Illinois Funeral Directors Preneed Scam|task force Reports-YourFuneralGuy

The Governors Task Force Association The Illinois Funeral Directors Association has reported and has recommended that the Illinois Department of  Financial and Professional Regulation handle preneed regulation.

Up to regulation of Funeral  Preneed funds has been handled by the comptrollers office of the State of Illinois. 100 million dollars is now gone from the preneed fund mainly because of funky and maybe fraudelant insurance investments. There was also extracurricular use of the Preneed fund including the Setup and administration of the Museum Of Funeral Customs by the now NFDA  Treasurer  Randal L Earl. There was also loans to board members through IFDA Services.

To the greatest extent possible, Illinois should have a fully consolidated regulatory scheme,” the report’s authors wrote.

In addition, the task force recommended:

*Restrictions on what investments can be made with money in pre-need funeral trusts.

“The investment of those funds should be strictly limited to U.S. government-backed securities or other investments of equal creditworthiness,” the authors wrote.

*A ban on pre-need funeral trustees engaging in business unrelated to pre-need funerals.

The IFDA made loans to funeral directors from the pre-need trust fund and also operated a museum, which is now closed. The task force wrote that the IFDA “may have deviated from its original purpose” and may have made investments and loans that “further detracted from its core mission.”

*A requirement for transparency in the administration of pre-need funeral trusts.

Duane Marsh, IFDA executive director, could not be reached for comment.

Committee recommendations

*Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation oversee pre-need funeral industry

*Limits on how pre-need funds be invested

*Bar trustees from engaging in unrelated businesses*More transparency in administration of pre-need trustsvia www.sj-r.com

Funeral Industry| Funeral News|Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

SCI Blaming poor numbers on declining deaths,births,and medicine|YourFuneralGuy

Service Corporation  International,NYSE:SCI has had poor numbers for the last year. Blaming poor financials on down turns in the numbers of deaths is truly sad. Saying that the cause of financial trouble is the number of births between 1932 and 1939 is borders on the laughable and sad. Blaming poor numbers on medical advances is just as sad. One has to wonder if the CEO Tom Ryan, Should be taken seriously.

This executive did admit that funeral volumes and financial reports will take a hit in the next several years.

“Houston-based SCI was so puzzled by the downturn that it hired outside consultants to find out why. The research is not complete, so the company won’t release it yet, but chief executive officer Tom Ryan told a recent conference call with analysts that there appear to be two major factors: medical advances, and a dip in the number of births between 1929 and 1936, the deepest years of the Depression.

“We know those two events are going to put downward pressure on the numbers of deaths in our relevant markets,” Mr. Ryan said. “We’re operating under the assumption that we’re probably going to see down comparable [funeral] volumes generally for the next few years.””-via Globe and mail.com

Funeral Industry|Funeral News|Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Preneed Insurance could pay two funerals instead of one|YourFuneralGuy

A Preneed Funeral Arrangement is a contract, it is not wise to participate

Funerals .org has outlined a funeral complaint about preneed insurance. Incredibly insurance premiums total more than twice the cost of a funeral. The Funeral industry needs to stand up and take note of this complaint.

This presents us with a concrete example of the Dangers of funeral preneed. Your Funeral Guy has seen first hand the horrors of the preneed company mentioned below and has refused to work for this  funeral preneed firm  firm

Another example of the financial dangers of prepaid funerals. This Iowa couple was shocked to discover they’d have to pay almost $28,000 in insurance premiums for funerals that would cost only $14,000. Read their complaint-

After sending more than $11,000 to Homesteaders Insurance over the past four years, we recently decided to see what the exact balance due would be. The funeral home told us to call the insurance company. We were shocked to learn from Homesteaders that we hadbeen locked into a 10-year payment plan at the rate of $230.83 a month. At that rate, we would have to pay $27,699.60, about double of what the actual funerals would cost.

via www.funerals.org

Funeral Industry|Funeral News|Funeral  Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Famous Dead, Farrah Fawcett, Bea Arthur snubbed at the Oscars|YourFuneralGuy

Some of the famous dead were snubbed at the Oscars on Sunday Night-Farrah Fawcett and Bea Arthur were not mentioned at the Oscars-They were not featured in a memorial tribute.

In 2009 Both Beatrice Arthur and Farrah Fawcett died in 2009. Both starred in acclaimed movies but were not mentioned on Sunday Night in a tribute to those who passed on in in 2009.

Two pop culture icons were missing from the Oscars’ Sunday night tribute to stars who passed away in 2009: “Charlie’s Angel” Farrah Fawcett and “Golden Girl” Bea Arthur.

…… Fawcett won critical acclaim for 1986′s “Extremities;” Arthur acted opposite Lucille Ball in 1974′s “Mame.” Both earned recognition from other awards committees during their life: Fawcett’s work won her multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominations; Arthur held a Tony and Emmy awards under her belt.

via blogs.abcnews.com

Funeral Industry|Funeral News|Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy.

