We have a funeral home and an individual with a burial reserve CD set up with our bank. The funeral home is now closing and the individual will be selecting a new funeral home to hold the account for her funeral costs.

What are we required to do to make the change? Is there anything required? Do we close the CD and open a new one or just transfer the funeral home name? Technically the CD funds are the funeral home's funds not the individual. Do we issue the funeral home a check and they reimburse the individual?

Does the burial contract the funeral home entered into with the individual address this issue?

It looks like we do not have a copy of the burial contract on file. Is that something we should have the customer look into?

I would, yes.

The customer is going to look into it but does not recall a burial contract. The account is titled as a "burial escrow" so does it not fall into the normal rules of a burial reserve account?

yes it would.

The funds actually belong to the individual, and your account titling should reflect that the funeral home has a fiduciary capacity.

I agree with the above suggestion to review the burial trust agreement that exists between the funeral home and the individual. Talk to the funeral home to get this information- they are the party you need to deal with to get this resolved.