I saved this NYT article for a rainy day. Finding Out Your Power of Attorney Is Powerless describes situations where families had a financial institution reject a power of attorney subsequent to the principal becoming incapacitated with dementia or Alzheimer’s.
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Preneed: A Pandora's Box of Problems
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FTC Workshop: The Funeral Rule and Price List Disclosures
In the new era of Zoom meetings, the Federal Trade Commission is holding a “public workshop” on September 7th to get further input on Funeral Rule changes that would require funeral homes to post their price lists on line. The…
Transition Plans and the Client with Dementia: Caregiver Challenges
A recent Guardian article offers excellent advice to caregivers for individuals with dementia. The author, Cynthia Dearborn, shared her experiences about caring for a father with vascular dementia. Cynthia described how her father’s short-term memory became severely impaired, along with…
End of Life Forums: Well Intended, but Sometimes Misleading
We find the AgingCare website to be a good source information for end of life planning. The website includes a forum for readers to post questions and offer their experiences. However, readers need to be careful when the forum is…
Missouri SB32: New Teeth for the State Board
One of the weaknesses of Chapter 436, Missouri’s preneed law, is that it provides the State Board few enforcement powers beyond disciplining the preneed seller’s license. There are plenty of examples of preneed sellers obstructing the State Board’s efforts to…
Missouri SB32: The Preneed Audit Fund
With this post we will examine the new “Preneed Audit Fund” that SB32 proposes to create. Missouri funeral homes are already quite familiar with the state contract fee that was authorized in 2009 by Senate Bill No. 1. Per that…
Missouri SB32: A New Audit Direction
With our next few posts we will dive deeper into SB32, the Missouri preneed legislation intended to provide the State Board a new audit direction and some new enforcement tools. Our first issue will be the change in course on…
Missouri Preneed Legislation: Time to Follow the Money
It would seem that the Missouri Legislature has grown impatient with the funeral industry’s efforts to regulate preneed. New legislation, Senate Bill No. 32, would establish a two tier approach to preneed oversight. This law would create a threshold…
Missouri Funeral Legislation: Lowering the Bar
The current shortage of qualified workers has caught up with the death care industry. Funeral home owners are finding it difficult to fill open positions. Salary demands are rising, and industries competing for death care workers can offer perks that…
Funeral Rule Revisions: Last Chance for Comments
Most of industry leaders, including the NFDA, seem resigned to the reality that the Funeral Rule will be amended to require the posting of price lists on funeral home websites in some form or fashion. But the FTC extension of…