Osama Bin Laden has issued a video with cryptic messages threatening more funerals from terrorists. The video report is well done. Phrases that appeared in his videos before actual terrorist acts are present in the Video.
Funeral Industry|Funeral News|funeral blog by Your Funeral Guy
A spokesman for Dan Hynes has convinced me he handled the Illinois Funeral Directors Association ponzi Scheme well
Carol Knowles a Spokesperson for Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes convinced me that IL Candidate for Governor handled the Illinois Funeral Directors Association Preneed Ponzi Scheme quite well.
The complexity of Funeral Preneed, the Lack of cooperation of the Association along with State Government intergovernmental regulation, make this issue confusing. I am simply posting the Dialogue here. This Continues from the last post. The conversation is significant for The ILLINOIS GOVERNORS RACE IN 2010, funeral directors and the Illinois funeral consumer.
On Jan 24, 2010, at 2:45 PM, Robert Burkhardt wrote:Are you not being a little too technical, Was not the IFDA Preneed Trust sold through their member IFDA member Funeral Homes? I think that means they were partnering with the funeral homes in the sale of Preneed.
I have been researching this Illinois Funeral Directors Association Mess since since mid 2007, discovering the matter by accident. I have spoke with Bruce Rushton on the phone on this matter over the past several years. The burning question is if there were 2 sets of books why did the Comptroller not send the matter to the States Attorney?
In 2009 Comptroller Hynes said the IFDA stole the money. Why are not the IFDA leaders being prosecuted or been prosecuted by now? Why was not the matter forced into prosecution. (The Governor is chief Law Enforcement Officer in the State)
So the way the Illinois Comptroller handled the matter is the point.
Thanks for your comments.
Your Funeral Guy
Funeral Preneed still seems quite ugly and deceptive for the Consumers.
Hello back,
I’m sorry. I don’t think I’m being too technical.This is a complicated issue. I appreciate Bruce Rushton, but I don’t always agree with his articles. He tends to come at them with an agenda. I say this as a former Capitol Bureau Chief for UPI who did quite a bit of investigative journalism regarding the government. He knows what he choses to leave out of a story is just as important as what he puts in. And I can tell you he leaves an awful lot out.I GAVE Bruce Rushton the documents he used for that story. I called him. I would have given the documents to him in Spring last year when he originally asked for them, but we were bound by the IDFPR confidentiality agreement. I have nothing to hide and nothing to gain. I’ve earned a reputation for truth, strong ethics and straight shooting over many years. I know that a person’s word is all that they have.The Comptroller’s office does not license sellers of insurance policies (IDFPR Insurance Division). The Comptroller’s Office doesn’t regulate banks. (IDFPR banking division). The Comptroller’s Office doesn’t regulate trusts (IDFPR trusts).IDFPR is a state agency under the direction of the Governor.The IFDA Trust was the investment instrument for many funeral homes/directors. They could have put their money in a bank money market account, the stock market, whatever they chose. The Comptroller’s Office wouldn’t regulate the BANK the funeral director put the money in. It doesn’t regulate Merrill Lynch, which sells a variety of investments, including insurance. It doesn’t regulate stock brokers etc.Funeral directors chose the IFDA Trust. Why? Because the IFDA was promising higher than market interest rates. Put the consumer money with us, rather than a bank, they would say, and you will earn more interest on the money.
Problem was, the Trust wasn’t earning what the IFDA Trust told its investors (funeral directors) it was.
But if those funeral directors happen to have consumers who died before this whole thing blew up, the funeral director was the one who profited because he/she received that higher, unsupportable interest rate.
Did you notice the funeral directors weren’t complaining when they were PROFITING? It isn’t THEIR money to begin with. It is CONSUMERS MONEY.
