When a court decides a person cannot manage their own affairs, a guardian takes over the decisions. That includes the funeral. The guardian hires the funeral home and pays the bill with the client's money. Two criminal cases from 2026, one resolved and one pending, show how little checking happens between the payment and the grave.
In Michigan, Terry Alvin Kaufman ran Kaufman & Co. Funeral Home in Bad Axe. He collected prepaid funeral funds through the Huron County Public Guardian, the county office that manages money for people a judge has found cannot manage it themselves. The money was supposed to sit in escrow until each funeral was needed. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's office said none of it was escrowed, and that over ten years Kaufman used it to pay his own salary.
He pleaded no contest in March 2026. In May, Judge Gerald M. Prill of the 52nd Circuit Court sentenced him to 85 to 240 months, a range of 7 to 20 years, and ordered $1,111,165.77 in restitution to 204 identified victims. Some of those victims were wards of the state whose arrangements were handled through the guardian office. The office created to protect them became the channel he collected through. Obitley covered the Kaufman case in July, from Michigan's escrow rules to the sentencing, at https://obitley.com/stories/kaufman-michigan-preneed-theft-204-victims.
In Tennessee, Mundy Funeral Home in Jamestown is accused in a different kind of theft. The Tennessee Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers summarily suspended the funeral home and director Chad Mundy on August 11, 2026, after a July 22 audit found records missing across the business. Investigators believe the funeral home filed roughly a dozen death claims with an insurer for people who were still alive. The board's legal representative said the fraudulent preneed claims exceeded $80,000, including approximately $17,840 tied to individuals in a guardianship program. No charges have been filed. The TBI is investigating at the request of Eighth Judicial District Attorney General Jared Effler.
By the Numbers
Why this money is exposed
A guardianship program manages money for people a court has found cannot manage it themselves. When a client of that program dies, several protections disappear at once. The person harmed is gone. The guardian's responsibility usually ends when the estate closes. Family members, if there are any, may live far away and have no idea what a funeral should cost.
Kaufman's theft ran more than ten years before anyone in authority noticed. The Tennessee audit covered eighteen months. Neither program's own controls caught either case. Kaufman's fraud surfaced through a state investigation by the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, which referred the case to the attorney general in June 2025. The Tennessee case surfaced by accident, when a living customer tried to move a preneed policy to another funeral home and the insurer found a death claim already on file.
What guardians and families can do
Prepaid funeral money is supposed to be held somewhere a funeral home cannot quietly spend it, either in a trust account or through an insurance policy. Guardians and family members paying in advance can ask which one is being used and request written confirmation of where the money sits. State licensing boards handle disciplinary records differently. Michigan lets the public look up disciplinary action reports online for free, and Tennessee posts the funeral board's disciplinary actions on its site. New York does not post them, so families there need to call the bureau or file a records request. Wherever the records live, checking before hiring costs little more than a phone call. The Michigan case also shows recovery is possible, because the court ordered full restitution. It took a state investigation and a criminal conviction to get there.
Obitley is following the Tennessee case. The funeral board meets again September 8, 2026, when it can make the suspension permanent, and the TBI investigation continues. The full report on the suspension, including Homesteaders Life's role as the insurer on the policies, is at https://obitley.com/stories/tennessee-suspends-mundy-funeral-home.
What This Means for You
*Sources: Michigan Attorney General press release (May 11, 2026, michigan.gov); ClickOnDetroit/WDIV (Sara Powers, March 18, 2026); WATE (Aug. 12, 2026); 3B Media News (Aug. 12, 2026). Disciplinary-records access checked Aug. 26, 2026: Michigan LARA disciplinary action lookup (michigan.gov/lara); Tennessee funeral board disciplinary actions page (tn.gov); New York Bureau of Funeral Directing (health.ny.gov, FOIL request required)*
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