Preneed: A Pandora's Box of Problems
Cemetery owners have two choices for their care fund trust: the local bank or the national bank that solicits death care trusts.
When the local bank is used, the care fund is typically administered like an estate planning trust. The bank’s compliance office may be unfamiliar with the applicable state cemetery law and its restrictions…
The care fund trust is a source of frustration for most cemetery operators. Rather than offsetting maintenance expenses, the care fund is a state-mandated money pit. A percentage of grave sales must be deposited to trust with little or no income being paid back to the cemetery by the trustee. For the average-sized care fund…
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?
With legislation introduced this past January, Illinois could join those states which expressly authorize cemetery fiduciaries to take the unitrust election and make fixed distributions to cemeteries. Senate Bill No. 3207 proposes to amend Illinois’ Cemetery Care Act to add provisions which would define ‘total return distribution’ and thereby allow care fund trusts to make…
Search the internet for “cemetery” and “friends of” and you will find a number of independent maintenance associations. We’re not referring to Facebook groups that organize volunteer events for an abandoned cemetery, but rather we want to highlight those formal organizations established to provide continuing financial assistance to an active cemetery.
As a cemetery nears…
We believe three fiduciary powers are crucial to reviving cemetery care funds: investment diversification, unitrust elections and the power to adjust. It has been more than 12 years since we first posted about the need to repair cemetery care funds (Cemetery Endowed Care Funds and the Fixed Income Investment). That post touched on…
In a recent Washington Post article, supporters of a Lost Cause monument unsuccessfully argued to have a Confederate statue moved from a county courthouse steps to a local cemetery. The article sets out some of the counter-challenge arguments we described in our prior post. But eventually the small community of Isle of Wright rejected…
If a racial justice challenge is made against a Lost Cause monument, the cemetery’s regulations typically vest authority in the cemetery to remove monuments deemed offensive. Through their rules and regulations, cemeteries reserve the authority to deem what is, or is not, offensive. The following were taken from cemetery websites found through a Google search…
Cemeteries that contain a Lost Cause monument are the most susceptible to a racial justice challenge. For purposes of our posts, a Lost Cause monument is a Confederate statue or obelisk erected between 1890 and 1920. As discussed in this attached article, Confederate memorial societies actively erected Lost Cause monuments during that period, with obelisks…
In our prior post, we recommended that the Evergreen Cemetery Association explore the Minnesota trust code provisions regarding the trustee’s power to adjust (501C.1112). This is something other “excluded” cemeteries should also consider. By excluded, we mean cemeteries owned by associations, churches, cities or counties that are typically excluded from regulation of…