Investigators at the Fillbeck-Cann & King Funeral Home

A Benton, Kentucky funeral home has had his funeral home searched as allegations of fraud have been leveled against him.  According to the West Kentucky Star.com article, the Kentucky Department of Insurance is investigating complaints from customers who allegedly paid Filbeck-Cann & King Funeral Home owner Tim King to buy insurance policies that he never actually purchased.

According to the article a search warrant was served last Monday at the funeral in relation to the possible fraud investigation.

King’s attorney has said that her client is totally cooperating and is continuing to operate his business normally.  No charges have been filed.

Funeral Director Daily take:  We certainly subscribe to the “innocent until proven guilty” guarantee of the United States.  However, just the public thought of a business doing something against the law can be devastating to the future of that business.

In the case above it is possible that it is just a matter of poor correspondence whereas the funeral home  purchased the policies and has them on file and can prove that to investigators.  If that is the case, however, the negative publicity, even if innocent, will be crushing.  On the other hand, this could be a fraud – which will also be crushing.  No good ending for the funeral home with either result.

Over my 35 year history in the funeral business, where I also owned a pre-need insurance business, I had one client whose pre-arrangements sat for over twenty five years — moving from a bank trust fund to an insurance policy at one time – with their approval and signatures.  The family thought that there should be more money in the accounts than eventually was.  We were able to show annual statements from the bank and then the insurance company on the growth of the accounts to prove them wrong.

The moral of my story is that with pre-arrangements it is imperative that you keep good records, for the life of the file, so that if asked about the situation you can easily defend yourself.  Because, if ever accused, even if innocent, just the negative publicity could be financially crippling and ruin a reputation that took 50 years to build.[wpforms id=”436″ title=”true” description=”true”]