Archive for the ‘Merrill Lynch’ Category

No Lower Cost Funeral Today.

No Lower Cost Funeral Today.

Breaking News-Friday January 30th 2009 As news organizations on the  east cost were headed home the Illinois Funeral Directors Association issued a statement on a class action lawsuit by Funeral Establishments in the State of Illinois.

The Statement did not say too much. But then most public statements about lawsuits never do. This much we do know:

1.The lawsuit is centered around the license of the IFDA to manage the IFDA Preneed Trust.

2. The IFDA short statement defense was that the Comptroller in the State of Illinois renewed the license to manage the IFDA Preneed Trust Fund.

3. The Comptroller who issued the license was Senator Roland Burris.

5. The Comptroller who renewed the license 20x was Senator Roland Burris.

6. The current comptroller took away the license of the Illinois Funeral Directors association to manage the fund because the license should not have been issued in the first place.

7. The IFDA admitted to World Net Daily that  Senator Burris  was a lobbyist for them in 2007.

8. The IFDA has reported that the total Loss in the fund to be 59 million USD.

9. Merrill Lynch Bank and Trust was named the trustee after being an adviser to the IFDA management of the fund.

10. Merrill Lynch was purchased out by the the Bank of a America after a bailout by the US Treasury.

IFDA Lawsuit Statement came during the wake of Blagojevich impeachment and his political funeral.

“A Class Action suit has been filled by Virginia H. Dunkle and Maria Dusembery for the benefit of Dr. Ludimilla Petrauskas. We have issued the following statement concerning this action: “The IFDA Preneed Trust began operating in 1980 under a license issued by the Illinois Office of the Comptroller which regularly renewed the license over the course of more than 25 years. At this juncture, our counsel is reviewing this legal filing to determine the most appropriate course of action to defend our Association, our members and the truth.”

Now if you followed all that good for you. Lesson: stay away from preneed funds, banks and politicians, US Treasury,  Funeral Organizations and lawyers who say the “truth.”

No Lower Cost Funeral Today.

Blog by Your Funeral Guy.

FYI: IFDA E-mailed me lawsuit Information.


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Saturday, January 31st, 2009

No Lower Cost Funeral here: Illinois Funeral Homes and consumers Whipsawed!

The Preneed Scandals with the Illinois Funeral Directors Association and the National Prearranged Services (NPS) have caused Illinois Funeral Directors to be whipsawed.

This has happened to hundreds of Funeral Homes across the state. From the IFDA itself on Merrill Lynch take over as trustee of the IFDA Preneed Trust.

“We are hopeful that a plan can be fashioned to restore earnings to funeral directors over the long term.”–Earnings from the IFDA Preneed Trust have proven a great loss to funeral directors in the State of Illinois.

With the new valuation “mark to market” in the Merrill Lynch agreement. The loss of preneed commissions to funeral directors is quite high.  You can be quite sure that the cost in traditional funerals is being passed on to  Illinois consumers.

The funeral homes in Illinois who went with  NPS/Lincoln definetly were whipsawed as well. The funeral home owners here are receiving no commissions from these folks and may be a good portion of the folks funerals as well. This according to a preneed lawyer. It is more than obvious that these costs also go to the consumer looking for a lower cost funeral.

Have Illinois funeral purchasers been whipsawed by these scandals? It appears so.

Blog Presented by Your Funeral Guy, Author, Funeral director


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Monday, December 15th, 2008

The Funeral Industry had a bailout on Dec. 5th 2008. Like all bailouts there is a condition.

Merill Lynch was purchased by the Bank of America. Recently the IFDA Preneed Trust was taken on by Merrill Lynch Bank and Trust. Merrill Lynch became the trustee of the IFDA Preneed Trust on November 3rd, 2008.

The IFDA Mismanaged the IFDA Preneed Trust and the license was removed by Comptroller of the State of Illinois and taken away from the Illinois Funeral Directors Association. The Reason for this was a 40 Million Loss of funds in the IFDA Preneed Trust. This happened in February 2008.

In November I questioned the wisdom of Merrill Lynch as trustee. Merrill Lynch has long had history of being invovled with troubled assets.

Bank of America was bailed out by the US Treasury to the tune of 25 Billion USD.

If Bank of America apprroves the IFDA Preneed Trust, trustee agreement with Merrill Lynch the almost 300 million trust fund will be bailed out. This means the funeral industry got a bailout via Bank of America and Merril Lynch. The US TREASURY BEING THE ORIGINAL SOURCE.

If Bank of America disapproves the Trust Ageement, The IFDA Preneed Trust Mismanagement Debacle (by the Illinois Funeral Directors Association) will continue and the funeral industry did not get its bailout. Yes they (IFDA) may have to find yet another trustee.

Funeral preneed can be quite complex, buyer beware of these tricky and deceptive funeral expenses.

Your Funeral Guy, Funeral Director, Author, Blogger.


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Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
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