INTRODUCEDMI
Who has what at stake.
Laws that reshape this industry are written in public, months before most of it finds out. This map is who they reach: nine segments, seven forces acting across them, and the four points where segments that ought to be allies discover their interests diverge.
The full desk
Your whole industry, on one desk.
The homepage shows the sample. This is the instrument: the whole dated record, the session clock, and the standing orders — matched to your line of work, every entry linked to its primary source.
Your corner — fill in two · no account
The Board
Michigan worked first — the watch expands
Choose a line of work and a state to pull your corner into the light.
The tape
On the desk — the latest of the record
SIGNEDCO
Colorado raises abuse of a corpse to a class 5 felony from January 1, 2027
SENTENCEDMI
Huron County preneed embezzlement: 85–240 months, $1,111,165.77 restitution to 204 victims
The whole board — always running
SIGNEDMar 17, 2026 · MI
PA 3 of 2026: from March 17, 2027, Michigan's medical certification of death must be filed online
SENTENCEDMar 2026 · CO
Return to Nature: 240 and 216 months for at least 190 mishandled bodies — restitution $1,070,413.74
STATUSJan 2026 · MI
Human composting: legal in 14 states as of late 2025 — Michigan is not one of them
INTRODUCEDSep 11, 2025 · MI
HB 4879–4934 filed: a 56-bill licensing-reform package — repeals, cut mandates, broader reciprocity
PASSED CHAMBERJun 10, 2025 · MI
SB 157 pet-cemetery regulation clears the Senate 19–18 — then stalls in House committee
IN FORCEJan 17, 2025 · US
Funeral Rule violations now cost up to $53,088 each — the 2025 adjustment holds for 2026
The session clock
The dated record in four lanes — dated deadlines stand above the ruler; what is in motion, in force, and enforced sits below it. Every mark carries the figure its source states; your picks light in your segment's ink.
- Deadlines: Elizabeth Dole Act — Jul 2025 – Oct 2026 · Oct 1, 2026; HB26-1258 — class 6 → class 5 · Jan 1, 2027; HB 4077 — PA 3 of 2026 · Mar 17, 2027
- In motion: SB 157 — 19–18 vote · Jun 10, 2025; HB 4879–4934 — 56 bills · Sep 11, 2025; HB 4077 — PA 3 of 2026 · Mar 17, 2026; HB26-1258 — class 5 felony · Jun 4, 2026; SB 1060 — since 1980 · Jun 23, 2026
- In force: Funeral Rule — $53,088 each · Jan 17, 2025; BioCycle — 14 states · Jan 2026
- Enforced: Return to Nature — ≥190 bodies · Mar 2026; Kaufman sentencing — $1,111,165.77 · May 11, 2026
- HB26-1258: Jun 4, 2026 to Jan 1, 2027, 211 days
- HB 4077: Mar 17, 2026 to Mar 17, 2027, 365 days
Standing orders — already in force
No dates because they never lapse: these bind now, wherever they apply.
Act 251 of 1968 · MCL 456.536 · MI
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.
Do this: 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.
Michigan Legislature — Cemetery Regulation Act, Act 251 of 1968 (MCL 456.536) ↗16 CFR 453 · Federal
The Funeral Rule — itemized pricing, on request
Accurate itemized 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 finalized, whatever you may have read.
Do this: 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.
FTC — 16 CFR Part 453 ANPR ↗The desk is free for founding members.
VERIFIED — every entry links its primary source
verified & edited by Christian Hughes · Reviewed Aug 19, 2026
The nine segments
1. Independent, family-owned funeral homes
Single-location family operations to small regional chains — the businesses that still answer the phone with a family name.
2. Public and private-equity-backed consolidators
The national and regional chains rolling up funeral homes and cemeteries — often keeping the founding family's name on the door.
3. Cemetery operators
Traditional, for-profit and nonprofit cemeteries — the segment that owns the ground and the perpetual obligation that comes with it.
4. Crematory operators
Standalone and combination crematories — a small subsector by business count that now handles the majority of U.S. dispositions.
5. Casket and urn manufacturers
The concentrated manufacturing layer behind the storefronts — a handful of large firms and a long tail of specialty makers.
6. Monument and headstone dealers
Small, largely family-run firms making and selling grave markers and monuments — often in direct competitive tension with the cemeteries their customers are buried in.
7. Preneed insurance underwriters and agents
The life insurers underwriting preneed funeral policies and the licensed agents selling them — operating under insurance regulators and funeral boards at once.
8. Body donation and anatomical-gift organizations
Nonprofit academic donation programs and for-profit non-transplant tissue banks — a less visible corner operating under fundamentally different legal authority than funeral or cemetery service.
9. Green and alternative disposition providers
Green and natural-burial grounds, human-composting facilities, and alkaline-hydrolysis providers — the segment whose product is often legal in one state and unnamed in the next.
The seven cross-cutting forces
Each force is stated once, on its own page, and every segment it reaches links to it with the direction it runs — the same fact never told two ways.