Your Funeral Guy in Dow Jones Newswires

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Your Funeral Guy has been Featured in the Dow Jones NEWSWIRE  Prepaid Funerals Like Digging Your Own Grave  December 2, 2010 9:16 a.m. EST By AL LEWIS A DOW JONES NEWSWIRES COLUMN R. Brian Burkhardt is a funeral director in Illinois and Virginia who writes a blog called “Your Funeral Guy.” It’s filled with handy consumer tips, as is his book, “Rest in Peace, Insider’s Look at the Low Cost Less Stress Funeral.” Burkhardt also covers the funeral news: “Mom fakes daughter’s funeral.” “Father sues after son’s body falls out of casket.” “Corpses to appear on cigarette packages.” And, “Unclaimed cremated remains: A growing problem.” One of the biggest stories on the funeral beat these days involves a St. Louis, Mo., company called National Prearranged Services Inc. and its related businesses operating in several states from Illinois and Ohio to Tennessee and Texas. Federal prosecutors last week unveiled a 50-count indictment burying six controlling officials in assorted criminal charges: money laundering, conspiracy and wire, bank, mail and insurance fraud. Defendants are Doug Cassity, 64; his son, Brent Douglas Cassity, 43; Howard Wittner, 73; Randall Sutton, 65; Sharon Nekol Province, 66; and David Wulf, 58. The indictment alleges they took as much as $600 million that should have gone into trusts and life-insurance policies to cover as many as 150,000 funerals. “White-out was the main tool,” Burkhardt said. “It’s sounds blastedly simple, but that’s what they did.” Indeed, one of the many tricks alleged in the federal indictment is altering documents with correction fluid. Money that should have gone into trusts or to pay life-insurance premiums for the funeral plans were diverted to pay for business investments, luxury homes and jewelry, the Feds allege. A Ponzi scheme for the dead? Toni Weirauch, special agent in charge of IRS-criminal investigations in St. Louis, said his office “is committed to investigating individuals who allegedly use their businesses as personal piggy banks.” The losses will go to state insurance guarantee associations, plan purchasers and funeral homes. Connie James of James and Gahr Mortuaries in St. James, Mo., said her family-owned funeral business put all of its prepaid funeral funds with the company. A state fund likely will get stuck with most of the tab for the prepaid services her company has contracted to provide, but not all of it. Some of the losses will be hers. “You just pray every day that you’re going to be here tomorrow,” James said. She has a name for defendant Doug Cassity, who went to federal prison in the early 1980s for charges stemming from his investment club. “He is the Bernie Madoff of Missouri,” she said. She wonders how so blatant an alleged fraud could have gone on for so long in an industry that is supposed to be regulated. Cassity’s criminal past, and issues with underfunded trusts dating back to the 1990s, didn’t set off the alarms until the shortfall was enormous. “$600 million. That’s a lot of damn funerals,” James said. National Prearranged Services sold folks on the idea that they could pay today’s prices for tomorrow’s funeral services. Say you put $5,000 down now, and if the funeral you want costs $15,000 due to future inflation, no problem. “Any product that says, ‘We will cover you no matter how much your prices increase’ is too good to be true,” said Scott Gilligan, general counsel of the National Funeral Directors Association in Brookfield, Wisc. “That should have been everybody’s first clue,” he said, “because nobody can do that.” Burkhardt said he’s been warning consumers not to buy prepaid funeral plans for years. “It’s better to a get term life insurance policy and apply that money to the funeral,” he said. He also says the scale of the National Prearranged Services case shows how easily prepaid funeral funds are diverted, and how long it can take regulators to do something about it. “Every week, somebody misappropriates pre-need funds, and every two to three weeks somebody gets caught,” Burkhardt said. “I have had a funeral director tell me, “When I can’t meet my payroll, I just borrow from the pre-need fund.” That’s fraud. But in their minds, it’s kind of their money.” Burkhardt said he suspects business will go on as usual, despite the news he covers on his blog. Reading up on prearranged funeral plans isn’t something folks always do before they buy. “People don’t want to talk about death,” he said. “You almost have to trick your mind to think about it. That’s why people buy these plans.” –(Al’s Emporium, written by Dow Jones Newswires columnist Al Lewis, offers commentary and analysis on a wide range of business subjects through an unconventional perspective. The column is published each Tuesday and Thursday at 9 a.m. ET. He can be reached at 212-416-2617 or by email at al.lewis@dowjones.com, or on his blog at tellittoal.com.) (We invite readers to send us comments on this or other financial news topics. Please comment on Al Lewis’ blog at http://tellittoal.newswires-americas.com/. We reserve the right to edit and publish your comments along with your name; we reserve the right not to publish reader comments.) URL for this article: http://www.djnewsplus.com/article/0,,SB129129867914576950,00.html Related articles National Prearranged Services Executives Indicted-Your Funeral Guy (yourfuneralguy.wordpress.com) Recycled Pacemakers-To be done by USA Funeral Homes-Your Funeral Guy (yourfuneralguy.wordpress.com) Funeral Industry| Funeral News| Funeral blog by Your Funeral Guy Due to my stint in ICU and hospitalization it took some time to get this article up. YOUR FUNERAL GUY HAS BEEN Featured in the Dow Jones News Wires. Your Funeral Guy is quoted but other opinions are mentioned.

