Randall L Earl To Be Pres.Elect of NFDA|Funeral nightmare-yourfuneralguy

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Randall L. Earl is about to be elected President  Elect Of The NFDA. This is truly a nightmare on Funeral Street. Earl is a central figure in the Illinois Funeral Directors Association Ponzi Scheme.(IFDA Preneed Trust-over 100 milliom dollars gone) Most folks are not aware of his role in this mess. As past President of the IFDA , his role in the Missuse of funds in the Museum of Funeral Customs,and involvement with IFDA Services in the scam make him an unsafe figure in anything Funeral.

The National Funeral Directors Association would do well not to Elect him President at the NFDA convention currently going on in New Orleans.

Earl is Named in all the IFDA Lawsuits and at the center of the scandal

Funeral Industry, Funeral News,Funeral Blog YourFuneralGuy

This is the opinion of Your Funeral Guy-Related articles

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6600 grave errors? At Arlington National Cemetery?-yourfuneralguy

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A Democratic senator is claiming there may been as many as 6,600 grave errors at Arlington National Cemetery.  This a sad story for the United States of America.

As government investigation of the ANC cemetery continues there is less tolerance for excuses.

Snippet:

Under hostile questioning from senators, two former top officials of Arlington National Cemetery acknowledged Thursday that they had been aware of problems for years with unmarked and mismarked graves and mishandled remains.

Former superintendent John C. Metzler said he accepted “responsibility for all my actions and for all of my team’s actions.”

Metzler and former assistant superintendent Thurman Higginbotham, who answered some questions but took the Fifth Amendment on most, had been subpoenaed to appear at the hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Operations subcommittee.

via www.kansascity.com

Funeral Industry|Funeral News|Funeral Blog by YOUR Funeral Guy

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• 6,600 Arlington Cemetery Graves May Be Labeled Wrong (huffingtonpost.com)
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CALL TO STOP more Burr Oak Cemetery Scandals!-Your Funeral Guy

THIS IS  CALL TO STOP FUTURE BURR OAK CEMETERY SCANDALS-July 19, 2010-special posting!

Congressman  BOBBY RUSH has been working  very hard to have this important Legislation considered again after he withdrew it on May 5, over his disagreement on exempting religious cemeteries. The Energy & Commerce Committee has scheduled the Rush bill for a vote this Wednesday, July 2ist 2010.

There is an entire website devoted to this legislation here

An in depth anaylisis of the current situation can be found here.

The Bereaved Consumers Bill Of Rights Act is moving through Congress.

H.R. 3655, the Bereaved Consumers  BILL of Rights Act—
BACK for Vote by Energy & Commerce

“YOU HAVE 30 HOURS TO ACT!”DO NOT LET MORE AMERICAN CONSUMERS BE TAKEN IN THEIR  MOMENT OF GREATEST GRIEF ANY MORE. Support cemetery reform!

Your Funeral Guy asks you to IMMEDIATELY do three things:1.) Phone the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee at 202-225-2927 and 202-225-3641—you need to call BOTH numbers—to express emphatic support of  H.R. 3655.

2.) Phone friends and relatives and ask them to IMMEDIATELY call the two phone numbers listed above to express their emphatic SUPPORT to H.R. 3655.

3.) Phone your Congressman and tell him/her to contact the Energy & Commerce Committee to express SUPPORT for H.R. 3655. (Contact info for your Congressman is easily found at www.house.gov at upper left hand corner at “Enter Your Zip Code.”

There are Funeral and Cemetery Scandals Every day in The USA. Many of them have been Covered at Your  Funeral  BLOGS. PLEASE TAKE THE ACTIONS OUTLINED ABOVE SO THE Bereaved Consumers bill of Rights Act CAN BE SENT TO THE FULL HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FOR A VOTE!

FUNERAL INDUSTRY, FUNERAL NEWS FUNERAL BLOG BY YOUR FUNERAL GUY.

Taking action on this now will prevent more tragedies like BURR OAK CEMETERY, EDEN MEMORIAL PARK, and the recent Arlington NATIONAL CEMETERY SCANDAL!

Prepaying a Funeral Causes Stress(Not Relief)-Your Funeral Guy

Many a Funeral Home and Funeral Corporation will tell you that prepaying a funeral will relieve the Stress of a funeral at the time of your death.

The news about preneed of late shows that this does not work.  Often times the Funeral Directors or other preneed professionals simply take your money.The fact that this can occur is additional funeral stress.

This was the case in:

1: the NPS , National Prearranged Services scandal in 2008,2.the Illinois Funeral Directors scandal revealed in 2009.3. The California Funeral Directors Association in 2010

Funeral Preplanning does work. Funeral Prepaying does not. This was conveniently left out of a recent, Dignity Memorial, Service Corporation International, blog post.

If you are finding the stress of planning your loved one’s funeral difficult to deal with, consider funeral pre planning for own funeral. This will allow those who love you to not have to deal with this level of stress and difficulty when you pass on. Talk to the funeral director about planning your own services once you are feeling more relaxed.

via dignitymemorialnc.com

Funeral Industry}Funeral News|Funeral Blog by your funeral Guy

All this is covered further in Rest In Peace Insiders Tips to the Low Cost less Stress Funeral by R.Brian Burkhardt

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

No Change One Year later, Burr Oak Cemetery Scandal-YourFuneralGuy

Sadly  one year after the Burr Oak Cemetery  Scandal not much has changed. Perpetua, Inc, the company responsible for the disaster is still in charge. The Four people arrested have not gone to court. The gate has been changed. There is no resolution of grief for the families involved. Recovered remains have not been identified or even tested, nor will they be.

