Close Close
Sign In
Newsletters
Popular Financial Topics Discover relevant content from across the suite of ALM legal publications From the Industry More content from ThinkAdvisor and select sponsors Investment Advisor Issue Gallery Read digital editions of Investment Advisor Magazine Tax Facts Get clear, current, and reliable answers to pressing tax questions
Luminaries Awards
Podcast Center Video Center Webcasts Resource Center Events
About ThinkAdvisor Contact Us Advertise With Us Asset & Logo Licensing Sitemap Terms of Service Privacy Policy Copyright © 2024 ALM Global, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
ThinkAdvisor

Life Health > Life Insurance

Iowa Seeks Oversight Over Failed Preneed Funeral Business

By Allison Bell

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

Officials at the Iowa Insurance Division are going to court in an effort to get control of a preneed funeral services provider that is no longer in operation.

Iowa Insurance Commissioner Doug Ommen recently filed a request for receivership over Joyce Funeral Home Inc. and Joyce-Alesch Funeral Home of Emmetsburg, Iowa, with a state court in Polk County, Iowa.

(Related: Funeralwise.com Aims New Tool at Final Expense Planners)

A preneed funeral services provider in Iowa is supposed to use a trust fund to support funeral, burial and cremation promises, and it may also use life insurance, annuities or other arrangements to support the obligations, according to Ommen’s receivership request.

The provider is supposed to put at least 80% of all payments made in the trust, officials say in the receivership request.

Joyce Funeral Home and Joyce-Alesch Funeral Home appear to be insolvent, and the contact person for those funeral homes seems to have moved to California, officials say.

The funeral homes’ bank account was closed in July due to lack of funds, and two related financial accounts maintained negative balances, officials say.

Ommen is asking the court to name the Iowa division the receiver for all of the funeral homes’ preneed funeral accounts, preneed funeral services, and associated trust funds or assets, including life insurance policies and annuity contracts.

Iowa division officials say they have already tried to contact the Iowa residents who may have relationships with Joyce Funeral Home or Joyce-Alesch Funeral Home.

Any Iowa residents who may have preneed agreements with the funeral homes and have not been contacted should contact the Iowa division, officials say.

Resources

A copy of the receivership request announcement, and a link to the Iowa attorney general’s receivership court filing, are available here.

A form Iowa residents can use to contact the Iowa division about preneed funeral arrangement concerns is available here.

— Read Insurers Report Mixed Preneed Product Results, on ThinkAdvisor.

— Connect with ThinkAdvisor Life/Health on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Allison Bell

Think_Allison

NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.