The Arizona Senate approved a bill Monday that would prohibit funeral directors from taking over the estates of dead people and then billing their estates for burial costs.

The bill passed unanimously but needs Gov. Doug Ducey's signature to become law.

The legislation comes after an investigation by The Arizona Republic detailed the unusual practice of a funeral-home owner who was taking on the role of executor, or "personal representative," of people's estates, and then charging what relatives complained were excessive burial fees that went to his funeral home.

While it's legal under state law for a funeral director to assume this dual role, probate attorneys interviewed by The Republic called the practice a conflict of interest. And a spokesman for the National Funeral Directors Association said it is unethical: The funeral home is submitting bills to the same estate the funeral-home owner is administering.

Rep. Shawnna Bolick, R-Phoenix, said she introduced House Bill 2249 as a consumer-protection measure after reading The Republic story, in which relatives complained that the funeral home was delaying burials and charging excessive fees for refrigerating the bodies.

“End-of-life decisions shouldn’t lead to litigation, in my opinion. So let’s close the loophole and the practice and give a win to consumers," she told a House committee earlier this year.

The bill originally applied only to funeral directors but was expanded to also include funeral home owners after the Arizona State Board of Funeral Directors & Embalmers, who regulate the funeral-service industry, voiced concerns that the language needed to be expanded.

The funeral board launched an investigation in 2018 after relatives complained Abel Funeral Services owner Spencer McBride was assuming control of dead people's estates when relatives couldn't be found. His Phoenix funeral home was then charging the estates fees for funeral services, which relatives complained were excessive.

In one case, relatives of 67-year-old William Kenig complained to the funeral board that his estate was charged for 250 days of refrigeration of his body at $275 a day — totaling $68,750. The funeral home later reduced its charge to $32,000, according to the complaint.

In another case, a relative of 80-year-old U.S. Navy veteran Robert Heiskell complained to the board after McBride authorized payments to his funeral home totaling $30,194 from Heiskell's estate. By comparison, the median cost of a funeral and burial is $7,360, according to the National Funeral Directors Association.

Relatives alleged in court documents that all but about $8,000 of the charges were "excessive," including fees to refrigerate Heiskell's body for 115 days. The matter was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

Relatives complained to the funeral board that the funeral home had no incentive to locate family because McBride, as both personal representative and funeral-home owner, made more money the longer bodies were in refrigeration. Relatives of both Kenig and Heiskell took court action to remove McBride as personal representative from the estates.

McBride has denied using his position as personal representative for profit. He has maintained that burial was delayed because the funeral home was trying to locate the deceased's next of kin.

Abel Funeral Services faces possible disciplinary action from the funeral board with a disciplinary hearing expected to be held later this year.

Maricopa County Superior Court probate records show that McBride has been a personal representative on about 30 probate estate cases since 2011, most of them within the last two years.

Arizona estate attorneys say it's unusual for a funeral-home owner or director to also become a personal representative (known as an executor in some states). Estate creditors, such as funeral homes, are allowed under Arizona law to apply to become personal representatives in probate court if no immediate family has come forward and at least 45 days have passed since the person died.

Bolick, the legislator who is sponsoring the bill, said that when someone dies, relatives shouldn't have to worry about the person's estate being billed for excessive burial costs. She hopes the legislation is an easy fix to what has been a loophole in Arizona law.

Reach the reporter at anne.ryman@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8072. Follow her on Twitter @anneryman.

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