ILLINOIS FUNERAL MESS GROWS-yourfuneralguy.

The Illinois FUNERAL SCANDAL MESS has grown and become quite complicated.

The whole FUNERAL MESS in Illinois is driving up Funeral costs in the State of Illinois. It seems like every week now a new Action is filed against somebody. It seems that Funeral Directors, the regulators, and the Illinois Funeral Directors Association are all trying to gain and maintain  control the funeral preneed  money. THIS IS A NO WIN SCENARIO FOR ALL INCLUDING THE ILLINOIS FUNERAL CONSUMER.

1. Payment for  public aide funerals will be stopped from the Department of Health and Human Services. These are medicaid funeral payments for indigent funerals.  The State will no longer  cover public aide funerals FOR THE POOR  in Illinois because of budget concerns. These payments may be restored later.

2. The six funeral director was amended on June 12th. MOST OF THE IFDA DEFENDANDTS REMAIN THE SAME. New defendants are added. The plaintiffs are shaking down the IFDA,  THE COMPTROLLER OF THE STATE OF IL, MERRILL LYNCH and other insurance companies for their  for their losses.

3. IFDA SERVICES  has filed an action against the Comptroller of The State of Illinois as of June 16th 2009. This in itself  could require a new BLOG.

I received this E-Mail From Duane Marsh, The executive director of the Illinois Funeral Directors Association explaining three things mentioned above  that are raising the costs of funeral directors in the TROUBLED  FUNERAL STATE OF ILLINOIS

IFDA E-News Bulletin
Jun 17, 2009

In this issue, you’ll read:
Executive Director’s Message

Executive Director’s Message

Dear Member,

1.Each of our funeral home members received a letter from the Department of Human Services this week notifying you, “that Funeral and Burial payments for the 2010 fiscal year will be pushed to fiscal year 2011. Assuming an appropriation for 2011, we expect payments to resume in July, 2010.”

The Illinois Funeral Directors Association misappropiated or took nearly 100 million of the good folks Funeral money in the State of Illinois

I have written a letter to the Department asking them to provide me with the “criteria and process” that was used to come to this determination. I also asked for an explanation as to why there is a 100 percent reduction rather than the 50 percent called for in the “50-percent budget.”

Governor Quinn is working with the Legislature to find additional revenue to restore the reductions. The Governor is pressing for an income tax increase to provide the revenue needed to restore the funding.

I will keep you posted as to what I learn.

2.The derivative lawsuit plaintiffs have filed an amended complaint centering on the insurance policies and the role of regulators. It is a 109-page document and our legal counsel is reviewing its contents to determine what response it warrants.

3.Yesterday, IFDA Services, Inc. filed an action against the Comptroller’s Office challenging their finding on excess fees. As this case unfolds, data and information will be provided that will outline concerns…….

Sincerely,

Duane Marsh

FUNERAL INDUSTRY | FUNERAL BLOG by Your Funeral Guy.

Comment on Amended Illinois Funeral Lawsuit-yourfuneralguy

Six Funeral directors suing the IFDA filed an amended lawsuit on June 12th 2009

Here some commentary on the Illinois Funeral Directors Association amended lawsuit. This is the Lawsuit known as  Calvert et al. The Comments below are those of MarsellusM710. They are not those of your funeral guy.

Dear Funeral Guy and Funeral Service Friends,

My,my, my……Juicy reading as of late.  Thanks Funeral Guy for keeping right on top of things.  Sounds like the depositions from the Derivative Lawsuit are bearing true fruit.  For those of you who haven’t read the Amended Complaint files 6/12/09, it is a must read.

I believe we are starting to hear the rafters creaking at Suite 15-500 of the Thompson Bldg. in the Windy City. (Hynes’ HQ for the Cemetery Care and Burial Trust Div.)  The roof is about to cave in.  Dan, Peggy, and Percy are all starting to squirm.  Political / Bureaucratic careers coming to an end, soon???

The Illinois Funeral Directors Association has mishandled almost 100 million of folks funeral mioney in the State of Illinois,

I love the quote where it states that “when the Comptroller’s office, but not the funeral directors, knew of the budding deficit was “pennies on the dollar”, as if that excused (the Comptroller) from doing anything about it.“  As I have stated several times before, had anyone of us out here in Illinois been off “pennies on the dollar” on our Trust reports,  they would have unmercifully pounced on and made examples of us.

