With an action that caught some by surprise, the Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors voted to suspend future preneed examinations and accept recommendations on a new process. We have made several posts on the faults of the Missouri examination process, and now commend the Board on taking a bold action. The Missouri Legislature passed Senate Bill No. 1 to provide the State Board exam and enforcement powers to avoid another National Prearranged Services debacle. NPS operated years on the argument that consumer funds were not required to be deposited to trust until a preneed contract was paid in full. Then when forced to fund its trusts, NPS siphoned out consumer funds through insurance loans and policy surrenders. But, ten years after NPS’ collapse, the Board’s staff had not yet developed procedures for tracking consumer funds. With our next posts, we will explain our exam recommendations in detail.
