Missouri is catching up on its auditing of licensed endowed care funds. Within the past couple of months, most of our Missouri endowed cemeteries received the attached notice requesting reports and documents for audit. In prior posts, we have suggested that the Office of Endowed Care Cemeteries (OECC) audit process should be revised. Our next
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Missouri Cemetery Associations and Preneed: So Many Obstacles
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Associations, Cemeteries
In contrast to Missouri’s Chapter 214, most states’ cemetery laws do not exempt all cemetery associations from care fund requirements. We do find that some states exempt small non-profit cemeteries (typically based on acreage). Some states limit non-profit cemetery exemptions to grandfathered situations (a cemetery established prior to 1940). These small cemetery associations are more…
Missouri Exempt Cemeteries: The Exception that is the Rule
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Care Funds, Cemeteries
When Missouri’s endowed care law was passed in 1994, all cemeteries were required to register with the Office of Endowed Care Cemeteries. Cemeteries can seek licensing as either an endowed care cemetery or a non-endowed cemetery, or the cemetery could claim it was exempt from Chapter 214 pursuant to the definition of “Cemetery” pursuant to…
Finally a Missouri Cemetery Preneed Exemption: Sort of.
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Cemeteries, Preneed Development
The Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors recently promulgated a rule (20 CSR 2120-3.560) to exempt certain cemetery operators from preneed licensing with the State Board. The rule was a long time coming. We first wrote about preneed licensing confusion for Missouri cemeteries back in 2009 (Lost in the translation:…
NPS’ Trustee and Income Distributions: Who needs Income?
By Bill Stalter on
We had hoped that the Trial Court’s Finding of Facts would shed some light on how a Missouri preneed trust holding life insurance would have income to distribute. Despite being invested primarily in life insurance policies, Allegiant Bank made monthly income distributions to NPS. The Trial Court made several findings on how Allegiant Bank failed…
NPS’ Trial Court: Trustees and Individual Deposit Records
By Bill Stalter on
“Allegiant [Bank] violated the industry standard of care by not maintaining consumer-level deposit records, because, as here, where there are multiple beneficiaries of a trust, the trustee must keep records of the individual deposits made for each consumer.”
This finding by the trial court in the NPS civil trial had to come as a shock…
Missouri’s Right of Sepulcher: Who gets the Cremains?
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Supulcher/Preference Laws
The Missouri Court of Appeals recently issued an opinion involving facts that are all too familiar with funeral directors: family members disputing who controls a funeral and the right to cremains.
A mother contacted a St. Louis funeral home about arrangements for an adult son who was gravely ill. The funeral home sold the mother…
Missouri’s Phase 2.5 of Preneed Exams: Section 436.425 and Insurance Funded Contracts
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Exams/audits, Missouri - SB1
In our last post we discussed the need for the Missouri State Board to provide guidance to their financial examiners regarding Section 436.425 and insurance funded contract forms. In this post we will discuss Section 436.425 and trust or joint account funded contracts.
Subparagraph 9 has created confusion for examiners and sellers. That section states…
Missouri’s Phase 2.5 of Preneed Exams: Section 436.425 and Insurance Funded Contracts
By Bill Stalter on
At its April meeting, the Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors discussed the formation of a “Phase 3 Committee” that would provide input for the revision of the Board financial examination handbook. The Board staff is about half way through the second round of preneed examinations (“Phase 2”), and the Board wants to…
Missouri Preneed Examination Changes: the Small Seller Proposal
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Exams/audits, Missouri - SB1
The Missouri State Board of Embalmer and Funeral Directors met this past December to discuss changes to the Preneed Examination Handbook, and former Board Chairman Don Lakin made a proposal that has merit.
The State Board has licensed approximately 315 preneed sellers. The current preneed examination procedures contemplate an onsite visit to each seller. Many…