The best one yet is the discovery of the cover up of our own IFDA Board and It’s Executive Director at the time.  This has got to be the death knell for these guys.  “IFDA …EXPLICITLY.. requested complete and confidentiality of the purported audit, preliminary report, discussions, reports and ultimate findings issued by (the Comptroller’s office),” the plaintiffs say.

“OF UTMOST CONCERN TO THE  IFDA WAS SHIELDING THIS INFORMATION FROM THE PUBLIC AND, THUS, ITS MEMBERS AND CONSUMERS ACROSS ILLINOIS, TO AVOID ANY NEGATIVE IMPACT SUCH EXPOSURE MIGHT HAVE. ( OMG!!! )  IFDA EVEN WENT AS FAR AS TO REQUEST THAT ALL AUDIT-RELATED  MATERIALS BE PROTECTED FROM OTHERWISE LAWFUL FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REQUESTS.” This reads like it came out of Washington DC not Springfield, IL.

LEADERS OF THE IFDA BETRAYED THE TRUST OF THEIR MEMBERS

Our very own people lying to us, hiding critical information that has proven to be detrimental to the livelihoods of their own colleagues. I‘ve been telling you this Board of people serving during this period of time and years prior, had become their own “SECRET SOCIETY,” and the secrets are now being revealed, as predicted.

I would hope striping of licensure and some serious jail time and fine$ are in store for this unconscionable deed.

I would now like to address again the dismissal of one CHARLES  CHILDS  Jr. from the IDFPR, FD&Emb. Licensing and Disciplinary Board, as he would have been sitting on the Board or, on the Executive Board at the time the “Hush Order” was being requested.  What a betrayal of your so called “colleagues”.

A round of applause to Mr. Bruce Rushton of the Springfield State-Journal Register for a great story.

Regards,
MarsellusM710

Funeral Industry Funeral Blog by Your Funeral guy

Amended Illinois Funeral Lawsuit blames State Comptroller-yourfuneralguy

The State Journal Register has another interesting IL Funeral Mess Article

The  “Funeral Directors Lawsuit” against the Illinois Funeral Directors Association Lawsuit was amended and filed  on 6.12,09. New defendants were named.  A section of the lawsuit blames the office  of the comptroller of the State of Illinois “Dan Hynes”. The way this regulator handled this situation should be questioned.

There is an argument that the comptroller’s hands were tied because the Comptrollers Office is not a banking regulator. In fact the regulation of the IFDA preneed trust was set up under then Comptroller and now Senator Roland Burris. The fact is that the IFDA  Trust was not set up as a corporate fiduciary with a banking regulator. This  cleared the way for the fraudulent ponzi scheme courtesy of the IFDA and Roland Burris.

Now this does not take away responsibility of the State of Illinois or the comptroller in this matter.

On 6.16.09 The State Journal Register quoted the lawsuit on the State (IL) and the Comptroller.

“Even state regulators who took on the responsibility for monitoring the pre-need trust failed to protect plaintiffs and other pre-need trust depositors,” funeral directors say in court documents filed Friday.

“Indeed, when questioned by funeral directors on why the issue was not addressed in 2001, when the (Illinois Office of the Comptroller), but not the funeral directors, knew of a budding deficit, the (comptroller’s) response was that the deficit was ‘pennies on the dollar,’ as if that excused (the comptroller) from doing anything about it.”

Many can be blamed in this mess but the main culprits are the IFDA Leaders with sticky hands out.

Funeral Industry| Funeral Blog  by Your Funeral

Merrill Lynch Holding “Fire Sale” in Illinois funeral mess-YourFuneralGuy.

The Illinois Funeral Directors Association preneed scandal has brought great grief to the folks in Illinois.

Merill Lynch(MLBT) is holding a “Fire Sale of IFDA Preneed Trust Life Insurance Policies.”  This is another factor in the demise of the Illinois Funeral Directors Association.  As the trustee of the assets of the IFDA Preneed Trust, Merrill Lynch has  the right to do thi:. Hold the fire sale and cash out the life insurance policies involved.

The more the Illinois Funeral Directors Association preneed policy mess spirals out of control the more the consumers will pay in raised funeral prices. New problems for the going to the grave IFDA appear each week.

