Part One: What’s Really Going On at the Texas Funeral Service Commission?
Leading the Funeral Profession Forward |Funeral Profession Consultant | Expert Witness | Employee Retention & Leadership Development | HCHO Resources LLC
August 8, 2025
Let me tell you something funeral folks already know: If a regulator starts making more noise than it does progress, something’s off. And right now, something’s way off at the Texas Funeral Service Commission.
For months now, whispers have been getting louder, strange firings, investigations that vanish, policies that protect the powerful instead of the public. The kind of stuff that doesn’t make the papers, but sure as hell makes its way through the back doors of funeral homes and embalming rooms across the state.
Most people in this profession don’t have time to play watchdog. They’re showing up early, staying late, and doing the kind of work no one else can stomach — so when the agency that’s supposed to support that work turns out to be working against you?
Please pay attention.
Because this isn’t just red tape or bureaucratic slowness, it’s a cover-your-ass culture, run by people who seem more interested in protecting each other than protecting families. And the cracks are wide open now.
The Firing Heard Around the Industry
On June 18, 2025, Executive Director Scott Bingaman was fired. Not because he failed to do his job, but because he actually tried to.
In his resignation letter, Bingaman described the agency as a “listless ship,” and pointed directly at Chair Kristin Tips, accusing her of blocking investigations, interfering with enforcement, and pushing for laws that would benefit her own funeral business.
Let me repeat that: The head of the agency accused the board and its Chair of actively undermining the agency’s purpose.
And here’s the line that hit like a hammer:
“This Commission is no longer serving the public. It’s serving itself.”
Then Came the Retaliation
Within a week, the second wave hit. Three senior staff members — Deputy Director Laura Rhinehart and Staff Attorneys Christopher Burnett and Sarah Sanders — were either fired or forced out after supporting Bingaman’s claims.
Burnett wrote:
“Our crime? We also spoke out against the corruption, entitled self-dealing, and astronomical incompetence.”
That’s not speculation. That’s a lawyer who worked inside the building, describing the Commission in plain English.
Why It Matters
This Commission isn’t just a license mill. It’s the last line of defense between grieving families and funeral fraud.
It’s supposed to protect the profession. Uphold standards. Investigate the bad actors and hold them accountable.
Instead, what do we have?
- Complaints are going unresolved for months at a time
- Oversight of anatomical donations was handled so poorly, it triggered lawsuits
- A mass exodus of staff who were trying to clean it up
- And a leadership team more focused on staying in power than doing the job
Let’s not kid ourselves. This isn’t a PR problem. It’s not even a scandal. It’s a structural failure, from the inside out.
Coming Up Next
In Part 2, we’ll break down the internal collapse, who got pushed out, who’s still standing, and why every funeral professional in Texas should be watching this play out.
Because if TFSC fails, we all pay the price.
Coming Soon: Part 3 — An Expert Review of Organizational Failure
In Part 3, I’m not just reporting what happened, I’m breaking down why it happened. From leadership collapse to enforcement paralysis, TFSC is showing all the textbook signs of a regulator in freefall. And as someone who’s spent years in both funeral homes and organizational consulting, I can tell you this isn’t just mismanagement, it’s a complete failure of structure, accountability, and internal culture.
In Part 3, I’ll walk you through:
- How fear and favoritism replaced policy and process
- Why conflict of interest at the top poisoned the whole system
- What the data and whistleblowers tell us about the future of the Commission
- And most importantly: what needs to happen next
This isn’t just criticism. It’s a blueprint for how to fix it.
Follow HCHO Resources to read the full review when it drops.
Because if we don’t hold our regulators accountable, then who’s regulating the regulator?
TELL ME: What’s your experience been with the Commission? Have you ever reported something and felt like it went nowhere? Let’s talk.
#TFSC #TexasFuneralCommission #RegulatoryFailure #FuneralProfession #Whistleblower #HCHOResources #