ALPENA — The Michigan Board of Examiners in Mortuary Science levied a fine against an Alpena funeral home and its owner for selling prepaid funerals while not being registered under the Michigan Prepaid Funeral and Cemetery Sales Act.

The state board took the action early last month against Bannan Funeral funeral home owner Chad Esch, who was fined $7,500 for selling 489 prepaid funerals. The fine was also stemmed from Esch depositing $140,748 from 39 prepaid contracts into the proper trust fund more than 30 days late.

Esch said a recent audit showed that the transaction didn’t comply with state regulations, but he was unaware there was an issue. He said that, when he purchased the business 13 years ago, the proper certification was in place with the prior owner, but for some reason wasn’t transferred into his name after the purchase.

The issue has been resolved Esch said.

Esch said he is being as transparent as possible with his customers and the community to let them know the infraction was an oversight and that anyone who has prepaid for services will get what they paid for.

“A routine audit was performed in October of 2018 as standard practice of all funeral homes in the state of Michigan,” Esch said. “I was found to have a preneed register number connected to the previous corporation, and not my current corporation number, an oversight from my original purchase paperwork in 2006. Within a very short period of time, November 2018, my registration was issued by the state. I also had 39 contracts that were not placed into a trust within the 30-day timeframe. All money was accounted for at the time of the audit and in the trust, but over the 30-day timeframe. All moneys are in the trust and all moneys are accounted for.”

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at 989-358-5689 at sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ss_alpenanews.com.