According to the State Journal Register 06.15.09.

“Rather than risk getting no money at all, the trustee{Merrill Lynch} for a troubled pre-need funeral fund is surrendering life insurance policies for cash value, worsening already steep losses in a fund that’s supposed to pay for funerals for more than 40,000 people in Illinois.”

In it’s amended lawsuit the six Illinois funeral directors suing the IFDA named some of the insurance companies whose policies are being written down. The argument here is that there is no insurable interest for the IFDA in the lives of the funeral directors lives covered. Insurable interest is the responsibility of the the insurance company selling the policy.

The Illinois Funeral Directors Association Scandal Continues to bring great loss and grief to the State of Illinois.

Your Funeral Guy

06.12.09|Amended Six Funeral Directors Comlplaint IFDA-YourFuneralGuy.

How Could Funeral Director Leaders in the State of Illinois mishandle almost 100 Million Dollars in Funeral preneed funds?

IFDA LAWSUIT NEWS.News-June 12,2009 There was an amended Six Funeral Director Complaint filed in The  Circuit Court of Cook Today. Your Funeral Guy is not a lawyer. What is truly sad is that one simple Funeral Director has to declare the latest in an almost 100 Million  Funeral Insurance Fraud in the State of Illinois.

The information and lawsuits are accessable easily several different ways on the internet. The Media is truly remiss in this situation in not naming names because many of the Folks  named are likely to be named as “Criminals Soon”. Both the Illinois Funeral Directors Association  and National Funeral Directors Association(NFDA) are remiss in not Reprimanding, Disciplining, Or Expelling the named folks.

100 Million Dollars and no disciplining! The Comptroller and other regulators have done closed door (in True State Government of Illinois,Chicago and Obama style)deals giving some a get out of jail free card far short of the 100 million involved. There are 19 charges in the amended derivative complaint

VIEW THE AMENDED DERIVATIVE COMPLAINT HERE.

THE NAMES OF THE PEOPLE INVOLVED AS WELL AS THE CORPORATIONS ARE THERE!

Funeral Industry, Funeral blog by Your Funeral Guy, Funeral Director,Illinois, Virginia

Although I do not think that some  six suing funeral directors are ethical in any sense of the word. I must say I have pretty much come over to their point of view with the facts that have been revealed to date.

Of Course, Funeral directors, Merrill Lynch, are all part of the Illinois Funeral Mess.

DEAD MEN DO NOT TELL LIES, Neither do dead funeral directors associations.

Predators in the funeral Industry:Cemetery Lawsuit-YourFuneralGuy

A Georgia Cemetery Owner was called a Predator by a Judge recently.

Revealed now  is a recent illustration predators in the funeral business. An Owner a group of cemeteries stopped all competitor vaults(concrete and other) from being sold at his cemeteries. He then raised the prices on his own inexpensive vault.

If you expect to come in under the average cost of a funeral you need to avoid predators in the funeral business or industry.

This is an example of predators in the industry. The cemetery owner in this case was taking advantage of his customers and his competition a lawsuit was filed  which brought on a court order.

This was brought in to the light by a news article in Augusta Georgia.

From chronicle.augusta.com

ARTICLE TITLED:

“Judge blocks cemetery owner’s plan to ban concrete vaults”

“In essence, Mr. Nikola is a business predator and has acted in bad faith,” Brannen ruled in an order filed May 19. “He bought cemeteries in an effort to make a profit to the detriment of those he claims to serve.”

If you are a funeral professional do not be a predator. If you are a consumer do your best not to do business with funeral predators.

Funeral Industry Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy, Funeral Director, Illinois, Virginia.

Funeral Director Leaves Body in Basement, 12 years-YourFuneralGuy

Corpse was left in a casket in the basement of Indiana Funeral Home for 12 years istockphoto rf license

A Funeral Director has left a corpse in the basement of a Funeral home for 12 years.  This is flat out disrespect for the dead and humanity. The reason is the funeral director gave for doing the  heinous deed is that he did not get paid.

The life of a human being  dead or alive is more important than money. The highest cost at a funeral is the death of the person involved. There is no excuse for treating a body in this manner. The deceased was left in a casket.

This all went down in Indiana.  Check out the Snippet and click on for more information.

