The Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors will meet December 9th, and their agenda includes a proposed regulation for new preneed recordkeeping requirements. Borrowing perhaps from other states’ preneed audit manuals, the regulation sets out a list of journals, ledgers, documents that a preneed seller would be required to maintain. For an
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The Missouri Fund Manager: What was Grandfathered?
By Bill Stalter on
There seems to be some confusion in Missouri over the permissible contractual relationships among the preneed seller, the preneed trustee and the independent investment advisor. Prior to the collapse of NPS, and the subsequent amendment of Missouri’s preneed law, Chapter 436 allowed the preneed seller to incorporate provisions in its preneed trust agreement to instruct…
Missouri’s Financial Examination Committee: What role?
By Bill Stalter on
When the Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors meet this week, the role of the Board’s Financial Examination Committee will be discussed. As established, the Financial Examination Committee was intended to expedite the exam process. The initial Committee consisted of the Board’s public member and a former industry member who had previously acknowledged…
Preneed Trust Shortages: Missouri’s Income Withdrawals
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Exams/audits, Investments, Legislation, Master Trusts, Missouri - SB1, Recordkeeping, Reporting, Trust Funded
Prior to Missouri re-writing its preneed law in 2009, preneed sellers could draw off realized income so long as the withdrawal did not reduce the trust’s fair market value below trust deposits. Seeking income, many Missouri sellers directed their trustees to invest in bonds. As interest rates declined during the early part of the prior…
Finding Fault with Chapter 436: The NPS Civil Trial
By Bill Stalter on
The NPS civil trial has completed its third week, and jurors probably face another four weeks of witness testimony. First from the NPS receiver, and then from the defendant trustees, the jurors are hearing two very contrasting theories of what fiduciary duties were owed by the NPS trustees. Up until a few weeks before the…
Measure twice, cut once: Missouri funeral rule proposals
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Missouri - SB1
As discussed in a prior post, the Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors is now four years removed from Senate Bill No. 1 and the exigent circumstances that authorized emergency rules. The State Board must now address several issues through the formal rulemaking process. Understanding that the process may take a year or…
Transferee Liability: Hidden Obligations
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Missouri - SB1
The Dead Beat recently published a letter from a Missouri funeral home operator that was critical of the ‘handling of the NPS debacle’ by the Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors. The operator questioned how the Board could ‘allow’ his firm to sign official documents requiring that NPS contracts be honored. The official…
Formal Rulemaking: Missouri’s test of patience
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Missouri - SB1, Preneed
At its December meeting, Missouri’s State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors will seek input from licensees and consumers regarding several rulemaking proposals. The proposals were published on the Board’s website in November, with a request that comments be provided to the Board by December 2nd. This represents a prelude to the formal rulemaking process…
The Next Installment to Missouri Preneed Oversight: Will there be a quiz?
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Missouri - SB1, Preneed
My son, the 5th year senior, lamented to my wife and I a few months ago about a reading assignment given in an engineering lab. He was frustrated because the assignment would take all weekend, and the Jayhawks would be at Allen Fieldhouse that Saturday. I questioned him whether the professor had given the…
Missouri’s Exam Progress: Time for Changes?
By Bill Stalter on
The Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors will meet in a few weeks, and the topic of fees may be on the agenda. The staff broached the fees topic at the spring meeting, but the matter was tabled for subsequent discussion. Fees and the preneed examination process go hand in hand, and…