Six States, four companies, Green Cremation Possible-yourfuneralguy

Six states and four companies make alkaline hydrolysis, resomation, water resolution or Green cremation possible.

The Four companies and individuals who have n alkaline hydrolysis machine are:
1.Resomation Ltd, Scotland via Sandy Stevens.
2.Cycledlife, Via Joe Wilson Bio Response Solutions, Inc
3.Natural Cremation, Via Joel Collins, Eco-Green Cremation Systems, Inc
4 Water Resolution, Via BioSafe Engineering Inc, Russell Cooper Director of Business Development.

The six states that have permitted alkaline hydrolysis machines are:

While resomation is gaining popularity in Europe it is currently only approved in six U.S. states - Maine, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Oregon and Maryland – with reviews being conducted in several more.via www.gizmag.com

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

Your Funeral Guy Featured In Washington Times on Indigent Burials

Your Funeral Guy has been Featured in the Washington Times

A Your Funeral Guy blog  story has been referenced in the Washington Times in early 2010. The blogpost is about the Rise of Indigent Burials in 09. The article is titled  “Rising Public  Costs for Cremation and  Burial“  The  Funeral Cost and News Story talks about how local governments are paying for Funerals for the Poor in the UnitedStates.

Snippet:

The recession has increased the number of poor people in the United States.

‘Indigent burials are on the rise’ according to Your Funeral Guy.

Indigent, according to the Encarta Dictionary, means ‘extremely poor’ or ‘destitute person.’

via communities.washingtontimes.com

Funeral Industry| Funeral News Blog By Your Funeral Guy

Washington Times Photo from flickr under the creative commons license. from

NCinDC’s photostream

Here are some relate Your Funeral Guy blog posts.

1. Chicago:30% rise in Indigent Burials-
2. Green Burials May Come to main Street
3. Average Cost of a Funeral: Burials down, Funerals 
4. Bodies pile up around U.S. Families lack Burial funds

Burr Oak Cemetery Scandal:NFDA Asks FTC To Help-YourFuneralGuy

The National Funeral Directors Association has asked the Federal Trade Commission to bring cemeteries in under the Funeral Rule. This is the Result of the Burr Oak Cemetery Scandal.

The National Funeral Directors Association has asked for Cemetery Reform as a result of the Burr Oak Cemetery Scandal. Christine Pepper the CEO of The National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) has sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission asking the FTC to strengthen  the “Funeral Rule” to include all deathcare vendors which includes Cemeteries. This would be an excellent step in preventing future cemetery scandals like Burr Oak.

The Funeral Rule already applies to Funeral homes but needs to apply to Cemeteries as well. the Full NFDA Letter can be viewed here.

From the letter:

Any time the government extends regulations over sellers in an industry or profession, it has the effect of curtailing the opportunity for abuse. If a seller is not licensed, not inspected and not regulated by federal, state or local governments, it operates in a free-for-all world where there is no accountability for any transgression… NFDA, AARP and other organizations have documented the harm that consumers have experienced…

The FTC has refused to even investigate these complaints by arguing (without any support or evidence) that the practices are not pervasive throughout the industry. As a result, cemetery and crematory consumers continue to suffer from these reoccurring scandals.”

This is the a step forward for the NFDA and they should be commended for sending the letter to the FTC, Federal Trade Commission.

Funeral Industry|Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy.

Burr oak Cemetery Scandal:Preneed Contracts will have to be honored.-yourfuneralguy

Sometime in the future, burials will happen again at Burr Oak Cemetery.

Although the Burr Oak Cemetery is closed as a crime scene there will come a time that burials will have to continue. Preneed Contracts held by the cemetery will have to be honored. It does seem a little far off considering that the headstones visible at the cemetery are not all put up on the website.

So far there is no accounting of the desecrated graves at the  Cook County Sheriff’s website:www.burroak.net

Sheriff Dart has stated that it will  be several weeks before the listing of the headstones that are present at the cemetery will be complete.

At that time grave desecrations can be addressed that are not being handled  in lawsuits.

Another cemetery in Illinois has  had  had their licenses removed and closed have to conduct burials.This is Valley View Cemetery in Edwardsville,Illinois.  From thetelegraph.com

“They have a responsibility to the people they have sold these pre-need burial contracts, said Carol Knowles, a spokeswoman for the comptroller….burials have taken place with the volunteer help of former employees.
More burials are scheduled for the next few days.”

There is no word whether burials are being conducted at Burr Oak Cemetery now or in the future.

Funeral Industry|Funeral Blog By Your Funeral Guy

Burr oak cemetery pic from religion dispatches.org

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