An Oklahoma funeral director faces serious prison time over the deposit of preneed funds to his business operating account. The Oklahoma Department of Insurance decided to go to a local prosecutor when a Department audit found the funeral director had routinely failed to deposit consumer funds to the preneed trust required by state law. The
chapter 436
NPS’ Legacy of Damages: No One Knows How Deep the Waters Were
By Bill Stalter on
When NPS first collapsed, the estimate of the company’s liabilities to funeral homes was reported to have been as much as a billion dollars. When the SDR finally brought the case to trial, the damages awarded by the jury were less than half of the original estimate. While this author believes the actual damages are…
NPS Trustees: Standard of Care for Preneed Administration
By Bill Stalter on
Final arguments were heard in the NPS civil trial this past Friday. With the SDR having presented evidence through the prior Friday, the defendant trustees presented their case in less than a week. This may reflect that the NPS trustees had viewed their duties as having been defined by Chapter 436 as relatively low. As…
NPS Trustees: Pre-acceptance Due Diligence
By Bill Stalter on
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the OCC) supervises the fiduciary activities of national chartered banks, and in February, updated the guidelines used by its examiners. The “Personal Fiduciary Activities” booklet includes a section on pre-acceptance due diligence that fiduciaries should conduct before agreeing to serve as trustee for an account. …
Consumers Payment Options: Administrative Hurdles and Preneed Trusts
By Bill Stalter on
There are three scenarios for administration of preneed installment payments: the funeral operator collects payments, the trustee collects payments or a third party administrator collects payments. The entity collecting installment payments must be able to apply each payment to the correct preneed account, and provide the other party (or parties) current payment balances. If the…
Measure twice, cut once: Missouri funeral rule proposals
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Missouri - SB1
As discussed in a prior post, the Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors is now four years removed from Senate Bill No. 1 and the exigent circumstances that authorized emergency rules. The State Board must now address several issues through the formal rulemaking process. Understanding that the process may take a year or…
Coming This August: The Nuremberg Trial
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in NPS/Lincoln
Once again, I have spoken too quickly.
After lamenting to the Memorial Business Journal that the NPS plea bargains will deprive consumers and the industry the opportunity to hear how Doug and his crew perpetrated so many frauds, the sole remaining NPS defendant may grant my wish. As the Funeral Service Insider reports that Herr…
The Next Installment to Missouri Preneed Oversight: Will there be a quiz?
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Missouri - SB1, Preneed
My son, the 5th year senior, lamented to my wife and I a few months ago about a reading assignment given in an engineering lab. He was frustrated because the assignment would take all weekend, and the Jayhawks would be at Allen Fieldhouse that Saturday. I questioned him whether the professor had given the…
Missouri’s Exam Progress: Time for Changes?
By Bill Stalter on
The Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors will meet in a few weeks, and the topic of fees may be on the agenda. The staff broached the fees topic at the spring meeting, but the matter was tabled for subsequent discussion. Fees and the preneed examination process go hand in hand, and…
Missouri’s First Preneed Regulation: if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again
By Bill Stalter on
More than one funeral director has expressed the opinion that the State Board should never have been given rule making authority. We’ll never know, but if the State Board had rulemaking authority 22 years ago, it could have implemented rules to help enforce NPS’ 1990 settlement agreement, and thereby avoided that company’s collapse. But equally…