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 While the completion of the document may have felt like a birthing process to the staff of Missouri’s Division of Professional Registration, the Chapter 436 Working Group Recommendations more accurately reflects an industry position paper that has yet to be completed.   Faced with a deadline imposed by the Missouri legislature, the Division ‘finalized’ the Recommendations in an…

An important revision to Missouri’s personal preference law goes into effect on August 28th.  The original law (R.S.Mo. Section 194.119) was confusing to funeral directors about whether an individual could override the preferences of his/her next-of-kin.  With the revision, funeral directors can more comfortably rely upon the individual’s durable power of attorney when following the…

The Special Deputy Receiver for NPS recently reported the company’s “negative net worth” to be just short of one billion dollars. Rightfully, regulators are looking at the NPS fiduciaries for culpability in the losses that will be sustained by consumers and funeral homes in the years to come. In the meantime, Missouri state officials are working…

It is encouraging when funeral directors and consumer advocates engage in meaningful debate about the future of Missouri’s preneed industry.  And, there seems to be some consensus that the non-guaranteed contract should have a greater presence in the state. 

In the third of six scheduled meetings, industry and consumers were faced with those prickly issues of the trusting…

Regulators and preneed sellers squared off recently over the subject of who owns the preneed trust fund: the funeral home or the consumer. Hearings to reform Missouri’s preneed law hit a wall when the issues of trusting requirements, income accrual and portability was taken up by a review committee comprised of regulators, industry representatives and consumers.  

In a debate…

Before the guaranteed preneed contract, funeral directors accepted pre-payment on funeral arrangements as an accommodation to their families. Funds were typically placed in a joint account or POD account at the local bank. As this practice became more common, “preneed’ laws were passed to establish requirements regarding the deposit and withdraw of funds. These laws were fairly simple…