Maine
Clients’ families say Maine funeral home director stole their money – and peace of mind
William Jipson Jr. with a portrait of himself, left, his father, William Jipson Sr., and his sister Lynette Krapf. Jipson is one of several people who allege that Harold Lee Lamson Jr., a funeral director based out of Lincoln, stole money from a loved one’s mortuary trust. Jipson’s father died in 2022. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer
Long before he died nearly two years ago, William Jipson Sr. set aside thousands of dollars in a mortuary trust to soften the financial burden that his cremation and burial would put on his children.
The value of the fund had grown to roughly $14,000 by the time he died in December 2022 – more than enough to cover funeral expenses. But after the Lincoln funeral director he hired appeared to keep all of the cash, Jipson’s son and daughter found themselves paying nearly $5,000 out of pocket for a gravestone “after we already paid for it once,” William Jipson Jr. said.
After months of delays and excuses, Jipson’s family hasn’t seen a dime of their money.
“It’s all gone. He’s taken it and spent it, and that’s it,” Jipson said. “(It’s) an awful feeling, knowing that someone wronged you, and your father at the end of life.”
The Jipson family is among a number of Mainers at the center of a criminal case against Harold Lee Lamson Jr., who operates four funeral homes in Penobscot and Washington counties. He is accused of misappropriating thousands of dollars from their loved ones’ mortuary trusts between December 2022 and February of this year – adding undue cost and emotional turmoil to the painful process of grieving and organizing a funeral.
“It’s a big kick in the teeth. Everyone wants to move on with their lives and deal with their losses,” Jipson said. “We went through 12 years of hell trying to care for my father. … And then when he passes, you’ve got to continue dealing with more years of hell.”
At one point, Lamson told Jipson’s sister that he was waiting on the gravestone to be cut and would send the money when he received the final bill. But when she called the memorial company, they told her Lamson had never placed the order, and that “this has happened a few times,” Jipson said.
Lamson is charged with four counts of theft by unauthorized transfer, a felony-level Class C charge. Each count is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, and Lamson may be ordered to pay thousands of dollars in restitution.
He first appeared in Penobscot County Superior Court this month but was not required to enter a plea. He will appear before the court again in November.
He also faces losing his state license as a funeral director and is currently under suspension after years of complaints.
Lamson declined to answer questions about the charges when reached by phone Thursday.
PROMISES AFTER PROMISES
Deborah Elms had hoped to bury her mother in Maine, where she spent much of her life before moving to North Carolina in her final years to be closer to Elms.
Joyce Nicholson died there in January. Years earlier, she had set up a mortuary trust. But that company went out of business and transferred responsibility over the trust to Lamson, Elms said.
“Although our family didn’t originally select (Harold) Lamson’s company, we appear to be stuck with him,” Elms wrote in a February letter to police, less than a month after Nicholson’s death.
She said Lamson was completely uninvolved in the funeral. But Elms still lost the nearly $4,000 her mother left behind after he failed to transfer the money to the out-of-state funeral home that handled her mother’s services.
After at least eight calls over more than two weeks, Elms said she spoke to Lamson on Feb. 12, at which time he promised to pay the North Carolina funeral home bill and send her whatever was left in the trust.
The funeral director in North Carolina also reached out to Lamson requesting the money. Lamson replied with an error-ridden email one month after Nicholson’s death, apologizing for the delay and citing “a volume in excess of 200 calls per year” as a factor in the slow response.
“While it was not my intention to wait this long, let alone 30 days, to pay this bill, time has a way of passing much quickly,” he wrote in an email to the North Carolina funeral director that Elms shared with the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram. Lamson promised to send a check later that day, “tomorrow at the latest.”
But he never did, Elms said.
Ultimately, she footed the roughly $3,100 bill using money she had set aside for a trip to Maine to bury her mother and son, who died a few months earlier, Elms said. Although she made it to Maine in June, the trip put an unplanned dent in her budget.
Elms said she suffered two stress-induced heart attacks and began having nightmares. She declined to be interviewed over the phone, citing fears that recounting the story could overwhelm her.
“I get all worked up when I think of him and the disrespect he pulled on me and the funeral home here in NC,” Elms wrote in an email.
HOPING FOR RESTITUTION
Both Jipson and Elms said they want restitution and to see Lamson imprisoned. But neither was confident any penalties could make up for the pain they say he caused.
Under Maine law, funeral homes are required to return any money left in certain types of mortuary trusts after funeral expenses have been paid. If a funeral home is unable to render any services, as was the case for Elms, it must return all proceeds from the trust.
There are three categories of mortuary trusts available in Maine: guaranteed service agreements, credit for service agreements and existing life insurance agreements. Only the latter two contain provisions requiring leftover money to be returned.
Though it’s not clear how many Mainers have set up mortuary trusts, as the state Board of Funeral Services does not keep count, they are commonly offered by funeral homes across the state.
Rebekkah Martin, a former funeral home director who spent about 15 years working in the industry, said it’s relatively rare that there are any funds left over after funeral expenses, but federal and state laws provide clear timelines for when those funds must be deposited and returned.
Jipson’s family should have been entitled to the nearly $9,000 left in the trust after the funeral, William Jipson Jr. said. But he’s not optimistic about getting restitution, citing worries that Lamson could file for bankruptcy to avoid paying.
Lamson did attempt to file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in March, around the same time legal troubles began to mount, but the case was dismissed in April after Lamson failed to provide all the required documents or follow up on his request, according to federal court records.
According to his bankruptcy application, Lamson owns several vehicles, worth more than $27,000, including a 2008 Cadillac and a 2018 Chrysler, plus an $80,000 investment property in Sedgwick.
YEARS OF POTENTIAL ABUSE
Jipson said he could not understand why Lamson was given direct access to his father’s money without there being another layer of oversight, especially because Lamson had faced earlier disciplinary issues.
“Shouldn’t there have been a little bit of a safeguard in case someone’s going to abuse the money?” Jipson said. “It just seems a little odd to me, but I guess I don’t know the system.”
Complaints against Lamson stretch back decades.
In 2005, the state Board of Funeral Services placed his license on probation for six months after he pleaded guilty to attempted theft by insurance deception, according to state records.
The board suspended Lamson’s license in June after he violated a consent agreement. But until then, he operated funeral homes in Lincoln, Millinocket, East Millinocket and Danforth, according to his company’s website.
Mainers can report possible misconduct by funeral homes to the Board of Funeral Services, said Joan Cohen, deputy commissioner for the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, which oversees the board. But she said the board is not notified when transfers are requested or executed unless someone makes an official complaint.
Cohen said discipline can depend on the specific mortuary trust agreements made, “but in general they include civil penalties, probation with terms, suspension or revocation.”
She added that Lamson’s suspension was the only one the board has issued so far this year. Suspensions and revocations are relatively rare in Maine: the board did not issue any in 2023, and it only issued one revocation in 2022, and one suspension and revocation in 2021, Cohen said.
Martin, the former funeral home director, said she dealt with Lamson a few times and faced excessive delays when she tried to transfer trusts for her clients.
“I was not the least bit shocked to hear this happened,” Martin said during a phone call Wednesday.
Martin said mortuary trusts are a valuable tool for consumers, but only as long as the funeral home is above board. Prices can be locked in at the formation of the trust, and the money may be easier to access than life insurance payouts, which she said can ease the planning process.
“If you can’t own up to your mistakes, then you shouldn’t be in the business,” she said.