Funeral Directors meeting Could give Consumers a Panic attack-Your Funeral Guy

Funeral Directors meeting in San Antonio(March 10-13th) at the ICCFA(International Cemetery Cremation and Funeral Association) Convention.  could give you  a “The Funeral Consumer” a panic attack. There is a social media seminar happening there led a “funeral guru” who is  an  ex con who is vice president of a funeral collection company(not making this up). He will be  teaching  funeral directors to contact you via social media so as to raise Your Funeral Cost and do other things. (HE EVEN TELLS OF A FUNERAL DIRECTOR WHO DOES COLLECTIONS ON FACE BOOK) Another seminar teaches those same funeral guys how to raise the cost of a cremation, the consumers lower cost funeral option.

HOW FAR WILL THESE GUYS GO? YOU will be shocked. It is like revisting the America Way of Death.

It is almost like reading the classic book on the American Funeral Industry All over again.

The American Way of Death Revisited by Jessica Mitford.  Gleefully sarcastic muckraking expose of the American funeral industrial complex.

I have read books that scared me, made me laugh or made me cry. This is the only book I have ever read that gave me a panic attack.

This book opened my eyes to the very real and horrifying idea that my death is viewed by an industry as an opportunity to milk every last possible penny from my grieving family.

via fireandsonic.com

Funeral Industry|Funeral News|Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Service Corporation International trouble Purchasing Keystone?|yourfuneralguy

The World’s largest Funeral Corporation is having trouble purchasing Keystone North America,  the 5th largest funeral corporation.

Funeral home operator Service Corporation International desires to acquire Keystone North America Inc.

The Houston company has extended  the acquisition  date of Tampa-based Keystone.

The new date is March 19.

As of March 1, Service Corp. (NYSE: SCI) increased its offer by 7 cents per share for a total of $8.07 a share. That  raised the purchase price to nearly $260 million from the initial proposed offer of $256 million.

Last month, the acquisition date was extended to  Feb. 26, 2010.

Because of the purchase dates push backs, there are questions on this deal.

Service Corporation International is the world’s largest funeral corporation and it wants to become bigger. It is also has a history of perpetual funeral Scandal.

Funeral Industry|Funeral News by yourfuneralguy

Fallen American Hero Video|Your Funeral Guy

There have been many excellent Funerals for fallen American hero’s from the middle east. This soldier’s death made President Bush cry. The Funeral Video has been recently become available. The Tribute for this veteran is exceptional.

Funeral Industry|Funeral News |Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Apologies for missing a few days of blogging. Medical issues required attention.

Facebook Allows Perpetual Memorials-YourFuneralGuy

Facebook  now allows perpetual memorial sites to keep  going. Yes the family can choose to have a  perpetual memorial site by keeping the deceased’s site going.  Or they can  notify facebook of a death, and have a memorial site that comes down at their  request. Recently there was an article in Newsweek on this subject. The average age of  a Facebook user is age 33. It use to be that the memorial site came down in about a month, but now it appears that the site can go on, until the family requests it be taken down.

Now a facebook account can simply be closed and their be no memorial at all.

Recently more elderly folks are flocking to facebook. This all raise the possibility of a “Baby Boomer” community of the dead on Facebook or virtual tombstones depending how you look at it.  This confronts traditional religious values in a weird sort of way. This from a February 17th Newsweek article.

Virtual Graves?

Facebook changed its policy regarding the pages of members who have passed away. Responding in part to urging by people at Virginia Tech who wanted after the 2007 shooting there to continue to commune with their lost friends on Facebook, the company now allows a person’s page to remain active in perpetuity. (Family members may request that a loved one’s page be taken down.) “When someone leaves us, they don’t leave our memories or our social network,” the new policy says.

One might imagine such virtual mourning is shallow, but it’s not. Here is a real gathering place, where friends can grieve together—and where the deceased continues, in some sense, to exist. “You’re creating something like a tombstone, but people can visit that tombstone anytime, anyplace, as long as they have Internet access,” says Brian McLaren, a leader in the emerging church movement and author of A New Kind of Christianity. “That seems to me to be a great gain.”

via www.newsweek.com

This raises all kinds of possibilities, like facebook having a virtual graveyard section. Maybe someday you can leave virtual flowers there.In effect there are already virtual memorials and obituaries,

Funeral Industry|Funeral  Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Illinois Cemetery Oversight Board comes into existence-Your Funeral Guy

Parts of the Illinois  Cemetery Oversight Act  take effect today. To sum up The Cemetery Oversight Board comes into existence today. This is part  the Legislation that the Illinois Governor Quinn signed into law before the election in February.

The cemetery Oversight Task Force was set up in response to the Burr Oak Cemetery Scandal of  July 2009. The center of the legislation is to move cemetery regulation into the Illinois Department of  Financial and Professional Regulation, and the Cemetery Oversight Board.

This new board is an integral part of a wider, more comprehensive regulatory framework enacted to protect families in their dealings with cemeteries, funeral directors, and embalmers,” IDFPR Secretary Brent E. Adams said.

The creation of a nine-member Cemetery Oversight Board was a major component of the law that resulted from the many reforms and recommendations of the Cemetery Oversight Task Force.

via cbs2chicago.com

Funeral Industry|Funeral News| Funeral blog by Your Funeral Guy