missouri

Subscribe to missouri via RSS

The newest edition of the Missouri Preneed Exam Handbook has some significant problems.  The one we will discuss today is ambiguous instructions regarding the review of preneed contracts.  Paragraph 13 of the Handbook’s scope of financial examination states:

13) Staff shall look at 100% of all active preneed contracts that have been sold since the…

“Nitpicking” was one of the terms frequently used by Missouri funeral directors when referencing their preneed exam exceptions report.  (Other descriptions are not appropriate for print.)  The initial exam guideline provided no guidance to examiners for prioritizing problems found in preneed contracts and records.  It was common to see exception reports with dozens, even hundreds,…

Missouri’s pending preneed exam handbook will establish a new record keeping requirement for the state’s preneed sellers: monthly records of consumer payment receipts and the transmission of those funds to the preneed funding agent.  Seller record keeping proposals are not new to the Board.   (Missouri Seller Records: The State Board Proposal) The Board’s…

The Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors introduced a new preneed examination handbook at its October meeting.  (Click the following hyperlink to access the preneed handbook.)  The proposed handbook would change the emphasis of the preneed exams from contract and recordkeeping compliance to tracking consumer funds paid to the funeral home.

For…

During the summer following NPS’ collapse, the Missouri Division of Professional Registration provided crucial leadership to building the consensus required for Senate Bill No. 1.  Rushed efforts to re-write the Missouri preneed law had failed, and the Legislature then turned to the Division.  Represented by Connie Clarkson, Becky Dunn and Kim Grinston, the Division prepared…

Our first recommendation to the Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors is that they assume, and maintain, control over the preneed examination procedures.    The exam procedures implemented two years ago were never submitted to the Board for review and approval.  Accordingly, the examination procedures handbook should remind the staff that any change made…

The Missouri funeral industry has haggled with the State Board for two years over preneed record requirements.  But on April 25th, the State Board scrapped the staff’s adequate record proposal, and instead, adopted a brief definition of ‘seller records’.   The State Board’s approach will afford funeral homes more flexibility in documenting the receipt…