William Jipson Jr. is pictured with, from left, himself, his father, William Jipson Sr., and his sister, Lynette Krapf. Jipson is one of several people who allege Lincoln funeral director Harold Lee Lamson Jr. stole money from funeral trusts for loved ones. Jipson’s father died in 2022. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer
Long before his death nearly two years ago, William Jipson Sr. had set aside thousands of dollars in a mortuary trust to ease the financial burden of cremation and burial for his children.
By the time of Jipson’s death in December 2022, the fund’s value had grown to about $14,000, more than enough to cover funeral expenses. But the Lincoln funeral home he hired kept all the cash, forcing his son and daughter to pay about $5,000 out of pocket for the headstone “after we’d already paid for it once,” William Jipson Jr. said.
After months of delays and excuses, Jipson’s family has not received a penny.
“It’s all gone. He took it and spent it and that’s it,” Jipson said. “It’s a horrible feeling to know at the end of your life that someone has wronged you and your father.”
The Jipson family is among the Mainers at the center of a criminal case against Harold Lee Lamson Jr., who operates four funeral homes in Penobscot and Washington counties. Lamson is accused of embezzling thousands of dollars from funeral trusts for families’ loved ones between December 2022 and February of this year, adding unjustified costs and emotional disruption to the painful process of grieving and planning funerals.
“This is a huge blow. Everybody wants to move forward in life and deal with the loss,” Jipson said. “We’ve had 12 years of hell caring for him … and now with him passing, we’re going to have to deal with many more years of hell.”
At one point, Lamson told Jipson’s sister he was waiting for the stone to be cut and would send the money once he received the final invoice, but when she called the stone company, she was told Lamson had never placed an order and “this has happened a few times,” Jipson said.
Lamson is charged with four counts of theft by unauthorized transfer, a Class C felony. Each charge is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, and Lamson could be ordered to pay thousands of dollars in restitution.
He made his initial appearance in Penobscot County Superior Court this month but was not arraigned. He is scheduled to appear again in November.
He also faces losing his state license as a funeral director and is currently suspended after years of complaints.
Reached by phone Thursday, Lamson did not answer questions about the charges.
Promise after promise
Deborah Elms had wanted her mother to be buried in Maine, where she had lived most of her life, but in her later years she moved to North Carolina to be closer to Elms.
Joyce Nicholson died there in January. Several years ago, she had set up a funeral trust, but the company went bankrupt and the trust’s responsibilities were transferred to Lamson, Elms said.
“Although our family did not originally choose to work for (Harold) Lamson, it appears we have no choice but to deal with him,” Elms wrote to police in February, less than a month after Nicholson’s death.
Elms said Lamson had no involvement in the funeral, but she lost about $4,000 left by her mother when Lamson failed to wire money to an out-of-state funeral home that handled her mother’s funeral.
Elms said after at least eight phone calls over more than two weeks, she spoke with Lamson on Feb. 12, during which he promised to pay the funeral home’s expenses in North Carolina and transfer the remaining balance of the trust funds to her.
A funeral home in North Carolina also contacted Lamson to ask for donations, and Lamson responded in an error-ridden email a month after Nicholson’s death apologizing for the delay, citing “over 200 calls a year” as the reason for his slow response.
“I never intended to wait this long, let alone 30 days, to pay this invoice, but time flies,” Lamson wrote in an email to a North Carolina funeral home that Elms shared with the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram. Lamson promised to send a check that same day, no later than tomorrow.
But he never did, Elms said.
Elms said she ultimately paid the roughly $3,100 bill with money she had set aside for a trip to Maine to bury her mother and son, who had died several months earlier. She arrived in Maine in June, but the trip took an unexpected hit to her budget.
Ms. Elms said the stress caused her two heart attacks and gave her nightmares. She declined to be interviewed by phone, citing fears she would be overwhelmed if she told the story.
“I feel angry when I think about him and the disrespect he showed to me and to a funeral home in North Carolina,” Elms said in an email.
Hoping for compensation
Both Jipson and Elms said they want compensation and for Lamson to be jailed, but neither are convinced any punishment will make up for the pain Lamson allegedly caused.
Maine law requires funeral homes to return any money remaining in certain types of funeral trusts after funeral expenses have been paid. If a funeral home is unable to provide services, as was the case with Elms, it must return any proceeds from the trust.
There are three categories of funeral trusts available in Maine: guaranteed service contracts, service credit contracts, and existing life insurance policies. Only the last two contain provisions that require the return of any remaining funds.
It’s unclear how many Mainers have set up funeral trusts because the Maine Funeral Services Commission doesn’t keep count, but funeral homes in the state commonly offer them.
Rebecca Martin, a former funeral home representative who worked in the industry for about 15 years, said it’s relatively rare to have funds left over after funeral expenses have been paid, but federal and state laws have clear deadlines for when those funds must be deposited and returned.
William Jipson Jr. said Jipson’s family should be entitled to about $9,000 left in the trust after the funeral, but he’s not optimistic they’ll get any compensation and expressed concern that Lamson might file for bankruptcy to avoid paying it.
Federal court records show that Lamson tried to file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in March, around the time his legal troubles began to mount, but the application was denied in April after he failed to submit all required paperwork and comply with requests.
According to bankruptcy filings, Lamson owns multiple vehicles, including a 2008 Cadillac and a 2018 Chrysler, valued at more than $27,000 combined, as well as an investment property in Sedgwick worth $80,000.
Years of possible abuse
Jipson said he didn’t understand why Lamson had direct access to his father’s funds without another oversight mechanism, given his previous disciplinary history.
“Shouldn’t there have been some safeguards in case someone tried to misuse the money?” Jipson said. “It seems a little odd, but I guess I just don’t know the system.”
Complaints against Lamson date back decades.
In 2005, the state Funeral Services Board put his license on probation for six months after he pleaded guilty to attempted theft by insurance fraud, state records show.
The commission suspended Lamson’s license in June for violating a consent agreement, but before that he operated funeral homes in Lincoln, Millinocket, East Millinocket and the Danforth, according to his company’s website.
Mainers can report possible funeral home misconduct to the Funeral Services Board, said Joan Cohen, deputy director of the Office of Professional Financial Regulation, which oversees the board. But the board is not notified of requests or executions of money transfers unless there is a formal complaint, she said.
Cohen said disciplinary actions will vary depending on the specific funeral trust agreement signed, but “generally include civil penalties, conditional probation, suspension or revocation of practice.”
Cohen added that Lamson’s suspension is the only disciplinary action the commission has taken so far this year. Suspensions and revocations are relatively rare in Maine, with the commission having issued no disciplinary actions in 2023, one revocation in 2022 and one suspension and one revocation in 2021, Cohen said.
Mr Martin, a former funeral home manager, said he had several dealings with Mr Lamson and faced excessive delays when trying to transfer clients’ trust assets.
“I wasn’t shocked at all when I heard about what happened,” Martin said in a phone interview Wednesday.
Martin said funeral trusts are a useful tool for consumers, but only if the funeral home is operating legitimately. The price can be fixed when the trust is set up and it can be easier to fund than life insurance payouts, which can ease the planning process, he said.
“If you can’t admit when you’re wrong, you shouldn’t be in this industry,” she said.
Copy story link