Illinois does have a new cemetery Law  and possibly effective  Cemetery Oversight. (Click Here for More)National legislation, the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act, HR 3655 seems to be stalled in Congressional Committee.

Burr Oak is of special significance to African-Americans in Chicago. It was one of the first cemeteries to allow blacks to bury their loved ones, and many African-Americans still opt to have their relatives laid to rest there.

Burials resumed at the cemetery in November. But they have not all gone smoothly, said Sheriff Tom Dart, whose office uncovered the alleged grave-reselling scheme. Dart said his detectives found hundreds of human bones, but there is no way to identify the bodies.

“I feel confident the people who have been charged will be convicted,” Dart said. “But true justice, I don’t think (the families) will ever get the complete closure and sense of justice they deserve.”

Since the cemetery reopened, there have been more than 200 new burials, said Randy Sanderson, chief financial officer of Perpetua Holdings. He said there has been a steady stream of visitors since the cemetery reopened, and the staff helps relatives find gravesites, now that the cemetery has been better organized.

While it was closed, officials relabeled sections of the cemetery and placed new markers on the grounds.

“I believe we have come a long way in terms of assuring folks that their loved ones were not disturbed,” Sanderson said. “It may only be a handful of families that have some doubt. But hundreds of families have come here since November, and they leave here satisfied.”

Nevertheless, a sense of distrust and betrayal remains with some.

via www.chicagotribune.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

200 Mishandled at Arlington National Cemetery|Video|Your Funeral guy

Revealed here is a video on the Arlington National Cemetery Burial Scandal.

200 sets of remains have been mishandled at Arlington National Cemetery. The superintendent and assistant superintendent at the Cemetery have been fired.  Most Veterans Cemeteries are handled by the Department of Veterans Affairs-Not the United States Army as is the case with Arlington National Cemetery.

Funeral Industry| Funeral news| Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Continued Warning Avoid Prepaid, Preneed Funeral Plans|YourFuneralGuy

It is best to continue the warning to avoid Preneed, Prepaid Funeral Plans. Your Funeral Guy has been warning about the Perils of Preneed for years, it all began in Bloomington, Illinois when I heard a Preneed Director say “I am going in for the Preneed Kill”.

I wrote a chapter in the Book Rest in Peace Insiders Tips to he Low Cost Less Stress Funeral on this subject. Now reporters and bloggers around the world have taken to warning about the Prepaid Funeral.

The warning about Funeral Directors taking Your Money was sounded loudly by the Illinois Funeral Directors Association  Preneed Scandal and the larger National Prearranged Services(NPS) Scandal. See the Blog  Post “Who Shot Funeral Preneed?”

Snippet fromblog.seattlepi.com

“When I wrote about prepaid funeral plans, Lisa Carlson, executive director of the Funeral Ethics Organization, offered a comment saying that, in Washington state, consumers should NOT prepay for funerals unless they need to set aside assets for Medicaid eligibility.

If you move, die while traveling, or simply change your mind – from body burial to cremation, perhaps – you’ll get only 90 percent of your money back, plus interest but minus any administrative fees that were taken out, Carlson said. Better to put the money on a joint pay-on-death account with a survivor as beneficiary.

Anne Tergesen writing recently for the Family Finance section of The Wall Street Journal agrees.”

via blog.seattlepi.com

Funeral industry|Funeral News |Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Your Funeral Guy Exclusive:Service Corporation International Trial Underway

There is a trial taking  place in LA  concerning the Eden Memorial Park Cemetery Scandal.  It is a hearing for a preliminary injunction against the cemetery. At this California Cemetery it has been reported that over 500 graves were desecrated. This scandal was first revealed in September 2009.

The trial dates are May 13th and May 14th 2010. Your Funeral Guy has confirmed that the trial is taking place.

Up to 500 Graves desecrated here

This scandal, involving the Service Corporation International, (NYSE:SCI) Facility at Eden Memorial Park in California along with the Burr Oak Cemetery Scandal outside of Chicago led to Congressman Bobby Rush introducing the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act of 2009 in the US House of Representatives. The Bill HR 3655 is under consideration in the US Congress.

Eagan O’Malley & Avenatti LLP (“EOA”) is the law firm handling the class action Lawsuit.

The depositions completed thus far in this case have unfortunately confirmed our worst fears.  The evidence indicates there has been a pervasive practice of grave disturbances and desecrations at Eden Memorial Park Cemetery spanning an approximate 30 year time period.  A number of groundskeepers and supervisors have admitted under oath they routinely damaged and broke burial vaults containing human remains, sometimes as much as two to three times per week.  These groundskeepers and supervisors have further admitted that many times this would cause human remains, including bones, to spill out of the broken burial vaults.  According to the sworn testimony, the groundskeepers were often instructed by the cemetery to discard any remaining bones, pieces of burial shrouds or broken casket remnants in the cemetery dump located at the northern most section of the cemetery.

Because the practice was pervasive, the cemetery did not keep records of which burial vaults were broken.  Moreover, because the vaults are buried under ground, it is impossible to visually identify, from above the ground, which graves were disturbed.  There are, however, non-invasive procedures available to allow family members to identify broken vaults without disturbing the decedent’s grave and we are consulting with experts about the possible use of these procedures.

At our request, the Court has scheduled a preliminary injunction hearing or “mini-trial,” on May 13 and 14, 2010

via www.edenclaims.com

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