Mortality is an inevitable reality that many prefer not to think about. Yet Evelyn Cordero, a resident of Chelsea, Massachusetts, has been saving for at least a decade for her own funeral service. Her idea is to alleviate the grieving process that those closest to her will one day go through.
“We don’t want the parents to die, we don’t want the children to die, we don’t want to die, but unfortunately that’s the way it is,” Cordero said.
Cordero explains that it was the painful experience of her father’s death and funeral in 2014 that led her to make the decision. By 2018, Evelyn had already paid thousands of dollars for her services, as well as those of her two brothers.
That same year his brother, Jorge Cordero, died. “My brother had been suffering from heart disease for many years… And overnight, he fell,” Evelyn said.
Now she keeps his memory alive, visiting Jorge’s resting place frequently.
“Everyone says how beautiful the stone is. I always have it with stuff from Puerto Rico from the Red Sox,” Cordero said.
But after Jorge’s funeral, Evelyn’s sister decided that her resting place would be with her son.
“Because she has a son who is in the Navy…And when they are in the Navy they give him a space where the family can be. And so she wanted to be a part of that group,” Evelyn said.
The Cordero sisters then agreed to transfer the existing account to the name of Evelyn’s eldest daughter, an ordeal that turned into an ordeal for 4 years because the savings were held in an irrevocable trust.
The funeral trust is a legal agreement between three parties: the settlor, the bank, and the funeral home, according to personal finance experts from fidelity.com.
There are two types of funeral trusts: revocable and irrevocable. The difference is in the power to change the plan. In an irrevocable burial trust, the settlor would be giving up control of his or her assets to a bank or trust institution.
For its part, in a revocable burial trust, the settlor retains control of your assets, which allows you to make changes to the terms of your contract, including dissolution of the contract and recovery of most of your assets.
Evelyn had to file in the Massachusetts Family Court, an application for Intent to Terminate a Trust. However, 4 years passed and Evelyn says that neither the bank where she had the savings, nor the funeral home, nor the court expedited the process.
“I started by calling the funeral home and they told me no, that I had to go to court to be able to do what I was going to do. But what they never explained was that I had to close it to open it again with the other person,” Cordero said.
So he decided to call Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra Responde. We contacted the New England Trust Fund directly, a program of the Cambridge Trust Company, the trust bank where Evelyn was saving for services. They responded by saying that they would evaluate the Cordero family’s case and resolve it directly with them. After several months of ongoing communication, paperwork, and waiting, the New England Trust Fund closed Evelyn’s sister’s account and returned the $7,000 she had saved.
“It is money that hurts, that you are paying at sacrifice. Thanks to Telemundo. I really thank you very, very much for what you did. I feel that they not only worked with me, but that they worked with my brother. Because he didn’t want to see me suffer,” said Evelyn Cordero.
For its part, the bank explained in the following statement the root of the problem and the solution:
“Cambridge Trust Company, in collaboration with the New England Funeral Trust, provided legal guidance and support on behalf of Ms. Evelyn Cordero in resolving the matter of the dissolution of an irrevocable trust created by her sister. Ms. Cordero’s sister was unaware of the establishment of another trust through her previous military affiliation, which required the court order to close this duplicate trust account.”
Evelyn has already transferred the funds for her oldest daughter’s final resting place and plans to continue saving so that her entire immediate family will have a final resting place.
To make a complaint to our consumer hotline, NBC 7 New England Responds, you can call 855-622-1000 and leave a voice message with a brief description of your case and your contact information. We will return your call in at least 24 hours. To expedite the process, you can fill out the online form.
To make a complaint to our consumer hotline, NBC 7 New England Responds, you can call 855-622-1000 and leave a voice message with a brief description of your case and your contact information. We will return your call in at least 24 hours. To expedite the process, you can fill out the online form.
