Death Care Compliance Law

• Cemeteries and Lost Cause Monuments: Not a Solution to the Problem
  In a recent Washington Post article, supporters of a Lost Cause monument unsuccessfully argued to have a Confederate statue moved from a county courthouse steps to a local cemetery.  The article sets out some of the counter-challenge arguments we described in our prior post.  But eventually the small community of Isle of Wright rejected a... […]
  Bill Stalter
• Cemeteries and Lost Cause Monuments: The Counter-Challenge
  While the greater public sentiment has turned against statues honoring the Confederacy, cemetery operators should anticipate a counter-challenge to the removal of a Lost Cause monument.  Support for the Lost Cause monument can be just as fervent as the calls for its removal.  With emotions running high in both directions, the removal of the Lost... […]
  Bill Stalter
• Cemetery Regulations and the Lost Cause Monument: An Offensive Structure
  If a racial justice challenge is made against a Lost Cause monument, the cemetery’s regulations typically vest authority in the cemetery to remove monuments deemed offensive.   Through their rules and regulations, cemeteries reserve the authority to deem what is, or is not, offensive.  The following were taken from cemetery websites found through a Google search... […]
  Bill Stalter
• Racial Justice and Your Cemetery: The Lost Cause Monument
  Cemeteries that contain a Lost Cause monument are the most susceptible to a racial justice challenge.  For purposes of our posts, a Lost Cause monument is a Confederate statue or obelisk erected between 1890 and 1920.  As discussed in this attached article, Confederate memorial societies actively erected Lost Cause monuments during that period, with obelisks... […]
  Bill Stalter
• Racial Justice and Your Cemetery: The Confederate Dilemma
  A cemetery may not be where one would expect to find the racial justice movement, but several Kansas City area cemeteries have been challenged about Confederate monuments found within their boundaries.  An October 2020 Kansas City Star article reported on Fairview Cemetery in Liberty, Forest Hill & Calvary Cemetery in south Kansas City and Union... […]
  Bill Stalter
• Illinois Spend Down Assignments: Torpedoed?
  For years, Illinois law has prohibited funeral homes from being named as beneficiaries to consumers’ life insurance policies.  In response to frauds committed by National Prearranged Services (NPS), many states amended their preneed laws to prohibit life insurance ownership by a funeral home.  NPS had structured its preneed program as owner of insurance policies sold... […]
  Bill Stalter
• Missouri County Cemeteries: Legislation that paves the way to Fixed Distributions
  Financial relief is coming to Missouri counties with cemeteries.  House Bill 443 would allow county commissioners to withdraw principal from perpetual care funds to pay for cemetery maintenance.   When combined with the authorities granted counties four years ago by HB 51, Missouri county commissioners can now diversify cemetery perpetual care trusts and restate those trusts... […]
  Bill Stalter
• “Excluded” Cemeteries and Care Fund Distribution Options: Find Your Applicable State Laws
  In our prior post, we recommended that the Evergreen Cemetery Association explore the Minnesota trust code provisions regarding the trustee’s power to adjust (501C.1112).  This is something other “excluded” cemeteries should also consider.  By excluded, we mean cemeteries owned by associations, churches, cities or counties that are typically excluded from regulation of for-profit cemeteries.  Some... […]
  Bill Stalter
• Brainerd’s Evergreen Cemetery Association: a solution may already exist
  The Funeral Director Daily recently wrote about the Evergreen Cemetery Association in Brainerd, Minnesota.  Like so many cemeteries, Evergreen is running a deficit and its board is worried about the future.  The Funeral Director Daily suggests the situation cries out for a relaxation of government restrictions over the Association’s care fund.  If the cemetery could... […]
  Bill Stalter
• Cemetery Preneed Pivot: Do’s and Don’ts for the Prearrangement Contract
  In our next post on cemetery preneed, we want to revisit a post from June 2012 (Cemetery Preneed Challenges: bucket accounting).  As discussed in that post, the cemetery prearrangement differs from its funeral counterpart because the cemetery can deliver property and merchandise prior to the purchaser’s death.  When establishing a preneed program, a cemetery will... […]
  Bill Stalter