ARTICLE FROM  AL’S EMPORIUM

Your Funeral Guy is for Create a Great Funeral Day-Oct 30th|YourFuneralGuy

Plan Your Funeral  You Can  even Have Your  cremation ashes shot into outer space  Image via Wikipedia

Create a Great Funeral Day is October 30th 2010. Create a Great Funeral Day has been around a couple of years. It is very important to plan your funeral but not to prepay.

A Funeral planner is a great asset in planning  a Funeral. If you live in the UK You should consider using A Good Funeral Guide by Charles Cowling.

For  the USA, Another  great resource is Death For Beginners by Karen Jones. Rest in Peace Insiders tips to the Low Cost Less Stress Funeral will also help.

There is a New Book coming out that i  have read and recommend A Good Goodbye:Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die

Funeral Industry|Funeral News | Funeral Blog By Your Funeral Guy

Related articles

• 48 Articles About Pre-planning and Avoiding Surprises with Your Loved One’s Final Costs (termlifeinsurance.org)

Folks with Preneed Policies at NPS Funeral Home lose all?|YourFuneralGuy

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Folks with Preneed policies at the National Prearranged Services Funeral Home in Missouri may have lost it all. It is a fact that  all the monies in prepaid funerals at Washington Forever Funeral Home in Missouri are gone.  There is the possiblity that some customers of Washington Forever Funeral Home may get some credits from two area Kansas City Funeral Homes Charter Funerals and Speaks Legacy Chapels, but the details are a bit vague.

It was stated by the Missouri Attorney General that folks who bought a preneed policy at the Independence, Missouri Funeral Home will have to get their funeral somewhere else. The total estimates in the NPS Preneed  Funeral Scams are between 600 Million and   1 billion dollars. This is significant enough warning  for anyone not to put their funeral cost money into a prepaid funeral

The Missouri attorney general’s office Tuesday issued recommendations for those who purchased prepaid funeral plans from a now-closed Independence funeral home.

Consumers who purchased a plan from Mount Washington Forever Funeral Home will need to make new arrangements at another funeral home, according to the office.

Last week, two Kansas City area funeral homes firms, Charter Funerals and Speaks Family Legacy Chapels, offered to issue possible credits to those customers.

Anyone still paying on such plans purchased through Mount Washington Forever, the attorney general release said, “should stop making payments.”

via www.kansascity.com

Funeral Industry|Funeral News Funeral Blog by Your  Funeral Guy

Austin News advises against “Prepaid Funeral”-yourfuneralguy

An Austin. Texas news station has advised against buying a prepaid funeral as away of Saving on Funeral Cost. Prepaying a Funeral may on the surface sound like a good idea, but recent history has found it to be quite risky.

One Reason it is quite risky is that Funeral Directors lately have been found to take the money.

This has been revealed in three major Funeral Director Scandals.

1. The National Prearranged Services Scandal -2008

2. The Illinois Funeral Directors Association Preneed Ponzi Scheme- 2009

3. The California Funeral Directors Association Scandal(California Master Trust) 2010

On the surface, it seems like a good idea to pay today’s price for final arrangements.

Since funeral prices have been going up by more than the rate of inflation, it might seem like a wise choice to pre-pay for your funeral arrangements.

Unfortunately, the prepaid funeral business, like other industries, is not without its share of fraud and deceit.

The average cost of a funeral in today’s dollars is about $10,000, and that cost is increasing every year, so you can see why consumers in Texas have contracts worth $3 billion.

via www.news8austin.com

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

Your Funeral Guy Exclusive|California Funeral Directors Association Scandal

Your Funeral Guy First reported on the California Funeral Directors Association(CFDA) on January 7th, 2010. Click Here for the report.

Now that the scandal has received local coverage in California we can report on this matter more fully because my research has been verified by a State Audit. The scandal is quite similar to the Illinois Funeral Directors Association Scandal. Right now the dollar amount is less than The IFDA Preneed Trust Scandal. That could change.

Early audits in the IFDA Preneed trust scandal did not reveal the extent of the problem. Later on Gross Misappropriation of the Folks Money was discovered. The current situation involves the California Master Trust.

Now that there is  a second maor Funeral directors association scandal the national media may take note.

Do Not Hold your Breath.

The audit was the first to find systematic problems with a funeral trust fund(California), Wallinder said. Typically, auditors find problems involving individual funeral homes or trusts set up for individual consumers, he said.

In this case, the department ordered the trust’s governing board to return more than $2 million that was spent on lobbying and conventions for the California Funeral Directors Association. Some of the money already has been paid back, auditors said.