The IOC went to IDFPR because it is the regulatory agency. It had the authority to regulate the IFDA Trust. To shut it down. To freeze the fund. To take any and all appropriate steps in the interest of consumers. It was the IDFPR that told IOC that the transition had to be quiet to avoid a run on the trust. It was the IDFPR that required a confidentiality agreement on the matter. Just as the feds go in and take over a bank quietly, the IDFPR could have stopped the IFDA immediately. This activity went on for decades.We filed a civil suit against the IFDA through the Attorney General’s Office to get $10 million in excess fees the IFDA took. We by law, must be represented by the AG. The AG thought this was the best way to go as well. We went in that direction because it is a faster way to get consumer funds back. That was our primary interest. A criminal case is always a possibility, It has not been ruled out. But the penalties unfortunately are not large and putting these guys behind bars doesn’t help get consumer funds back. Consumers and their funds were and continue to be our priority.The ML sales person who was responsible for these policies lost his license. The Secretary of State’s Securities Division is still negotiating a settlement with him. None of that has been in criminal court. It has all been civil actions.If the Comptroller’s Office hadn’t stepped up to end this mess it likely still would be going on.Sorry if I am too long winded here. Just trying to explain.
Thanks you explained this quite well and explained the Comptrollers actions. You may have just persuaded me to vote for HYNES. You are correct Funeral Directors did not complain when they were profiting. I believe they had a moral obligation to check up on the investments in the IFDA Preneed Trust. It was the customers money not theirs.
It is very frustrating however to see the good old boy network in place at the IFDA. As a Funeral Director I Have pulled out of the Illinois Funeral Directors Association.
I will clarify this on the blog, but i think the consumer finds this far too complicated
You have revealed significant things about the IFDA situation that both the consumer and Funeral Directors should know!
Thanks
Your Funeral Guy.
It is very complicated.I agree. The good old boy network at the IFDA is bad.The funeral directors have begun moving their money elsewhere, now that the fund is no longer frozen. And that’s a good thing. I hope they act wisely now.Thanks for listening.Carol
A spokesperson for candidate Dan Hynes Comptroller running for Illinois Governor responded to my blog Post today about the way the Comptroller handled the Illinois Funeral Directors Association (IFDA)Ponzi Scheme. In an E-Mail Carol Knowles revealed significant Information.
THE ILLINOIS FUNERAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION HAD 2 SETS OF BOOKS.
PART OF THE BLAME FOR NON -REGULATION OF THE PONZI SCAM SHOULD GO TO THE ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF INSURANCE.
THE IFDA “AWARDED INTEREST BASED ON A WHIM NOT ACTUAL EARNINGS”
Your comments regarding the SJRComptroller Hynes was the one who forced this issue — forced the IFDA into proper regulation. You are criticizing him for having done the RIGHT thing.
…
Hello,
I think you may have missed the point.The IFDA issue is about the regulation of insurance policies and trusts.Those regulatory matters are in the hands of the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation — NOT the Comptroller’s Office.The regulation of the IFDA trust was no longer under the regulatory authority of the Comptroller’s Office beginning in the mid 1990s when the state law was changed.The “license” the IFDA Trust had was to SELL preneed and it had been issued DECADES earlier. It was irrelevant because the IFDA DID NOT SELL preneed.The Comptroller’s Office uncovered the problem, stopped the bad guys and moved to protect the trust by alerting the IDFPR.The IDFPR could have and should have frozen the fund in 2006 when they were advised of the problem, but instead they chose let the IFDA try to qualify as a proper trustee. When that failed they told them to find an appropriate trustee. The IFDA fought regulators at every step of the way.The “earnings” they reported to their members and/or consumers were fantasy numbers. They awarded interest based on a whim, not actual earnings. They paid various members off with $25,000 personal insurance policies. They essentially had 2 sets of books.The IFDA began purchasing these policies in the mid 1980s — where was the Department of Insurance (part of the IDFPR)?The IFDA was advised by their own lawyers in the mid 1990s that they needed to be regulated by IDFPR but they ignored it and operated without a proper trustee.Bruce Rushton was given all of these documents but chose not to report all of the facts.
Comptroller Hynes delayed action in Funeral Ponzi relevant in Governors Race.
New documents released in an Illinois Funeral Scam are relevant to the Illinois Governors race-Dan Hynes’s delay in holding Illinois Funeral Directors Association feet to the fire should disqualify him from being governor.
There are strong consequences to the IFDA Ponzi scheme avoiding regulators and Hynes delaying regulator action-Financial difficulties for funeral homes, owners of funeral homes having to work into retirement, lack of funeral job openings in the state, funeral homes having to make up the difference in client’s preneed funeral policies.
