|
Washington Report
July 1999
ICFA Publishes New Model Guidelines
For State Laws and Regulations
by Robert M. Fells, Esq., General Counsel
The ICFA is publishing seven new guidelines in its series of Model Guidelines for State Laws and Regulations. The release of these guidelines will augment the 14 guidelines released last fall that were distributed to state and national trade associations and to other interested parties on request. (See the November 1998 "Washington Report" column for details). Five of the new guidelines were approved by the Board of Directors at its March meeting in Houston. These topics include Conversion of Prepaid Contract Trust Funds to Insurance, Criteria for Establishing a New Cemetery, Memorial Sales and Installation, Record Keeping Requirements, and Handling Human Remains in Conjunction with Final Disposition. Two additional guidelines, previously approved by the ICFA Board, will be included among the seven. These guidelines are Solicitation and the Consumer Guarantee Fund.
The ICFA commissioned a survey of preneed consumers and an economic study of minimum preneed trust deposit requirements that were included in the first edition of the Guidelines. The Board also approved housekeeping revisions to two previously published model guidelines, Insurance-Funded Prearrangements, and Endowment Care Trust Funds. The new and revised guidelines, together with an updated Glossary, are being mailed to all organizations and individuals who received the original 14 guidelines and related materials. Additional copies may be ordered by contacting ICFA headquarters.
The model guidelines were developed by the Government and Legal Task Force, a subcommittee of the ICFA Government and Legal Affairs Committee, chaired by Irwin W. Shipper, CCE. In his introduction to the Guidelines, Shipper noted that the Guidelines are intended to "help raise the level of debate concerning proposed state legislation from a largely anecdotal basis to one in which statistical and actuarial data will add substance to the discussion.... Although drafted by industry members, the goal throughout this project has been to combine a sensitivity to consumer protection issues with the need for all industry members, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, cemeteries, funeral homes, retail monument dealers, or crematories, to conduct their operations according to sound business principles."
Shipper emphasized that "these guidelines are advisory in nature and set out general concepts rather than precise statutory language. The ICFA is not recommending that the guidelines be codified into law as a whole. Instead, the guidelines are intended for consideration as a series of options to be selectively chosen by interested parties to address particular concerns." Most importantly, Shipper observed that "the guidelines represent compromise positions that some parties believe may go too far while others feel may not go far enough. However, the goal of the guidelines is to foster an informed debate of various issues of interest to industry members, to government regulators and to the general public."
Shipper described the chair of the Task Force subcommittee, Diane Kauffman, as "a real task master of the Task Force," noting that the group managed to complete in two years a work product that normally would have taken four or five years to produce.
Kauffman notes, "Since the first set of model guidelines was distributed near the end of last year, we have received much positive feedback from ICFA members. In one state, a punitive legislative proposal based on a few isolated incidents was substantially revised due to information provided in the guidelines. We believe that the new guidelines will continue the educational process to provide, where needed, the incentive for positive and constructive legislation and regulation."
The Model Guidelines Task Force is currently working on a third set of guideline topics. It is anticipated that the new proposed guidelines will be ready for Board review by the time of its fall meeting in early November.
Copyright ICFA 1999.
|
