Preneed: A Pandora's Box of Problems
Reform in Illinois inched closer to reality with Governor Quinn’s "amendatory veto" of SB1682. If accepted by the Illinois legislature, the reform bill will become law on January 31, 2010.
However, the Governor is seeking a 30 day window between the deadline for the report due from the Funeral Burial Task Force and SB1682’s effective date. It is doubtful much could be done to change SB1682…
The Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors meets August 25th to vote on emergency rules that are intended to keep the preneed industry functioning when SB1 goes into effect on August 28th. While numerous issues have been identified to the State Board as deserving of emergency status, four stand out above the rest:…
Missouri’s Chapter 436 reform law goes into effect on August 28th, and the Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors will have the responsibility of implementing the new changes. However, the State Board is caught in a Catch 22 situation.
Many of the changes will have to be implemented through regulations, but the Board…
My kids hate August because it means its time to head back to school. This year’s student population in Missouri will be a little larger than last year’s. The Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors has released its meeting agenda, and the state’s preneed industry will be given four crash courses beginning July 30th.
Generally, freshman orientation…
What transpired over the years at Burr Oak Cemetery is an atrocity. Hundreds of grave spaces have been desecrated, causing extreme emotional distress to all families having a loved one buried at the cemetery.
The demand for action has been intense, and Illinois politicians have responded with legislative proposals to improve oversight of cemeteries.
For twenty-five years, Missouri funeral directors have had it easy with regard to accounting for consumers’ preneed payments. Chapter 436 required the preneed seller to maintain 80% of the preneed contract sales price in trust. The Missouri law also allowed the preneed seller to withdraw income so long as the 80% threshold was maintained. Consequently…
A little more than a month has lapsed since the Missouri legislature passed a reform preneed bill, but the death care industry remains stuck in neutral until Governor Nixon signs SB1 into law.
With an effective date of August 28th looming two months away, regulators and funeral homes (and cemeteries) face licensing and document deadlines. The State Board…
Federal and state regulators can not quite agree on how to define the preneed transaction. Federal regulators tend to view the preneed transaction as a current sale of goods and services (where the delivery is deferred until a future date). In contrast, state regulators are increasingly defining the transaction in terms that defer consummation of…
When Missouri’s Chapter 436/NPS reform legislation began to take shape last summer, the state’s cemetery industry sought to get out of the train’s way by incorporating new preneed provisions into a Chapter 214 bill. To clarify that cemeteries could establish preneed programs that would be regulated exclusively under Chapter 214, and not Chapter 436, statutory…
At the risk of plagiarizing the Missouri Funeral Directors and Embalmers Association, Missouri preneed funeral sellers, providers, fiduciaries and insurers face a new ballgame that will begin August 29th without a complete set of rules and guidelines. Funeral directors have a general idea where the game will be played, but they’re not quite sure what…