Master Trusts

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A Google search of “state funeral association master trust” will return hyperlinks to dozens of state funeral director associations.  In the 1970’s, funeral associations began establishing master preneed trusts as an alternative to passbook savings accounts.  As preneed gained acceptance with funeral directors, the associations saw the opportunity to provide administration and create a revenue…

In preceding posts, we have outlined recommendations to the Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors regarding the preneed examination process and record keeping requirements.  While our correspondence was not included on the Board’s December 13th agenda, the Board entertained a motion to amend the agenda to include our correspondence on the afternoon…

As discussed in our prior post, funeral homes are becoming increasingly dependent upon their preneed trustee for individual account administration.  Many trustees that provide account administration rely upon programs that use tax cost basis accounting.  (For a prior discussion of tax cost basis see “Consumer Options and Administrative Hurdles: Market Value Allocations”.)    Tax…

There seems to be some confusion in Missouri over the permissible contractual relationships among the preneed seller, the preneed trustee and the independent investment advisor. Prior to the collapse of NPS, and the subsequent amendment of Missouri’s preneed law, Chapter 436 allowed the preneed seller to incorporate provisions in its preneed trust agreement to instruct…

The MFT did not catch a break with the court assigned to its lawsuit against the Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors and Catholic Fraternal Life.   The hearing scheduled for September 28th was continued for another four weeks, and in the meantime, the parties continue to file evidentiary discovery requests.  The Association’s…

One strength of the state association master trust is that it can provide the ‘critical mass’ required for economies of scale to reduce trust management costs.  As the state master trust grows in size, the association can better negotiate asset management arrangements.  However, the reality has been very different for these programs.  The reorganization of…