For Immediate Release: October 01, 2009
Source: NEMS Daily Journal
Unearthing facts
Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann's aggressive investigations and assessments
of alleged substantial criminality involving numerous pre-need burial and
perpetual-care cemetery contracts should help reassure Mississippians whose
stress about final arrangements has been pushed beyond the breaking point.
Scores turned out in Booneville on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss contracts
involving Prentiss Memorial Gardens in Baldwyn and Liberty Memorial Gardens in
Booneville, two cemeteries in receivership and under state protection. Pinecrest
Memorial Park in Calhoun City and Sunset Memorial Gardens in Laurel also are
involved in cases in which owners allegedly converted trust funds to their own
names, leaving the trusts virtually penniless and unable to fulfill commitments.
Few issues add more stress for individuals and families than complications about
funeral and burial arrangements. Those situations, fraught with emotion, also
have become increasingly expensive, an issue for careful planning with a need
for steady assurance that investments are safe.
The Booneville meetings, and another set for today in Calhoun City, will help the
receiver sell the cemeteries and stabilize, at least in part, the contracts of
stakeholders.
Knowing the potential assets in contracts will provide the receiver with helpful
information for marketing the properties.
Pam Weaver, director of communications in the secretary of state's office, said
the record-keeping of the former cemetery owners is so shoddy that it cannot be
determined precisely how many stakeholders are involved. As the holders of
contracts come forward, the contracts can be counted as potential value for new
owners.
The contractees have been encouraged to make regular payments to the receiver in
a secure state-administered trust until a new owner is secured.
The process makes no guarantee that stakeholders will be made whole at the end.
People with contracts for plots and perpetual care are more likely to realize
full benefit, but contracts that include burial vaults probably won't be fully
recoverable, officials said, even with a sale.
While the hearings in Booneville and the one today in Calhoun City are expected
to draw many stakeholders, the process will remain open for direct contact with
the secretary of state's office. The mailing address is P.O. Box 136, Jackson,
MS 39205. Telephone assistance is available by calling (601) 359-6361, and
documentation information can be e-mailed to
administrator@sos.state.ms.us.
A separate criminal investigation by the Attorney general's office is in process,
but the timetable is uncertain.
We believe a wider investigation, beyond the scope of the four cemeteries
involved in this process, should be undertaken to examine the whole pre-need
industry statewide, for reassurance, if nothing more.