A visit to Lincoln Memorial Life's website - (one of the insurance companies owned by the Cassity family/Forever Network) explains why my property-owner friend was stopped and made to sign in at HF's gate, as I reported yesterday:

Memorial Service Life Insurance Company, Lincoln Memorial Life Insurance Company and National Prearranged Services (NPS) Inc. have been place in Rehabilitation under an Order of Rehabilitation entered on May 14, 2008 in Cause Number D-1-GV-08-000945 in the 250th Judicial Court of Travis County, Texas. This action was initiated by the State of Texas at the request of the Texas Department of Insurance with the cooperation of the regulators of several other states.

The Commissioner of Insurance for the State of Texas has appointed Donna J. Garrett as the Special Deputy Receiver of all three companies on May 14, 2008. Ms. Garrett will be responsible for the management of the companies and their operations.

Memorial Service Life Insurance Company (Memorial Service) and Lincoln Memorial Service Life Insurance Company (Lincoln Memorial) have ceased writing new business. NPS has suspended the sale of pre-need contracts. Each state regulates the sale of prepaid funeral contracts and the law varies from state to state. The Special Deputy Receiver is working with regulators from affected states to determine the best course of action to provide the greatest level of protection for all consumers and other stakeholders.

All of the legal documents associated with the case are posted on the site here as well as contact info for the Special Deputy Receiver's staff and a FAQ section. Most notable is the "Filed Agreed Order Appointing Rehabilitator and Permanent Injunction," (see page six): Brent Cassity and his business partners have a permanent injunction barring them from "Doing, operating or conducting [Defendant's] business."

Which explains the vague answers I got when I called HF yesterday, leading me to wonder ...

Q. Who is in charge of Lincoln Memorial, Memorial Life, and NPS?

The Agreed Order appoints the Texas Commissioner of Insurance as the Rehabilitator. The Rehabilitator is automatically vested with title to all of the Companies' property. The Rehabilitator also takes over all the powers of the Companies' directors, officers and managers.The Rehabilitator has appointed Donna J. Garrett as the Special Deputy Receiver ("SDR"). As the appointed SDR, Donna J. Garrett has all the rights and powers of the Rehabilitator, subject to any limitations imposed by the Rehabilitator. Donna J. Garrett in now in charge of the Companies, and serves at the pleasure of the Rehabilitator.In October 2007, TDI placed Lincoln Memorial and Memorial Service in confidential supervision under Chapter 441 of the Texas Insurance Code. While the Companies were in supervision, TDI recommended that they engage an independent manager with experience managing troubled insurance companies. They engaged Dan Watkins as the Acting Manager. Dan Watkins is continuing to work for the companies and with the SDR, Donna J. Garrett.

If you are a policyholder or property owner, I would strongly urge you to keep tabs on the Lincoln Memorial Site.

Here's an interesting interview with Tyler Cassity from 2007.

Hollywood Forever photo from Javivazquez via Flickr.