Terri James and I recently attended the Board of Funeral Service board meeting. It is good to have regular meetings again and I thought the meeting was very positive. They are sitting very well financially — almost too good – that they are worried the excess funds may be taken and put back into the general fund. There is talk at their next board meeting about actually doing an abatement on licensing fees for a year — possibly two years; we will have to keep an eye on this. I also suspect with the surplus of money and that the board is meeting regularly again, we will see more routine inspections as well as audits on our continuing education credits. Also, our MFDA board meeting went really well. We have a wonderful board and are honored to serve with everyone on it. The financials of our board are still rock solid. I attribute this to the financial stewardship of our Executive Directors James Brown and Terri James. We did see a loss in our investment account during 2022, but we look forward to gaining that back when the market goes up. Another positive from our board meeting was with our Montana Funeral Trust. We have a significant amount of CDs within it that will be maturing over the few months. One of our advisors from New York, Mellissa, stated she speculates that, with interest rates on the rise, 4% or better is a possibility. Currently, the Montana Funeral Trust is gaining 1.8% on average. If anyone has any questions or suggestions, please feel free to call me anytime. I look forward to seeing everyone again at the district meets in May and hope everyone has their calendar marked for the summer convention here in Miles City in June! T.J. Stevenson MFDA President Strengthening futures, one relationship at a time. dadavidson.com TROST WEALTH MANAGEMENT a service of D.A. Davidson & Co. member SIPC Pub. 2 2023, Issue 1 5
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