The New York Times article on funeral planning blurs the line between pre-paying and pre-funding. The savings accounts discussed by the article are one method of pre-funding funeral costs. But the POD savings account is far less secure than final expense trusts or final expense insurance policies. The concern many consumers have is that the
Funeral
A Call for Comments: Missouri’s Preneed Exam Handbook
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Exams/audits, Missouri - SB1
To begin reform of its preneed exam process, the Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors is seeking input from the industry by this Friday, June 8th. Specifically, the State Board is requesting comments to the Exam Procedures Handbook prepared by its staff. We have made edits to that handbook, and will…
Death Care Trade Associations: Will New Blood Be Enough?
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Associations
With the Dead Beat’s permission, we are sharing at a column they ran earlier this summer. An anonymous contributor suggested that Death Care associations are headed for obsolescence. The author noted that attendance at Midwest conventions have dropped dramatically, and attributed this in part to a failure to adapt meetings and conventions to the…
Preneed Shortfalls: Extended Installment Options
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Preneed Shortfalls, Price Protection
For consumers who need installments to pay for their preneed arrangement, funeral directors report that the $100 monthly payment is the comfort threshold for most individuals. For a widow planning her own funeral, the $100 monthly payment will require an installment term of six years or longer. If the widow needs to also cover an…
Estate Planning and Funeral Arrangements: A Will will be too Late
By Bill Stalter on
Funeral and burial preplanning should be a part of every estate plan, but some web pages promoting estate planning can be misleading or impractical. The estate planning page sponsored by Lawyers.com suggests that funeral arrangement preferences can be incorporated into a will or health care power of attorney to alleviate the financial and emotional burdens…
NPR’s Stories on the Funeral Industry: On Line Shopping
By Bill Stalter on
NPR’s second story on the funeral industry suggests that preplanning a funeral will typically require visits to multiple funeral homes.
NPR led their story with a consumer attorney sharing his frustrations with getting price information from funeral homes near his father. To the attorney’s surprise, many of the funeral homes did not include general price…
The Ecclesiastical Preneed Funeral Plan: Exceptional Financial Security
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Churches/Ritual
The promotional website for the Ecclesiastical Preneed Funeral Plan could easily be mistaken for that of a funeral home. This church stresses to parishioners the need to not only plan their funeral, but to also make financial provisions for their eventual funeral expense. The website points out that funeral costs are rising, and funding a…
Church and Funeral Directors in Partnership
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Churches/Ritual
We came across the Dioceses of Liverpool website some time ago when researching the income tax consequences of church sponsored preneed programs. We had found that preneed funeral programs in England, Canada and Australia were often established and operated independent of the funeral home. With a high cremation rate, English churches saw an opportunity to…
Churches: Conversation Sabbath
By Bill Stalter on
Churches from different denominations are observing “Conservation Sabbath” from November 11th through the 20th. In 2010, a faith-related initiative titled the “The Conversation Project” was initiated by journalist Ellen Goodman. The Conversation Project is dedicated to helping people talk about their wishes for end-of-life care. Their website states:…
Missouri Seller Record Keeping: A Misstep Right out of the Box
By Bill Stalter on
The purpose for a record keeping rule is to inform licensees what reports and documents that they must either maintain, or create, to enable the preneed examiner to determine compliance with state law requirements. But, the opening paragraph of the proposal given the Missouri State Board puts the cart in front of the horse:
A…