Greetings,

I hope you had the opportunity to spend a joyful and meaningful holiday season with your loved ones and friends. The weather seems to be determined to remind us that winter exists in Montana following the New Year’s holiday! I’m sure work has been busy and beyond for you as it has for me, but there are exciting things to talk about as we are now well into 2025 with MFDA.

Thank you for your attendance at the virtual district meeting this past fall. Turnout has been greater than imagined and everyone seems to enjoy that format for the fall meeting. We will continue to provide quality continuing education credits and the opportunity to network. Again, thank you for your attendance.

The MFDA is supporting and working on the draft of a bill submitted to the Montana Legislature that puts us in a position to better serve our members and their clients by revising statutes that allow the investment of preneed funds in vehicles beyond government-backed securities. We think this is vital to the future of the MFDA’s administration of the funeral trust in which we serve as fiduciaries. We aim to provide avenues to slow the decline of corpus gross funds by allowing the trust to invest in things that produce more return than the traditional government-backed options we have now. Stay tuned. This is perhaps the biggest challenge and task facing us, both long- and short-term, and we are committed to attempting to make the situation better for you and your trust customers.

There is another bill being carried that has to do with the various forms of disposition, specifically alkaline hydrolysis and natural organic reduction. The board has chosen to take a patient approach in terms of consideration and support of this bill being sponsored by Rep. Denise Baum from Billings. We have previously discussed the need to add statutory language recognizing these new forms and the process by which licensing and endorsement take place but have committed to our members our belief that this should be primarily brought by the Board of Funeral Service for the 2027 legislative session. There is a great deal of language and process that will take time to parse through, and we feel that supporting a bill now without sufficient time to discuss the topics in depth will not serve the law or the membership. 

Although some of these dates and events may have passed, it’s important to show the efforts the association puts on to assist our membership in terms of continuing education, advocacy and networking.

Lastly, we hope you make it to Billings for this summer’s 2025 MFDA Convention at Northern Hotel, held from June 22-24. During the convention, we will also be holding the MFDA Board Meeting at 9 a.m. on June 23. We want to make this a memorable event with great opportunities. We hope to throw in some fun events in the Magic City to make your attendance and stay a memorable one.

Thank you all and we look forward to your comments, thoughts and attendance as MFDA events in 2025. You are the reason we exist and succeed.

Best,
Steve Kirkegard