The cases that reshaped this industry’s regulation were not a run of unrelated bad actors. The same small set of controls failed each time — and the regulators who followed are no longer asking to see a policy binder. They are asking whether every decedent in your care can be physically located, and whether the records reconcile.
24 questions across 6 domains. This is information, not legal advice, and it is not an audit — it is the set of questions worth being able to answer before somebody else asks them.
Can you show where every decedent in your care is, right now?
Convicted · Colorado · Return to Nature Funeral Home
At least 190 bodies were never cremated or buried while families were told the work had been done. No record tied a decedent to a location.
4 questions
Is every case tied to a signed authorization from the person legally entitled to give it?
4 questions
Is anything sitting longer than you would be willing to explain?
4 questions
Does the certificate say what actually happened?
Convicted · Colorado · Return to Nature Funeral Home
Dispositions were certified that had not taken place. The record described the intended outcome rather than the real one.
4 questions
Is the money where the law says it is?
Convicted · Michigan · Former Huron County funeral director
Sentenced in May 2026 for a preneed embezzlement scheme: $1,111,165.77 in restitution to 204 victims.
4 questions
If your license were suspended tomorrow, where does everyone in your care go?
4 questions
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Twenty-four questions across the six domains above, your answers kept on your device, and a printable list of exactly what to go and find. Members only — everything you have read up to here stays free.
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