If It's Not BurrOak...Don't Fix It

As distasteful and horrifying as it is to contemplate, the 2 most recently reported cemetery scandals in IL are just the newest kids on a seemingly very large and polluted block. Quick review, Burr Oak Cemetery was the first major cemetery headline out of IL this month. Reportedly, after being tipped off by an informant...an employee who is reported to have known about the alleged practice of digging up caskets and either just tossing them into an adjacent lot or double stacking them into another plot, but reportedly came forward after he was threatened with being fired...the Cook County Sheriff's department now gets the honor of investigating about 5000 graves.

The second major cemetery headline in IL this month was that of Mt. Glenwood Cemetery, where a delivery driver reportedly found a bone in the storage area, which was determined by the Cook County Medical Examiner to be human.

Almost makes you forget about the bodies, both in caskets and cremated remains, found in the defunct Serenity Gardens Funeral Home in Gary, IN just a mere 2 months ago. You see, in the Gary case, while I certainly cannot speak for them, it seemingly never occurred to "regulators" that they might want to "regulate" and actually step foot into a funeral home after the owner's license was revoked.

Perhaps if the "regulators" in IL had "regulated", these outrageous atrocities possibly could have avoided...or at the very least limited in scope?

According to a rep from the IL Cemetery Care and Burial Trust Dept., it had received complaints on Burr Oak Cemetery in recent years, such as poor upkeep, sunken or tilting gravestones, unmanageable roads, drainage problems and tall weeks. And, both the Chicago and the Northern IL Better Business Bureaus gave Burr Oak Cemetery an "F" rating, with Steve Bernas, BBB President and CEO, being quoted in the Chicago Tribune as noting 5 complaints registered against Burr Oak Cemetery in the last 3 years. Personally, if true as reported by various sources, that might be enough to spark a "hmmm" moment in the mind of regulators. If not, then perhaps the reported 5 regulatory citations against Burr Oak Cemetery regarding sales from burial plots since 2001, or the reported citation in 2007 for failing to deposit funds from burial plot sales into trust within the mandated 30 days.

Now...I'm no "regulator", but I'm leaning towards thinking that with Burr Oak Cemetery, the writing might have been on the wall, especially in light of reports that these activities had allegedly been going on for up to 4 years...in large, bold, red letters posted on the side of the James R. Thompson Center.


Let's not stop there...I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I want to perpetuate how obvious that writing possibly was...NOT to persecute any individual or government body...but to make the point that ONLY YOU CAN PROTECT YOU. A company called Perpetua Holdings of IL reportedly owns Burr Oak Cemetery, which it purchased in 2001. It also reportedly owns Cedar Park Cemetery in Calumet Park, IL, which it purchased in 1997. At the time of the purchase of Burr Oak, according to statements in the Chicago Tribune, a former Perpetua employee, James E. Becker, wrote to the IL Comptroller's office alerting and warning of the mismanagement of cemetery maintenance trust fund at Cedar Park Cemetery and urged the comptroller's office to investigate, the letter stating that the money was "in jeopardy". Alan Henry, a spokesman from the comptrollers office, issued a statement noting that after receiving this warning letter, the office "aggressively moved to investigate the trusting practice at both Cedar Park Cemetery and Chicago's Burr Oak Cemetery". Subsequently, Perpetua took corrective actions, "which included repayment by Perpetua to the trust fund". It was reported that Perpetua made about $400,000 in illegal withdrawals from the trust...with the word "trust" very lightly interpreted...but since they had not taken the interest on the stolen money, they were required to repay the trust fund $171,000, funds that were paid at the time of the Burr Oak Cemetery sale to Perpetua and the great State of Illinois approved the sale.

The Mt. Glenwood Cemetery wall writing seems less in your face...but there is also less information available as it is still fresh meat...pardon the pun. But, approximately a week before the human bone was found, 3 individuals filed lawsuits in Cook County Circuit Court on July 20th against Mt. Glenwood Cemetery, stating "unauthorized tampering with gravesites, including the apparent removal of a headstone", per court documents posted on the Chicago Tribune website and reported by CNN.

Now, in what I believe to be usual government fashion...politicians are seemingly flocking to save the day! Word from Gov. Pat Quinn's office was that the Governor issued an executive order launching a 9-member Cemetery Oversight Task Force to review IL regulations and laws relative to other states and provide recommendations by September 15. IL State Comptroller Dan Hynes' office issued a statement noting that the office immediately froze the approximate $6M in trust assets held in IL by Perpetua and is seeking to revoke the license of both cemeteries owned by the firm.

All big headline grabbers...interesting to me in light of the recent announcements in the IL Governors race, with Hynes announcing that he will seek election as Governor running against Quinn, among others. The way I see it...if a politician can make headlines declaring how they saw consumers (a/k/a taxpayer and/or voter) being hurt and sprang into action to stop whatever practice was in question and they saved and protected the little guy...that's a pretty good news day during an election cycle. Except...if reports are accurate, it would seem that to some degree both the Governor's office and the Comptroller's office, as well as potentially other departments, had some to potentially all of this information, dating back to 2001, and seemingly no regulatory or governmental initiative was launched to take action TO PROTECT THE IL CONSUMER. It seems to have taken a travesty of the most horrendous kind to prompt nimble regulatory attention.