From: news-tribune.net

“On Sept. 2, 1997, 96-year-old Irene Jackson died in Indianapolis, according to coroner records. The woman had family in Southern Indiana, so she was taken to Baity’s Funeral Home at 911 State St. in New Albany. However, her body was not buried until last week.“

Funeral Industry| Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

New Commentator on Illinois Funeral Mess | Law-YourFuneralGuy.

All sides in the Illinois Funeral mess have some Ethical problems

The more I study the Illinois Funeral Directors Association  Funeral preneed ponzi scheme the more i come over to the side of those funeral directors who are have filed a lawsuit against the association. Some of those folks have ethical problems that are equal to those of the IFDA.

The opinions expressed below are those of  MarsellusM710

With that said I am turning the blog over to  the commentator today

Dear Funeral Guy and Funeral Service Colleagues,

Integrity is the Real Issue in the Illinois Funeral Mess

Clap…..Clap…..Clap, an astounding round of applause for our Comptroller and Savior of the Illinois Consumer, Mr. Dan Hynes for a 58 – 0 vote in the Illinois Senate, and not a one of them asked him where he was when his field auditors notified his Chicago Office that the IFDA Trust was in trouble in 2002 and why was it allowed to hemorrhage for soooo long.  While the new legislation was not really necessary, it more or less clarifies what is already law.  Mr. Hynes needs to focus on and just make sure that each and every Independent or third party Trustee is in fact, properly licensed. Something everyone of his predecessors failed to do as well , since the days of Roland Burris, our  current junior Senator.

Like I said in an earlier tirade, This legislation, SB1682, is nothing short of knee-jerk reaction to a catastrophe of a problem.  A simple effort  taken and blessed by the Consumer Gods (AARP et. al) to let the “folks” know we’re lookin’ out for them.  If anyone will read the Illinois Funeral and Burial Funds Act will see that most of the new stuff is already in there. (Repetition, yes I know)

State of Illinois regulators appear to be overstepping making a lot of ill-i-noise

I was at the Meeting last Thursday in Springfield with Mr. McRaith et.al.  It was real hard to sit there and listen to the Attorney for the Dept. of Insurance tell us F.D.’s “This is all your fault”.  Insinuating that we had the knowledge of the trust investments, and we were abreast of what our Board was doing. While there may be some truth in that statement, in effect we members of IFDA were extremely trustworthy of our Brethren on the Board.  I resent the Attorneys comments after all the information he has surely been privy to see.  What about the fault of the Board and It’s former Executive Directors, and lets not forget Mr. Schainker, for allowing cold hard earned cash to be converted into risque insurance products.

I’m surprised the DOI was not as forceful about us signing off on this settlement as he was when he and the Comptroller placed the proverbial gun to our heads last fall when we WERE forced to sign the agreement, or face loss of licensure of not only our Trustee license, but our insurance Producer License, and Funeral Director and Embalmer licenses as well, allowing Merrill-Lynch Trust Company to be the new trustee in effect of money they already controlled, as we found out.
With arm twisting actions like that, what was a person to do?

The Current Illinois Senator Roland Burris appears to have started the whole Funeral mess.

Mr. McRaith also stated that for the first time in years we saw for our own eyes what the true value of our accounts were. While that may have been a shock (understatement!) as compared to the values we were told they were valued at by statements and reports received.

Karen Blankenship, Trust Administrator for the former IFDA Trust assumed by MLTC, was in attendance.  I soo wanted to direct the question to her as to where in God’s name was she getting her info from when reporting earnings to us????
But being the gentleman that I am, I refrained from asking, and sat there like a good boy. (Save that question for the deposition)  Alot of great questions were asked, but went unanswered, some with blank stares like a deer in oncoming headlights.

I have had several inquiries from client families asking me if I am signing off on the agreement.
Most of them received their notice(s) of account status recently.  Recoupment of pennies on the dollar doesn’t excite them either. I’ve told them I’m choosing not to because it is not in either my or their best interest to do so. A question of IF there are tax implications  by receiving the settlement monies needs to be addressed as well. Besides, by signing off ties my hands and disqualifies me from further action to be taken against M-L and their subsidiaries and employees should I choose to participate in that. I have told them that this rests on my shoulders, not theirs, and that I have to make good on all contracts or else.  Either way the threat to my livelihood is realized through community reputation crucifixion or regulatory wise.

