Preneed: A Pandora's Box of Problems
The preneed bill that angered the Funeral Consumers Alliance in February continues to advance within the Tennessee legislature. SB 2705/HB 2763 has been placed on the calendar for the Commerce Committee for April 1st. If passed, the legislation may well make Tennessee the first state to lower its preneed trusting requirement. Despite the need for…
It’s always an ugly scene when a party to a fiduciary relationship gets caught with his/her hand in the cookie jar. Unfortunately, this has been happening with alarming frequency in the death care community, and Indiana has had enough. In a relationship that requires mutual cooperation, the death care industry has taken the position that "someone should have…
It must be spring: preneed reform bills are sprouting like crocus.
The direction taken by the Maryland and Tennessee legislatures in proposing protection funds drew recent criticism from the Funeral Consumers Alliance. While consumer advocates have some valid points regarding these legislative efforts, the obstacles facing states are far more complex than what most…
The families of those buried at Grandview Memorial Gardens are angry. First they are advised that the trusts meant to fund future burials and the care for those graves are not properly funded. Next, they learn that some of the cemetery’s gardens have a problem with grave spaces flooding with water. When Indiana regulators and…
The Iowa had not one, but two personal preference bills pending before its Legislature for the 2007/08 term: SF 473 and HF 2088. The Senate version, SF 473, was backed by Iowa’s attorneys, and the House version, HF 2088, was backed by the Iowa Funeral Directors Association.
What caught my attention about these bills…
One of the many issues facing regulators in the Clayton Smart debacle was the surrender of thousands of Forethought life insurance policies by a Forest Hill preneed trustee. New light will probably be shed on this issue with revelations that Robert Nelms and Clayton Smart may each have been using the same financial management company: Security…
The Funeral Monitor and the Funeral Service Insider write to different segments of the death care industry, and rarely report on the same topics. So when each makes National Prearrangement Services their lead story in late January, readers should take notice.
NPS is a company that has always pushed the envelope. With preneed laws as…
Death Care trade publications such as the Funeral Service Insider and the FuneralWire advocate that funeral homes revisit the non-guaranteed preneed contract. I agree that funeral homes should reconsider the non-guaranteed preneed contract, but for reasons different from those expressed by other authors.
The non-guaranteed preneed contract affords flexibility and portability to the individual who wants to do more…
The Clayton Smart debacle has been, and will continue to be, the subject of articles calling for preneed reform. A recent AARP article titled R.I.P. Off will be one of the more controversial (leading to frequent citations by consumer advocates). While the article is biased and should be rebuked by the death care industry for its various…