Real solutions to this matter are delayed in the Courts, but most importantly trust for funeral directors in the state has been buried.
And with the resignation of the IFDA President, the good old boys are still in control at the Illinois Funeral Directors Association.
It all results from the delayed regulatory action of Comptroller Dan Hynes.
State regulators spent more than a year pondering the financial catastrophe that was a pre-need funeral trust fund administered by the Illinois Funeral Directors Association, but it didn’t take Regions Bank long to figure out that the trust was in deep trouble.
Regions Bank was supposed to take over the trust. However, the bank backed out after the IFDA balked at liquidating life insurance policies that cost the fund thousands of dollars each day, according to the bank’s analysis.
via www.sj-r.com
Funeral Industry|Funeral News| Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy
Estimates of the dead from Haiti being put into mass graves is approaching 200,000. The Red Cross officially has come out against mass graves,.85% of the government officials were killed in Haiti. So there was to be minimal direction in the handling survivors as well as those who died in the Earthquake.
The US National Funeral Directors Association(NFDA) failed to respond immediately to the needs of the disposal of the dead in Haiti.
Here is a a montage of the living an the dead.
The International Committee of the Red Cross is among those groups and organizations that object to the mass burials. They contend the dead should be treated with greater dignity. Red Cross spokesman Bernard Barrett. “What’s important is, whatever is done, must be done in a way that bodies will be eventually identified so that the families will know what happened to these people and they will not be left in uncertainty forever,” he said.
via www1.voanews.com
Funeral Industry, Funeral News, Funeral blog by Your funeral Guy
Funeral webcasting is alive and looks well but it may soon be almost free. It may sound a little scary but some who cannot make it to the funeral live in person a webcast is an alternative. The technology is also known as live streaming video. C-Span use it for the Walter Cronkite Funeral.
This technology has been around for a while and been used by the news media for quite some time. Over the past several years Funeral Homes have come to rely on the Memorial DVD for income. No they are adding a webcast to add money to their coffers(Coffins):-).
However the advent of html 5 in 2010 and the elimination the need for ” flash technology” could very well make livestreaming video available to the common man. Some families are videoing funerals themselves and putting them up on blogs. One Free blog site on the web, wordpress.com will reformat any video (Funeral or other wise). This enables families to take video and put the funeral on web as soon as the funeral service is over. The cost here is less even if you rent video equipment or hire a video expert.
“THE GIST:
- Cheaper broadband is drawing more people to the Web as a community forum.
- Webcasts captures the same views as funeral attendees.
- The future could make it possible for viewers to participate live.
If webcasting a funeral seems a little, well, ghoulish to you, you’re not alone. The decade-old service has been a hard sell to most funeral directors until recently. But the advent of cheaper broadband, the financial strain of travel and deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan have all contributed to increased use of the Web as a tool to connect loved ones during such times of need.”via news.discovery.comFuneral Industry|Funeral News| Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy
With the Mass Burials in Haiti, Burr Oak Cemetery, and Funeral Industry Demise, it is time to lighten up a bit.
Here is The “Golden Girls” do a Funeral arrangement and plan a funeral-Video: Or take it as what can go wrong at the funeral home.There are actually some good Funeral negotiation tips in this video. The easiest way to consider your own funeral or that of a loved one is to laugh about the subject.
Funeral tips in this video: 1) Do not negotiate a funeral arrangement alone. 2) Do not fall for the Casket Sales pitch 3) Ask to see a less expensive Casket not on the sales floor) 4) Check to see if the Funeral Director Makes a mistake, like cremate the wrong body!-These tips will help you come in under the average cost of a funeral.
Funeral Industry|Funeral News| Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy
The Race for Illinois Governor is heating up. A recent ad by Governor Pat Quinn is putting the Burr Oak Cemetery Scandal Front and center. In This ad Quinn challenges Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes Competence.
The Burr Oak Cemetery Scandal which broke in 2009 may be the worst in The nations history. In the money Making Funeral and Burial Scam over three hundred graves were desecrated as graves were moved and Bones scattered all over the Cemetery.
Although The Burr Oak Cemetery Scandal got much press, It is Comptroller Dan Hynes Handling Of the Illinois Funeral Directors Association IFDA Ponzi Scheme that sends the message of “Hynes Incompetence” to the Citizens of the State of Illinois.
