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Independent · for funeral, cemetery & supplier professionals

Start with your line of work.

Nine lines of work, one dated record. Pick yours: what reaches you lights up, with its source and how long you have.

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Line of work

Every line of work

The dated record.

18 dated entries, each linked to its source.

Deadlines first, soonest at the top; then the rest, newest first.

  1. Oct 1, 2026Elizabeth Dole ActWindow end dateU.S.

    Expanded VA burial allowance for home-hospice deaths, July 2025 to October 1, 2026 — families must apply

    Source: VA · window to Oct 2026 (opens in a new tab)

  2. Jan 1, 2027HB26-1258Duty start dateColorado

    Colorado's class 5 felony exposure begins — every decedent needs a custody record that proves where they are

    Source: CO General Assembly · 2026 (opens in a new tab)

  3. Mar 16, 2027HB 4077Duty start dateMichigan

    Paper death certification ends — every Michigan certifier must file through EDRS

    Source: MI Legislature · HB 4077 (opens in a new tab)

  4. Aug 2026CANAPublishedMichigan

    Human composting: legal in 14 states — Michigan has authorized neither it nor alkaline hydrolysis

    Source: CANA · Aug 2026 (opens in a new tab)

  5. Jul 1, 2026HB 4695In forceIllinois

    Illinois crematory inspections are in force — SOPs, waste plans, and the 30-day notice are inspectable now

    Source: IL HB 4695 · in force (opens in a new tab)

  6. Jun 23, 2026SB 1060IntroducedMichigan

    SB 1060 would repeal the cemetery/funeral-home wall — MCL 339.1812, in force since 1980

    Source: MI Legislature · SB 1060 (opens in a new tab)

  7. Jun 4, 2026HB26-1258SignedColorado

    Colorado raises abuse of a corpse to a class 5 felony from January 1, 2027

    Source: CO General Assembly · 2026 (opens in a new tab)

  8. May 11, 2026Kaufman sentencingSentencedMichigan

    Huron County preneed embezzlement: 85–240 months, $1,111,165.77 restitution to 204 families

    Source: MI AG · Kaufman sentencing (opens in a new tab)

  9. Mar 17, 2026HB 4077SignedMichigan

    PA 3 of 2026: paper death certification ends in Michigan on March 16, 2027

    Source: MI Legislature · HB 4077 (opens in a new tab)

  10. Mar 2026Return to NatureSentencedColorado

    Return to Nature: 240 and 216 months for at least 190 mishandled bodies — restitution $1,070,413.74

    Source: DOJ · D. Colo. (opens in a new tab)

  11. Oct 2025HB 4879–4934IntroducedMichigan

    HB 4879–4934 filed: a 55-bill licensing-reform package — repeals, cut mandates, broader reciprocity

    Source: MI Legislature · HB 4879–4934 (opens in a new tab)

  12. Jun 10, 2025SB 157PassedMichigan

    SB 157 pet-cemetery regulation clears the Senate 19–18 — then stalls in House committee

    Source: MI Legislature · SB 157 (opens in a new tab)

  13. Jan 17, 2025Funeral RuleIn forceU.S.

    Funeral Rule violations now cost up to $53,088 each — the 2025 adjustment holds for 2026

    Source: FTC · 2025 adjustment (opens in a new tab)

  14. Before Jan 2025

    1. 2023AnnouncedMichigan

      Park Lawn divests 72 cemeteries and 11 funeral homes to Everstory Partners — ≈$70M across four states

      Source: Park Lawn · 2023 (opens in a new tab)

    2. Dec 2022AnnouncedMichigan

      Rollings Funeral Service enters Michigan — RG & GR Harris, three Detroit-area homes, founding name kept

      Source: Rollings · Dec 2022 (opens in a new tab)

    3. Nov 2022PublishedU.S.

      The FTC opens review of the Funeral Rule — online price posting on the table, nothing yet required

      Source: FTC docket · open since 2022 (opens in a new tab)

    4. 2022PublishedU.S.

      Surveyed: 18% of 1,046 funeral homes with websites post their prices online

      Source: FCA/CFA · 2022 (opens in a new tab)

    5. Mar 2015SignedNew Jersey

      New Jersey's monument dealers lose in court, win in the legislature — and the statute survives federal challenge

      Source: NJ record · 2013–2016 (opens in a new tab)

Slow forces

What moves without a date.

These pressures have no date, so they are not on the line. Pick a line of work to see which way each one pushes, in the map's own words.

