On January 30th, the Nebraska Legislature will conduct a hearing on a bill to fix a problem with the state’s preneed funeral law. The Burial Pre-Need Sale Act was originally passed in 1986, when preneed trusts invested almost exclusively in government bonds. The intent of the Nebraska law was to require the preneed
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The Right of Sepulcher and Nebraska: Giving the Preneed Contract a Higher Dignity
By Bill Stalter on
Representatives from Nebraska’s death care industry will be meeting this fall to discuss the Department of Insurance’s preneed legislative proposal, and the right of sepulcher will be among the issues for discussion.
Nebraska is among the states that have statutory provisions defining the priority of individuals who may claim the right of sepulcher (which is…
Nebraska’s Push to Market
By Bill Stalter on
The Nebraska Department of Insurance released its legislative proposal for revising the preneed law that has been in effect since 1987. Written during a time when interest rates were high, the Nebraska law imposed a CPI accrual but allowed income in excess of that accrual to be distributed to the preneed seller. The law also…
The “Problem” Cemetery: The Difference a Trustee Makes
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Cemeteries
As cemeteries struggle with harsh economic conditions, regulators are bound to look at their ‘problem cemeteries’ and weigh whether legal proceedings are necessary to preserve the care funds mandated by state law. To the extent such proceedings are premised in part on how capital gains are defined and whether distributions from capital gains are an…
Cemetery Preneed Challenges: bucket accounting
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Cemeteries, Preneed
As alluded to in our prior post, the cemetery’s ability to deliver burial rights and merchandise prior to death complicates the preneed transaction. In a post, we labeled this the ‘bucket factor’ (Cemetery Preneed Oversight: the bucket factor). In addition to burial spaces, cemeteries can deliver markers, monuments, vases, urns, outer …
I’m a funeral director, not a fund manager!
By Bill Stalter on
Preneed scandals in Illinois, Missouri, Texas, and California have state regulators moving to implement new audit procedures. But with new laws passed in the wake of NPS and state master trust problems, the frequency and scope of the future audit could change dramatically. It is no secret that the scope of the preneed audit in…
The Preneed Database: another audit tool
By Bill Stalter on
As reported previously in the blog, the State of Nebraska began to implement a preneed contract database in 2010 when master trusts were requested to provide individual contract data in an electronic format. The request was expanded to all preneed sellers in 2011.
Kansas Secretary of State sought legislation in 2010 for the authority to…
Preneed Reporting: drilling down to each consumer
By Bill Stalter on
For most Illinois funeral homes, March 15th is the due date for the filing of their preneed data with the Comptroller’s office. For those funeral homes that bolted from the IFDA after the master trust melt down, this has been an extremely frustrating process. The majority of funeral homes must file on line, with supporting…
Delegating Preneed Prosecution
By Bill Stalter on
Maybe it’s a response to shrinking state budgets, or the fact that the tracking of preneed funds is becoming more effective, but state and local prosecutors are assuming an expanding role in the enforcement of preneed laws.
While a recent report released by the Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors reflects a drop…
Diversity comes at a price: too many boxes
By Bill Stalter on
For the past several years, most preneed sellers were more likely to have been audited by the IRS than their state funeral or cemetery regulator. That will likely change in the next year or two for operators in a Midwest state.
The common response to an IRS audit would be to throw the relevant records…