Posted on 06 February 2009
Tags: IFDA, Illinois, lawsuit, pre-need
The Illinois Funeral Directors Association is the defendant in a lawsuit filed by six association members over the handling of a pre-need funeral trust fund administered by IFDA Services, a for-profit arm of the non-profit IFDA.
The trust fund was designed to cover expenses for an estimated 49,000 people who took out policies.
The Illinois Controller’s office recently ruled that the IFDA should not have been in the pre-need insurance business; the association had been granted a license by then-controller Roland Burris, now a US Senator for Illinois.
The association is also facing a lawsuit from two consumers alleging violation of state consumer-protection laws.
A statement on the IFDA website says that Merrill Lynch Bank & Trust Co. FSB has assumed the responsibilities of trustee, and that any principal deposited towards pre-need accounts is safe.
Posted on 12 November 2008
Tags: National Prearranged Services Inc, pre-need
Directors, if you receive a letter from the FBI asking you questions about your dealings with National Prearranged Services Inc., and its affiliated insurance companies, Lincoln Memorial Life Insurance Co. and Memorial Services Life Insurance Co., it’s for real.
The FBI is investigating allegations of “corporate misconduct” in the downfall of the company, and doesn’t have the staffing to send agents to every funeral home in 19 of the 43 states where National Prearranged Services did business, so they’ve turned to a written survey. Agents are asking directors about their contracts with National Prearranged Services and any promises that the company may have made.
The company served some 2,600 funeral homes, and had 158,153 active preneed funeral contracts valued at nearly $662 million. NPS was placed into receivership in May of 2008, and ordered liquidated in September.
Posted on 15 October 2008
Tags: cemetery, Florida, funeral home, funeral procession, North Carolina, pre-need, South Carolina, Tennessee
In this summary: a funeral home employee steals urns, then sells them for scrap; an SC funeral home recovers from an arson fire; and an NC funeral home has its license suspended.
There are apparently no limits for some people. A former funeral home employee trespassed in a Florida cemetery, stole over 100 urns, and sold them for scrap. Unbelievable. Even more disappointing is the scrap dealer who apparently blindly accepted this guy turning in 15-20 urns at a time.
A South Carolina funeral home is preparing to rebuild after an arson fire over a year ago. They operated out of a nearby church for several months, but are now ready to begin rebuilding. That shows what staying active in your community can do. When Jerry Spears Funeral Home was struck by a fire in 2007, before the fire was extinguished, one pastor offered their church, and within days, other West Side churches had done the same.
A reminder from Michigan City, Indiana police: funeral processions have the right of way in Indiana.
In Greeneville, TN, a woman collided with the last car of a funeral procession as the car waited to make a turn. True, this was just an unobservant driver, who likely would have hit any car stopped to make a turn, but it did involve a procession.
The North Carolina Board of Funeral Service has suspended the licenses of Howell Funeral Home and funeral director Eric Mark Howell. A woman filed a complaint over apparently missing pre-need funds, and in the course of investigating that complaint, the board discovered other irregularities with Howell’s pre-need contracts.
