The consensus seems to be that there should be one agency regulating Funerals and Cemeteries in Illinois. This is a good thing. The not so good thing is that it may be a while before the regulation is put into place. The Governor in the State wants the Illinois House Task Force on the Illinois Funeral Directors Association(IFDA)Ponzi Scheme to have hearings and report first.
For Cemetery and Funeral Regulation to Occur in Illinois-Put it all in one agency
From the State Journal Register in Springfield, IL:
“IT SEEMS to be almost unanimous: The Illinois comptroller should not be in charge of regulating the state’s cemeteries. Instead, regulatory authority should be placed solely in the hands of the state Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.”
Two disgraced funeral directors in Missouri have had their licenses revoked. Harold Warren Sr. and Harold Warren Jr. are no longer allowed to practice as funeral directors and embalmers. The two had been falsifying death certificates, not doing cremations, charging for them and leaving rotting bodies in the basement of their funeral home.
The two owned Warren Chapels in Columbia Missouri.
“The Missouri Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors…..found that the Warren Funeral Chapel collected payments for cremations that did not occur, allowed decaying bodies in unsanitary conditions, and falsified or failed to file death certificates.”
When doing a funeral always be sure who you are doing business with.
Funeral Industry|Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy-R Brian Burkhardt, Funeral Director,Illinois, Virginia
A Senator Roland Burris Investigator died in a car crash. Burris Pictured
A State of Illinois Investigator investigating the perjuries of Roland Burris has died in a car crash. There has been no comment from the Senator Roland Burris.. Burris is under state investigation in “pay for play” lying, perjury in his appointment by the now impeached Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.
Senator Roland Burris is also under investigation by the US Senate Ethics Commitee and others for lying, on Blago, and his lobbying for and licensing of the Illinois Funeral Directors Association.
It is clear by his own admission that he was hired as a lobbyist for the organization he licensed to manage the IFDA Preneed trust.
The State Funeral Directors Association lost, stole, misappropriated nearly 100 million dollars of the good folks funeral money in the State of Illinois.
When funeral preneed funds are misappropiated funeral costs are raised and consumers suffer.
“John Ruff, a key figure in the perjury investigation of U.S. Sen. Roland Burris was killed in an automobile accident Monday in Kendall County. He was 42-years-old”
A State of Illinois investigator of Roland Burris perjuries dead in an auto accident, no witnessed.
It is unclear how the Car crash death of the investigator will set the Burris investigations back.
Funeral Industry|Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy.
Burris Picture from Flickr under the Creative Commons licence from
Funeral Scandals need to be reported in order to save you money
Funeral scandals need to be reported because it helps the consumer come in under the average cost of a funeral.It also makes the consumer aware of ways they can keep funeral directors honest. Researching funeral scandal is quite a boring task . The bottom line is funeral scandals are good for you if are not a victim.
Service Corporation has had an extraordinary amount of scandals this year. There are excellent SCI Funeral Directors out there. Some are my friends. Reports in the press and other places indicate a corporate cultural problem at SCI. It may be in the core culture of SCI Management.
The problem some believe goes to the outdated business model as reflected in recent numbers. The problems need to continue to be reported and brought to public and funeral directors attention.
It will be a great day when the company corrects the problem or funeral directors through self or State Regulators make the corrections needed.
The Illinois funeral Directors Association Preneed Ponzi scheme (IFDA) and the National Prearranged Services fraud have been blogged about because reporting on preneed scandals makes folks aware of the perils of preneed. It helps people lower their
Dont throw your Money down the grave-Avoid funeral scandal.
funeral costs and come in under the average cost of a funeral.
For these reasons, it is best to make folks aware of reports in the press.
Roland Burris Has Declared his innocence in the ILLINOIS FUNERAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION SCAM
State of Illinois Senator Roland Burris has declared himself innocent in the Illinois Funeral Directors Ponzi Scheme. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen. It seems that Senator Roland Burris thinks that a mistep(Fraud?) 30 years ago may not apply to him today.
But the fact of the matter he lobbied for the Preneed Trust Scam in 2oo7. That is not 30 years ago. The fund which lost and misappropriated funeral funds has losses estimated between 59 and 100 million dollars.
*Burris said he had no improper role with a pre-need trust fund formerly overseen by the Illinois Funeral Directors Association.
“Burris was state comptroller when the IFDA was given authority to oversee the trust fund and later acted as lobbyist for the group.
After the trust fund ran into financial and legal difficulty, current Comptroller Dan Hynes stripped the IFDA of its trust fund role.
“I don’t have any reason to discuss that issue,” Burris said. “I was comptroller 30 years ago.”
Asked if he offered any solutions to problems with the fund when he was lobbying for the group, he said, “No, I was just giving them access to the government people. That’s all I was doing.”
Certainly in the name of honesty Roland Burris has reason to discuss this issue. Citizens of the state want him to talk on this Scandal. Illinois Senator Roland Burris refuses to declare his role or how he was paid by the scam, perpetuated by the Illinois Funeral Directors Association.
Funeral Industry| Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy
Burris Picture from flickr under the creative commons liscence from