Ghoulish con men--prepaid funeral scam

[SaintLouieWoman]

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/new...C?OpenDocument

Prepaid funeral firm halts sales after Missouri probes practices

By Jerri Stroud
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

06/06/2008

A St. Louis-based provider of prepaid burial and funeral services has agreed to halt sales of its products under a deal worked out with the Missouri Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors.

The company, National Prearranged Services Inc., agreed to suspend sales indefinitely after a preliminary investigation by the Missouri Division of Professional Registration and questions raised by Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon's office about the handling of NPS's deposit and trust accounts.

Emily Kampeter, a spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions and Professional Regulation, said the department sought the agreement so it could further investigate the situation and to protect consumers who had paid for funeral services.

National Prearranged Services' website says the firm is based in St. Louis, but it doesn't give an address. The local phone number listed apparently is for a fax machine.

NPS is affiliated with Lincoln Memorial Life Insurance Co. of Austin, Texas. Lincoln's main business is selling small life insurance policies used to back up the burial contracts.

In a letter to the Division of Professional Registration dated Tuesday, the attorney general says that deposits for burial contracts sold in December and January apparently weren't made. The letter says it's unclear whether NPS failed to make the deposits or if the trustee, St. Louis-based Bremen Bank & Trust Co., failed to manage them properly. The letter recommends that the division undertake an audit of NPS.

Bank officials couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.

According to a "probable cause" finding by the attorney general's office, the minimum required deposits for the two months would be more than $1 million. The finding is based in part on materials provided by an examiner with the finance and professional regulation department.
snip

In the newspaper it talked about these ghouls showing up on people's doorsteps without an appointment, insisting to be let inside to sell those prepaid funeral contracts. They claim that it's almost impossible to find them now.
This brought back terrible memories. I had an aunt, a very odd person, who died and was buried in the cemetery involved. A couple days after, one of these ghoul salesreps turned up at my mom's house. She was in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's and hadn't gotten along well with the newly deceased aunt. The rep from the funeral parlor said that the aunt had directed her to go to my mom's house. My mom freaked out. I had to make one of my many protective calls for my mom. I called that place and told them that the next call would be from the cops if they didn't leave my mom alone.
Can't believe how inventive people get to try to bilk money from the gullible and the elderly.

[megimoo]

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/new...C?OpenDocument

In the newspaper it talked about these ghouls showing up on people's doorsteps without an appointment, insisting to be let inside to sell those prepaid funeral contracts. They claim that it's almost impossible to find them now.
This brought back terrible memories. I had an aunt, a very odd person, who died and was buried in the cemetery involved. A couple days after, one of these ghoul salesreps turned up at my mom's house. She was in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's and hadn't gotten along well with the newly deceased aunt. The rep from the funeral parlor said that the aunt had directed her to go to my mom's house. My mom freaked out. I had to make one of my many protective calls for my mom. I called that place and told them that the next call would be from the cops if they didn't leave my mom alone.
Can't believe how inventive people get to try to bilk money from the gullible and the elderly.

There is a whole industry that follows death notices all over the country and try and market any number of funeral related things from tomb stones to coffins.

They do the same things when wealthy people list their beloved pets as having passed on .Some pet cemetery's in ,where else but,California market tombstones with inserts for pet pictures and some even bark with solar powered recorded pet sounds several times a day.

Several very elaborate plots have benches arranged for the grieving pet owner to sit and listen to the recording of their dead dogs barking !