The audit also found the trust failed to pay at least $1.6 million it owed to consumers, their estates or the state treasury in cases where funeral homes went out of business or families paid for funeral services because they didn’t know their loved one had a prepaid plan.

via www.mercurynews.com

Funeral industry|Funeral News|Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Funeral homes selling Preneed As a Good Investment|are lying|Your Funeral Guy

Funeral Homes selling Preened as an investment are lying.  To prepay a funeral today, “LOCKING IN TODAY’S PRICES FOR YOUR FUNERAL TOMORROW” is a lie. The current economic environment in the world makes that statement a falsehood.  No Investment vehicle can be guaranteed that since the Wall Street Crash of September 2008.

Firstly, Prepaid funerals or(preneed) has always been  a purchase of funeral goods and services.In the past and many times the funds are placed by the funeral home, funeral director or insurance company in a special bank account.

Depending on the pre need Contract and state regulations the funds used to purchase sometimes can be placed in an investment vehicle. The Track record of indivudual funeral homes and others doing this though is not good.

When this has happened there are examples of bad outcomes—the local funeral home in the news, funeral associations(example- IFDA Illinois Funeral Directors Association preneed trust ponzi scheme) and funeral insurance companies(-Example-NPS-National Prearranged Services)

Funeral industry|Funeral News Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

WSJ:Preneed, Prepaid Funeral Regulation Ahead|YourFuneralGuy

Preneed or Prepaid Funerals go by many names such as  End of life insurance, funeral insurance, preneed, prepaid funerals etc. The National Prearranged Services(NPS) Funeral Scam, the IFDA(Illinois Funreral Directors Association) Preneed Trust Funeral Scam, and Weekly incidents of funeral directors running off   with the folks funeral money has all contributed to this development

Snippet From the WSJ.

It’s among the best-intentioned and—in the eyes of some—worst investments that people make: paying in advance for a funeral.

Now, in the wake of recent allegations of fraud and mismanagement in this multibillion-dollar industry, state and federal lawmakers are trying to crack down on abuses in so-called prepaid funeral plans.

“Consumer advocates have been urging states to enact stricter regulations of prepaid plans for years,” says Sally Hurme, a senior project manager who specializes in consumer education at AARP, the Washington-based advocacy group. “This is a step in the right direction.”

via online.wsj.com

This should shoot an arrow in the heart of those who have  have participated in  preneed irregularities, fraud and scams

Funeral industry|Funeral News|Funeral blog by Your Funeral Guy

Years? until we find out where Illinois Funeral scam Money went|Your Funeral Guy

IFDA WHERE DID THE MONEY GO?The crimes committed by the Illinois Funeral Directors Association should not go unpunished.

There are many ongoing investigations in the Illinois Funeral Directors Association(IFDA) preneed scandal. Lawsuits are hung up in  the courts. It is being reported that reform legislation is held up in the Illinois legislature.

In the meantime, there is no telling how long consumers will have to wait while the matter still is under investigation. It could be months or years before the Graces and thousands of Illinois residents who prepaid for funerals know where millions of missing trust fund dollars went.

via dailyme.com

How can funeral directors steal Millions and it take years for the matter to be resolved? Why does it take drawn out investigations  to resolve pre need scandal.( It took decades to find out where the National Prearranged  Services dollars went) As these things drag on  funeral directors  continue steal out of trust funds, and take  unauthorized loans  as Illinois Funeral Directors Association Board Members did.

Time will go on and more Preneed Insurance Scandals will occur. Major players will move on and assume positions of leadership-often times with no resolution of misdeeds.(Look at Randall L Earl a major player in the IFDA Ponzi Scheme who may very soon be president of The National Funeral Directors Association, NFDA).

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

The lesson here is clearly to avoid prepaying for a funeral.

pic IFDA logo e-mailed to yourfuneralguy by the Illinois Funeral Directors Association.

Embezzling $257,119 Preneed Funds|Your Funeral Guy

A couple in Michigan Embezzled(misappropriated)  $257,000 in Preneed Funds from the families they served at a funeral home. Just as the leaders in the Illinois Iuneral Directors Association Ponzi Scheme have not been brought to justice, these two appear to be getting off with restitution and probation.

When funeral providers take people’s preneed funeral funds there should be punishment. Otherwise Funeral Directors will continue to take peoples funeral money.

There are the big cases like that of National Prearranged Services.(NPS) or the Illinois Funeral Directors Association. Every week  in the press there are local  funeral providers who misappropriate or steal money-many times out of  preneed or prepaid funerals. This is one reason for mistrust of funeral directors.

A Canton couple pleaded no contest Friday to embezzling money from prepaid funeral customers and has agreed to pay back 23 victims.

Christopher and Nancy Ziomek, who operated the now-closed Ziomek Funeral Home on Wayne Road in Livonia, entered the pleas in Wayne County Circuit Court to one count of embezzlement of $50,000 or more, but less than $100,000. The offense is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

via www.freep.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