Cemetery Oversight Task Force – Recommendation No. 2

Link to the Report and Recommendations


Recommendation No. 2: Enactment of Cemetery Oversight Act
The COTF recommends that legislation be adopted requiring that cemetery management operations be treated as a profession that only qualified persons should be authorized to own, operate, or work in. Therefore, a Cemetery Oversight Act should be adopted to provide for licensure of cemetery managers and the registration of cemetery employees.

Cemetery Oversight Task Force – Report and Recommendations to Governor Pat Quinn

Link to the Report and Recommendations


On September 15, 2009 The Cemetery Oversight Task Force (COTF) fulfilled a request by the Governor to look into the laws of Illinois and other states in addition to the opinions of State’s most influential leaders in the cemetery, funeral and embalming industries and from many members of the public affected by the Burr Oak Cemetery tragedy. This Task Force met over the period of two months to make a series of recommendations to the Governor. The following information is the recommendations that were made by the task force and my synopsis of the recommendations. I deemed it worthwhile to summarize those recommendations as the document containing the recommendation is 82 pages in length. The average reader has little to no interest in reading this length of document. As indicated above, there is a link to the “Report and Recommendations” above that you may use to read the whole document for yourself. Look for summaries for each recommendation in posts to follow. This post will summarize the first recommendation and following posts will summarize additional recommendations. Please feel free to leave comments on this act and any information you may wish to know. I will do my best to provide either the information, or a place where you can find the information for yourself.


Recommendation No. 1: Consolidation of regulatory Authority of Funeral and Burial Practices into the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.
• Current regulation in Illinois is divided between two state agencies
     o The Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has jurisdiction over funeral directors and embalmers
     o The Comptroller has jurisdiction over most other aspects of for-profit death care industry, including laws relating to pre-need cemetery and funeral purchases, cemetery care funds, the protection of cemetery property, cemetery associations, and crematories.

This segmentation of duties is confusing to the consumer and therefore COTF recommends that Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (The Department) has regulation over all funeral and burial practices.

Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

  In the Cemetery Oversight Act that was spoken about yesterday, there is, in the definitional section the following language, ""Department" means the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation." This language is not included in the snippets that I have included in the "Law Updates" page. The question you may have is why is this important?

  To begin with, this Department is the agency that a consumer would report any violations of the Act directly to. In addition to acting as the executive branch to enforce the Act, the Department has created a pamphlet to help consumers who are both choosing a cemetery and those wishing to ensure that the their loved ones are properly cared for. The link for this pamphlet is  http://www.idfpr.com/cemetery/cemeteryconsumerrights.pdf  

For complaints relating to cemeteries, funeral directors and embalmers:

Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation
100 West Randolph Street, 9th Floor
Chicago, IL 60601
Toll-free Helpline: 1-888-RLOVED1 (756-8331)
Web site: http://www.idfpr.com/


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