Preneed

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The Missouri Senate Committee assigned the task of preneed funeral reform posted a substitute bill to the Legislature’s website on February 6th: SCS SB1. For those who participated in the Chapter 436 Working Group meetings last summer, this bill may seem vaguely familiar. During those meetings, the Division of Professional Registration circulated a 41-page…

Greed

Funeral directors who rejected NPS’ promises may feel justified in criticizing those who are asking for help. Generally, their criticism is that NPS exploited funeral directors’ greed. With regard to some trust rollovers, that may be true. But, what NPS best exploited was funeral directors’ desire to devote their time to the service of…

It didn’t take long for an Illinois funeral director to confirm that IFDA members have disagreements with their association leadership. 

Several Illinois funeral homes filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court on January 28th.  The petition, a derivative complaint, seeks remedies and damages on behalf of all Illinois funeral homes that participated in the IFDA master…

I learned the preneed business from an organization that used the term “preneed counselor”. Consumer advocates, and many funeral directors, rail at that characterization, and insist a salesman is a salesman, no matter what you call them.

For purposes of debate, I would agree that all preneed counselors are salesmen. However, not all preneed salesmen…

A trade newsletter recently reported on funeral homes forming buying groups to negotiate better terms with casket vendors. Through cooperative alliances, the funeral homes can achieve the numbers required to negotiate better discounts from vendors. Those same economies of scale also benefit preneed programs that utilize trust funding. The larger trust not only provides the…

It has to be bad when your main source tells you its time for the Methadone clinic. With the worst financial crisis in our lifetime, and spiraling costs, what funeral director isn’t already battling a case of the sweats and shakes when reviewing his/her preneed program?   And now you’re being told to go cold turkey on …

For twenty-two years many Missouri funeral directors have deposited 80% of the preneed funeral contract purchase price into trust, and withdrawn all income in excess of that deposit. For a $5,000 contract sold in 1998, the funeral director has been required to maintain $4,000 in trust. When that contract is performed in 2008, the funeral…