No Title Needed: Avoid Funeral Fraud with AARP

[Danger]

I just went to the AARP site for my daily jigsaw puzzle and ran across this feature. Any of you Yanks who are planning to die better be careful.
http://www.aarpmagazine.org/money/funeral_rip_off.html Hmmm
hmmm... that's weird. I just tried this link myself and it doesn't work.

Okay, never mind. This time it took me to the site, which apologized for having a missing page. Maybe it'll start working later.

Is it too late to just delete this thread and go home? :uhh:

 

[Moonbear]

I think that raises an interesting question in general about the validity of any contract signed that far in advance of when the terms in the contract will be exercised, and the wisdom of buying into one. If your contract is with a particular business, and the business closes or changes hands and changes names, how can a non-existent business honor a contract?

It's sort of like lifetime guarantees or warranties...even if the product life is that long, the guarantee or warranty is probably only really the lifetime of the business.

 

[Danger]

I vaguely remember that there was a scandal of sorts regarding something like mufflers back in the 70's. The thing came with a lifetime warrantee, but it turned out to be based upon the lifespan of the muffler. It pretty much came down to: if it was still okay, you could replace it. If it wasn't, then its lifetime had expired.

 

[Evo]

How can that be legal for that jerk to do that? Certainly he can be sued? Why aren't there laws to enforce the customer's contracts?

 

[Moonbear]

How can that be legal for that jerk to do that? Certainly he can be sued? Why aren't there laws to enforce the customer's contracts?

I don't know...he's not the original owner who signed the contracts. Is he obligated to honor the bad business choices of the previous owner? It sounds more like the previous owner is the one who should be sued, who didn't properly put the money into secure accounts.

I think the article had a good suggestion though, instead of paying in advance, just set up your own account to cover funeral expenses so you remain in control of the funds until your death.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

My father bought one of those funeral arrangements with a lifetime guarantee. Needless to say, the guarantee was worthless.

 

[Evo]

My father bought one of those funeral arrangements with a lifetime guarantee. Needless to say, the guarantee was worthless.

<groan>

 

[Evo]

I don't know...he's not the original owner who signed the contracts. Is he obligated to honor the bad business choices of the previous owner? It sounds more like the previous owner is the one who should be sued, who didn't properly put the money into secure accounts.

Usually the buyer agrees to honor debts and contracts. Also, the money was put aside into a separate account, there was $20 million in it, but that snake and the attorney partner drained the money out and made bad investments to fund their own energy company and lost everything.

 

[Danger]

If you follow the story far enough, you'll see that the jerk was arrested on several charges. One can only hope that he ends up in his own crematorium.

And the link started working because Astronuc fixed it for me. Thanks, bud.