaults prior… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in Cemeteries,PreneedIt is no secret that the larger funeral home operators have more preneed options than the industry’s mom and pops. The large operators have the volume of business that will attract insurance companies and banks, and their program incentives and discounts. Economies of scale provide the larger operator preneed advantages when going ‘toe to toe’… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in CemeteriesThe Internet has provided consumer advocates a valuable platform for educating the public with ‘how to’ death care information. But, for the most part, that ‘how to’ information has been confined to the funeral half of the equation. A recent Mother Earth News article provided a detailed description of the issues faced by the author… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in CemeteriesIn relation to many of its peers, Springfield’s Oak Ridge Cemetery could be labeled progressive. Oak Ridge maintains both an endowed care trust and a preneed trust. In contrast, a substantial number of the country’s cemeteries have neither. The fact that Oak Ridge Cemetery is owned and operated by the City of Springfield, Illinois, makes… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in CemeteriesMortuary Management recently ran a short editorial criticizing cemeteries, stating “we can only conclude that cemeteries will, in the long run, be the losers”, and “it may be time for a reevaluation of standards and staunch principles of the past”. The editorial is nothing more than a handful of comments from anonymous funeral directors about… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in Cemeteries,Fiduciary,ReportingThe Kansas Secretary of State’s office bore the brunt of the criticism for a Hutchinson cemetery that siphoned off hundreds of thousands of dollars from its trust funds. That office has the responsibility of auditing cemetery trust funds (preneed merchandise and care funds). But, poor record keeping on the part of the cemetery industry has… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in Cemeteries,Investments,TaxesFor the past few years, some Kansas cemeteries have been getting nasty grams from their regulator about their care fund trustee’s treatment capital gains taxes. Kansas, like most states, requires a portion of each grave space sale (interment right) to be contributed to a fund or trust for the future care of the cemetery. Kansas… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in Cemeteries,Consumer Advocates,Preneed,PreplanningThe funeral industry may grumble about the FTC’s Funeral Rule, but two disclosures required by that law play important roles in the preneed transaction. The general price list is often used by funeral homes as a tool for comparing prices with the competition. And when a prearranged funeral is performed, the statement of goods and services… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in CemeteriesWhen a cemetery operator and the regulator get crossways with each other, the threat to close the cemetery is often countered with the question of whether the regulator is going to step in and perform the burials. And when the regulator sticks to his/her guns, the results are often similar to that seen in Dunkirk,… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in Cemeteries,Missouri - SB1,PreneedWe don’t like to be reminded of our mortality. Cemetery operators face this issue with many marker and monument sales. An illness may lead a husband and wife to begin making plans, which often includes the purchase of a grave space and a marker. But, it is difficult for many individuals to view a marker… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in Cemeteries,Legislation,Preneed,ReformIt is a bit of déjà vu for Kansas cemeteries. Legislation to increase preneed trusting and to require monthly reporting was introduced in the Kansas House. But HB 2240 will look familiar to those cemetery corporations that participated in 2009 and 2010 cemetery legislative meetings conducted by the Kansas Secretary of State. As previously reported… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in Cemeteries,Missouri - SB1,PreneedMissouri cemeteries received a brief questionnaire last week from their primary regulator. The Office of Endowed Care Cemeteries (the OECC) has responsibility for enforcement of Chapter 214, the Missouri law that governs endowed care requirements and preneed sold by licensed cemeteries. The OECC would seem to be sizing up cemeteries as candidates for Chapter 214… Continue Reading
By Bill Stalter on Posted in CemeteriesIn the end, Clayton will likely spend many of his final days in a federal penitentiary. The Memphis Commercial Appeal outlines the plea bargain to be entered by Clayton Smart to conclude criminal investigations in Tennessee, Oklahoma and Michigan. Comments made to the Commercial Appeal story express outrage with the prosecutors and the plea bargain.… Continue Reading
