Adam Toler Memorial Funeral Home admits mishandling funds for prepaid services

CHARLESTON -- The Adam Toler Memorial Funeral Home has been barred from handling prepaid funerals after West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw filed a complaint against the business in December.

On Dec. 3, McGraw filed a complaint against the funeral home, Donna Toler, Daniel Toler and Rebekah Cline in Wyoming Circuit Court after an audit uncovered misappropriations, that the home had failed to report all of its prepaid contracts as required and that the Internal Revenue Service had levied funds the home had not replaced in consumers' accounts.

At a show cause hearing on March 23, the defendants admitted the funeral home had misappropriated consumers' preneed funeral contract funds and had not complied with the reporting and licensing requirements of the Preneed Act, according to a news release issued by the Attorney General's Office.

Judge Robert Chafin enjoined the respondents from selling, making available or providing preneed funeral contracts and ordered the funeral home to transfer its current preneed contracts to other funeral homes in the area.

"My office oversees the pre-need funeral business to protect and ensure West Virginia consumers receive the funeral they requested and for which they paid," McGraw said. "In this case, the funeral home has not only refused to comply with the requirements that protect consumers, but took consumers' hard-earned money."

Any customer of Adam Toler Memorial Funeral Home who suspects their prepayments may have been mishandled are asked to contact the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Hotline at (800) 368-8808 or (304) 558-8986.