Across the table

Where one trade’s gain is another’s cost — what is in dispute, and what is not.

Finished-goods tariffs versus input tariffs

Casket & urn makers · Funeral homes · Monument dealers

The sides: Favored: manufacturers, on finished-goods tariffs only. Harmed: funeral homes, manufacturers, and monument dealers, on raw materials. Insulated: cemeteries and consolidators.

In dispute

Not tariffs in general — the line between a tariff on a finished competing product and a tariff on a raw material. The two run in opposite directions and are routinely discussed as one policy.

Not in dispute

Nobody in this industry benefits from raw-material tariffs. The apparent industry-wide split narrows to a single distinction once the measure is read precisely.

Cremation as growth versus cremation as decline

Crematories · Green & alternative · Cemeteries · Casket & urn makers · Monument dealers · Funeral homes

The sides: Favored: crematories and alternative-disposition providers. Harmed: cemeteries, casket manufacturers, monument dealers. Ambiguous: funeral homes, which sell both.

In dispute

No bill proposes cremation — the collision surfaces indirectly, in siting rules, emissions jurisdiction, and alternative-disposition legalization, where one side's expansion is the other's substitution.

Not in dispute

The direction of the trend. No segment contests it; they contest whether legislation should smooth or slow it.

Who controls the foundation

Cemeteries · Monument dealers

The sides: Favored: cemetery operators, who retain the foundation-preparation revenue the rules permit. Harmed: monument dealers, who bear the fees the rules restrict.

In dispute

A narrow band: whether a specific fee is legitimate cost recovery or a discriminatory charge that exists to make an outside monument uneconomic. Both sides accept the same rules and disagree about where a given fee falls within them.

Not in dispute

The rule itself. Neither side is asking to change it — the fight is over enforcement, which is not self-executing federally.

Who may sell a casket

Casket & urn makers · Funeral homes · Consolidators

The sides: Favored by restriction: the dominant manufacturers, and indirectly the license-holding providers. Harmed by restriction: direct-sale manufacturers and third-party retailers, who fall outside the Rule's protections entirely. Outside the question: monument dealers, and the urn side of manufacturing.

In dispute

Whether a state may reserve casket sales to licensed funeral directors at all — struck down in the Sixth and Fifth Circuits, upheld in the Tenth.

Not in dispute

The Funeral Rule's own provisions. The casket price list and the ban on handling fees for outside caskets are settled federal law; no segment contests them.

Rules in force

  • Act 251 of 1968 · MCL 456.536 · Michigan

    The 15% monthly deposit to perpetual care

    Every month, at least 15% of the prior month's proceeds from sales of burial, entombment and columbarium rights must be deposited with the trustee of the irrevocable endowment and perpetual-care trust. The Cemetery Commissioner has free access to the books during business hours, and a deficit found on audit carries a penalty.

    Our advice for cemeteries and deathcare operators: Reconcile the deposit against last month's rights sales, not against last month's revenue — and keep perpetual care separate from preneed merchandise and services. Selling more preneed does not repair a perpetual-care shortfall; they are different funds with different rules.

  • HB 4695 · Public Act 104-501 · Illinois

    Crematory inspections, written procedures, and the 30-day notice

    The Comptroller may inspect crematory records and premises. Every crematory authority must maintain a standard operating procedure and a medical-waste management plan, and must give notice where remains have not been cremated 30 days after delivery.

    Our advice for funeral homes and deathcare operators: There is no runway left on this one — it took effect July 1, 2026. If you cremate in Illinois, your written SOP and waste plan are inspectable today, and the 30-day clock is already running on anything in your care.

  • 16 CFR 453 · Federal

    The Funeral Rule — itemised pricing, on request

    Accurate itemised prices in person and by telephone, no handling fee on a casket bought elsewhere, and no embalming without prior authorization. Online posting is NOT required — no amendment has been finalised, whatever you may have read.

    Our advice for funeral homes and deathcare operators: Have someone call your own firm and ask for a price. Compare what they are told against your printed general price list, line by line. That gap is exactly what the FTC's telephone sweeps find.

The record

Where the record stops.

18 dated entries — Michigan 9 · Colorado 3 · Illinois 1 · New Jersey 1 · U.S. 4 — each linked to its source. It isn’t every law in fifty states: the watch starts in Michigan and widens one line of work at a time.

Pick a line of work — at the top of the page — and this page reads for it: one thing to do, why it’s winnable, the worry it answers, and what we can’t confirm yet.

Founding members get the record for their line of work as it lands, dated and sourced.

Claim your founding seat