Death Care Compliance Law

• Funeral Rule Revisions: Mark Up on Trade Services
  The FTC’s second area of concern for Funeral Rule revisions is titled Crematory Fees and Additional Costs.  For this post, we are going to look at Issues 16 and 17.  Funeral consumer advocates are focused on the fact that many funeral homes do not own their own crematory and therefore outsource that service to a... […]
  Bill Stalter
• FTC’s 40 Issues: Confirming Delivery of Price Lists to the Online Shopper
  With Issues No. 10 through 15 of the FTC’s Funeral Rule notice, the agency begins inquiries on how to ensure the online shopper has access to all of the funeral home’s price lists before making any selections.  Would it be sufficient to require the funeral home’s website to provide links for downloading the GPL (and casket... […]
  Bill Stalter
• The FTC’s Seven Areas of Concern: Funeral Rule Revisions
  As discussed in our prior post, the FTC’s rulemaking notice for amending the Funeral Rule requests public comment on 40 Issues.   Those 40 issues are grouped by the FTC in the following 7 categories of potential amendments: Electronic price disclosure – whether and how funeral providers should be required to display or distribute price information online... […]
  Bill Stalter
• FTC’s “Forty Issues” and the Funeral Rule Comment Period: Time to Get Serious
  By a posting made November 1, the Federal Trade Commission gave formal notice of its intent to revise the Funeral Rule and opened a 60 day comment period.  The notice is quite lengthy and signals that that the FTC wants major revisions to the Funeral Rule that go well beyond whether to require the posting... […]
  Bill Stalter
• Missouri Funeral Trust: Is there anything to be learned from Wisconsin?
  When the MFT’s previous preneed exam was making news during the summer of 2015, reorganization plans were being filed for the Wisconsin Master Trust and the California Master Trust.  As we reported in “Association Master Trusts: De Facto Trustees”, each reorganization plan sought to eliminate the association’s de facto trustee relationship that had led to... […]
  Bill Stalter
• Missouri Funeral Trust: Just how much is this costing consumers and funeral homes?
  When the MFDEA Preneed Portability video disclosed that expense distributions were being paid from the Missouri Funeral Trust to the association, we thought it was appropriate to revisit prior blog posts about the failures of association master trusts in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and California.  Those state association master trusts were forced to close, to restructure... […]
  Bill Stalter
• Trump Memorial Gardens: New Jersey Cemetery Exemption
  A few days after Ivana Trump’s burial, we received our first call asking about Missouri law and tax breaks for cemeteries.  The first caller had descendants buried on grounds that had been taken over by a golf course, and he was inquiring whether the Missouri golf course could be receiving tax benefits by virtue of... […]
  Bill Stalter
• Missouri’s New State Funeral Board: Starting under a Whistleblower Cloud
  Missouri’s new State Board will have its first meeting this week, and one week after the State was sued by a former State Board employee.  The lawsuit alleges that the Division of Professional Registration usurped State Board authority to fire employees who had defied Division Director warnings to stand down.  What we now know through... […]
  Bill Stalter
• The Missouri Preneed Trust acquisition: What were you thinking?
  The Missouri Preneed Trust: What were you thinking? Investment markets are down, and preneed trusts are hurting.  But one Missouri preneed trust is probably hurting more than others.  When the Missouri Funeral Directors and Embalmers Association cheerfully announced the acquisition of the Missouri Preneed Trust program by its own MFT, we were shocked.  The Missouri... […]
  Bill Stalter
• Missouri Preneed Portability: Out of State Funeral Home Providers
  With this post we are returning to the misstatements made by the Missouri Funeral Directors and Embalmers Association in their May video explaining preneed portability.  At minute 10:18 of the MFDEA video, the association attorney advises that Chapter 436 only allows transfer of preneed contracts to funeral homes licensed by the Missouri State Board.  Employing... […]
  Bill Stalter