Will there be more settlements more regulation?

The one thing that I did come away with last Thursday was this.  Mr. McRaith stated that there are further regulatory actions to be taken by the Illinois Secretary of State, Div of Securities, and the IDFPR Div of Banks and Trusts against M-L and Mr. Schainker.  And that further settlements could POSSIBLY be realized.

While the Comptroller and the Dir. of Ins. may have won the battles at the Capitol Building in Springfield, the war is still on and will have to be decided in Court(s).

May the Derivative Lawsuit prove fruitful and victorious for the plaintiffs and those affiliated.
(Amen)

You are so right about being “marked” men by those whom regulate. Should the Lawsuit fail,(Heaven Forbid!) look for a purging and all out vetting of those who have dared to speak out against those in charge/involved.  Imagine for a moment if you will, a small planted error in your trust report, that gets blow out of proportion, that finally leads to ones ruination even though they’ve done nothing wrong, or IDFPR get a “complaint” by a fictitious family about ethical misconduct, etc. and you or your atty., never have the opportunity to know or interview said person, you loose you licenses even though you’ve done nothing wrong.  Sound far fetched?

Remember you are in Illinois, they’ve been know not to play nice here.

That’s all for now,
MarsellusM710

Funeral Industry|Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Burris Picture from Flickr under the Creative Commons licence from

chicagopublicradio ’s photostream

Illinois Funeral Directors Mess- Bill to become law-YourFuneralGuy

There has been a new law passed in the Illinois Funeral Directors Mess. The bill  was sponsored by the Comptroller.  Last week it passed the legislature is slated to become law. The law is in the legislature was known as Senate Bill 1682.

All this was revealed in a Office of the Comptroller press release.

State of Illinois legislature has passed new preneed law

“The Senate approved the measure 58-0 sending it to the Governor. The House approved the legislation earlier in the week.

Hynes said the legislation (SB1682) is needed to help prevent shortfalls similar to the one that occurred with a trust fund intended to pay for consumer funerals that was used by hundreds of funeral directors and administered by the Illinois Funeral Directors Association. It modernizes and strengthens oversight of consumer funds and increases the amount of information consumers receive about their investments.

Your Funeral Guy says  that this is only the first step. Requiring the Funeral directors to put  95% of the folks money in a safe place (where is that?) will help preneed purchasers in the state. It also overall makes funeral directors in the state quite angry.

Funerals directors in the state are quite upset about the agreement that the State of Illinois, reached with Merrill Lynch opposing the agreement the comptroller and other regulators came up with. They have vowed to fight the regulators. How can that be done?

How on God’s earth will they fight the regulators? Will they simply by marked men as is often the case of those who oppose STATE of ILLINOIS politicians?

The Illinois Funeral Directors Association(IFDA) dropped their funeral bomb and funerals in Illinois will take years to recover. They may have caused increases in traditional funeral cost to happen for years to come.

Funeral Industry|Funeral blog by Your Funeral Guy.

Unemployment High:Will Scatter Ashes for Money.-YourFuneralGuy

With unemployment high folks are taking to scattering ashes for money. Now all kinds of folks are doing this.

All Kinds of Folks are entering the Ashes Scattering Biz Ashes are scattered after the cremation process is complete.

Entering  Funeral Scattering  biz around the country are Funeral Directors and others. Crematories, Funeral homes,  boat owners, small plane operators and naturalists are all participating. It is all happening by air, land and sea.

“From the Bend Bulliten“

Rusty Wilkerson, the owner of Wing and a Prayer, uses his 1947 Stinson to scatter ashes over a place that held significance to the deceased.

“There are a lot of people that want the service, but they’re still alive. That poses a problem.”

It does if you have a business scattering people’s cremated remains from an airplane, says Randal “Rusty” Wilkerson, a 46-year-old pilot living in Bend.

When I practiced as a funeral director in Virginia, directors on their days off would scatter ashes by air, and sea for money.

Consider Scattering Ashes when doing a funeral arrangement. Instead of hiring someone it just may be scatter the ashes of your loved one yourself. It will save you money.

Funeral Industry| Funeral Blog by your Funeral Guy- R Brian Burkhardt, author