Funeral Industry| Funeral News| Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy.
Haiti’s Mass Graves Swell as Earthquake Victims go untreated. Reports say that 10,000 each a day are being buried in Mass Graves in Haiti.
Click Here link to the Latest Mass grave and Burial Video( Video is is excellent, but with no direct posting to blogs)
Workers say they have no time at the Mass Graves to give the dead proper religious burials. No rituals are followed at Mass Burials. Pleas from the international community that bodies be buried in shallow graves from which loved ones might eventually retrieve them, go unheeded.
Haitian Mass Burials:We just Dump them in and Fill it Up
“We just dump them in, and fill it up,” said Luckner Clerzier, 39, who was helping guide trucks to another grave site farther up the road.
via www.news24.com
The Death Toll is now estimated at 200, 000 with 80,000 in Mass Graves. The international community is requesting that the dead be deposited in shallow graves so that they can be identified later. It is quite and understatement to say Funeral Directors are needed in Haiti. The US National Funeral Directors Association refused to give an immediate response to this crisis.
Funeral Industry|Funeral News Blog By Your Funeral Guy|Funeral Director, Illinois an Virginia.
Batesville products will make for Extra Expenses at Your Funeral
Batesville Casket has launched it’s ObitLink service. With it comes a new source of income for the struggling casket maker, “The Online obituary” In effect Batesville Casket has it’s own version of Funeral Packages which are often used by the Funeral Industry through Funeral Homes to increase your funeral cost. Purchasing a Batesville “Funeral Package” through their online memorial service will raise Consumer Funeral expenses and keep a family’s funeral cost above the average cost of a funeral.
Batesville has partnered with Legacy.com in this endeavor. Legacy.com handles most of obituaries placed in newspapers in North America by storing the obituaries on the Internet.
This simply an attempt by Hillenbrand(NYSE HI) to raise the consumer Funeral Prices. The Funeral Consumer should not purchase an Online Memorial package or pay for on online Obit. Excellent Free Services are available. This product comes through the Casket Company’s ConnectivitySuite.
Snippet:
“Online memorialization packages are available for funeral homes to offer to families. These packages offer advanced memorialization options that take full advantage of the latest Web technology, including a memorial website with the ability for visitors to interact through posted comments, pictures, video and music. Families even get a professionally printed and bound book as a keepsake of all of the information shared on their memorial site.- Source Batesville.
Batesville Casket Co Has had to go outside the Casket sale to make money(Increase Revenue).
Funeral Industry|Funeral News|Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy, Funeral Director, Illinois and Virginia
This is Batesville Casket Co third attempt to gain revenue outside the casket sale. 1 First there was the Goria Vault purchase, 2. the K-Tron purchase and now ObitLink.
The fact that Batesville Casket has to go outside the Casket Sale for revenue is an indication of Funeral Industry Decline.
Cremation costs can vary by thousands of dollars. This is is an important factor when considering funeral costs and cremations costs. We have addressed this subject in several places before,-it is important to address this subject again. You can view a video on this with more info here. As with funeral cost, and cremation cost- [...]
Image via Wikipedia There has been an article on Ten Companies Controlling the Funeral Industry. What is interesting in the article are the Newcomers Wall Mart and Amazon .com These companies have only entered the funeral industry in the last several of years. This is an indication of traditional Funeral industry decline and the desire [...]
Hillenbrand Inc and the CEO Kenneth Camp, have acknowledged funeral industry and Casket sales decline. The company executive has decided to live with the reality that is there. People are paying less funeral cost and many are continuing to live with the reality of the funeral industry decline. Hillenbrand Inc. CEO Kenneth Camp might have [...]
1. TV special Shows what it is like to die If you or a loved one have thought you may die, it may be a good idea to catch the PBS frontline special”FACING DEATH”. Would you go to intensive care to die? How long should someone receive treatment? Check out the video. via www.yourfuneralguy.com 2. [...]
There have been three great funeral books published in 2010 that can help with Funerals and your funeral cost. These book state the principles presented in Rest in Peace: Insider Tips to the Low Cost Less Stress Funeral. The First one is A Good Goodbye by Gail Rubin a new funeral book from the USA. [...]