In my experience, I have found that I do not and cannot rely on the trusty and loyal cemetery sales staff, the warm and compassionate funeral home sales staff, or forbid...the government...to protect consumers from funeral and burial industry fraud and/or malpractice.

Contact Funeral Planners Inc. for a free initial consultation and begin taking the steps to pre-plan your funeral and burial decisions. We can and do help. Learn more at www.FuneralPlannersInc.com or call 219. 728. 1290.

copyright Funeral Planners Inc. 2009

Logically Speaking...Let's Talk About Price

Before I begin a quick analysis of the unquestionable and deplorable pricing structures forced upon widows and orphans, let me first make the point very quickly by mentioning a job posting I saw today (verbatim...the bold and caps are exactly as written)...

"2 Exp. cemetery and funeral service SALES PEOPLE needed. 401k, health insurance, training pay. Career position. HIGH INCOME POSSIBILITY. Recession Proof. 100% comm."

I see nothing about a compassionate individual wanted, or a thoughtful person to help grieving families and friends through this time of emotional and financial chaos. I see SALES PEOPLE...HIGH INCOME POSSIBILITY...100% commission. I see a flawed business model, with a target client base of grieving and irrational widows and children, with the focus on earnings potential based on how much you can sell them while they are not thinking clearly.

I understand that funeral homes and commercial cemeteries are for-profit entities...and I highly encourage a free market society. But, when the recruiting pitch is to make as much money by taking advantage of those who are emotionally distraught and not in a frame of mind to think through financial decisions...I believe that is just plain wrong, disingenuous and quite frankly, shameful.

I recently compared the funeral services from 2 funeral homes in NW Indiana, 1 in Elmhurst, IL, 1 in CA and 1 in NY, comparing a variety of regions across the US. NOT including a casket, cemetery plot or outer burial container, which I will discuss next, the range in expenses JUST for the funeral arrangements was $3,850 to $5,802...or a range in over $1,900 for the EXACT SAME SERVICES AND ARRANGEMENTS. Mind you that the 2 NW Indiana funeral homes are about 2 blocks away from each other! But, who thinks about shopping around when you've just lost your partner, your parent or your child?

You see, this is how it works...funeral homes charge an up front Basic Service Fee, which includes things like a "counseling fee"...paid no doubt to the 100% commission SALESPERSON...securing permits, filing death certificates and coordinating with the cemetery. It also includes an allocation to property taxes, overhead, personnel, etc...normal operating expenses of any business.

Everything else is itemized. Embalming generally averaged around $500, dressing and casketing the body averaged $300, visitation ranged from $400 for 4 hours on a weekday after noon to $1,175 for a full day and does not include a memorial or funeral service, which tacked on another average of about $500. Then you add an average of $300 for the transfer of the remains to the funeral home, average $200 for the hearse, average $250 for the utility/flower vehicle and $200 for a lead car (not a limo, which tacks on another couple hundred dollars).

Then you are pushed to purchase a guest register for about $40, memorial cards or folders for about $50, acknowledgement or thank you cards for about $40, and other little special touches that the SALESPERSON is sure would make the deceased feel special and important.

Mind you that this does not include the "cash advance items" like the obituary, in some cases the death certificate if it is not specifically included in the Basic Service Fee, flowers, and other items that, once again, the SALESPERSON is confident the deceased would have wanted, so how could you possibly not demonstrate this last show of love. A crucifix would really be a nice touch for only $38 and the pallbearers would look so elegant with matching gloves for $18.

So, without a casket, outer burial container or cemetery plot, the average cost of this 5 diversified sampling of funeral homes is $4,481.80.

According to Forbes in a 2005 publication, the average nationwide plot sells for $4,000. Outer burial vaults (although some areas still allow only liners) will run you on average $800 - $1,200 and a casket will run you on average from $2,000 to $6,000.

So, only using averages, the traditional at-need funeral service will cost you $4,481.80 + $4,000 + (low side outer burial vault) $1,000 + $3,000 (very low casket estimate)...for a combined total of $12,481.80...a pretty nice commission earned on that one, fur sure! In fact, using these low ballpark averages for the latter 3 items, if a funeral home ONLY conducted 50 at-need traditional funerals per year, at $12,481.80, and paid the SALESPERSON an 8% commission, that would equal an income just shy of $50,000/year. If the funeral home conducted 100 at-need traditional funerals per year, that income doubles to just under $100,000/year. Pretty nice chuck of change from manipulating the distraught.

This does not have to be the case for you. There are so many ways to save money while having a dignified, respectful funeral...the key is educating yourself, knowing your rights, making the decisions in advance, and documenting them. Somebody will have to make the decisions...it can be you or you can punt it to your loved ones.

Be wise...Be prepared...

Please learn more at www.FuneralPlannersInc.com or contact us at 219. 728. 1290. We can help.

Copyright 2009 Funeral Planners Incorporated