What Does a New York Closed Firms Closure Date Mean?

Direct answer and scope

A NYSDOH Closed Firms closure date is attached to the firm name, address, and city shown in that Closed Firms record. It is evidence about that reported record as supplied by the New York State Department of Health, Bureau of Funeral Directing. The checked date for the Closed Firms evidence is August 25, 2026, so the source date should be retained whenever the record is discussed.

The date should not be treated as a general attribute of every firm with a similar name. The supplied Closed Firms record identifies a particular firm and address, and the permitted directory use is to flag or exclude a matching firm and address when that official report gives a closure date. Name-only similarity does not satisfy the matching rule.

This is a record-interpretation rule, not a conclusion about service quality, endorsement, or any separate firm's present status. The NYSDOH Opened Firms report supplies administrative identity, contact, and manager fields. It does not supply ratings, quality findings, or endorsement.

How to use the official evidence

Start with the closed record's complete identity: firm name, street address, city, closure date, the NYSDOH Closed Firms source, and the date on which that source was checked. Keeping these fields together prevents the date from being detached from the record that supplies it.

Next, compare that identity with the opened-firm record. The opened-firm report provides firm name, address, city, ZIP code, phone, county, and manager fields, with a report revision checked in July 2026. Those fields identify the opened-firm entry for directory purposes; they do not convert the entry into a quality rating or endorsement.

The relevant comparison is the normalized firm name and normalized address. If both match the closed record, the directory may apply its closed-firm conflict rule to the opened-firm row. If only the name resembles the closed record, the supplied rule does not treat that as a closure match. If the address differs, the closure date remains attached to the address in the closed record.

The source checked date is also part of responsible interpretation. It tells the reader when the cited report was checked, while the closure date remains the date supplied inside the official Closed Firms record. Those are different fields and should not be combined into one date.

Decision framework

Use the following sequence when interpreting a closure date. First, record the closed entry exactly as supplied, including its firm name, address, city, closure date, source, and checked date. Second, identify the opened-firm entry being compared. Third, normalize the name and address for the comparison required by the directory rule.

If the normalized name and normalized address both match, the renderer treats the opened-firm row as having an official closed-firm conflict and excludes that row from public output. This is the directory's safeguard for the specific identity match. It is not a legal finding and does not turn a directory result into a quality assessment.

If the normalized names match but the addresses do not, do not apply the closure date to the other address. If the addresses match but the normalized names do not, do not treat the records as the same firm under the supplied rule. If the comparison is ambiguous, do not convert the ambiguity into a closure match.

If no exact match can be established, the appropriate state is unknown or unresolved for that comparison. The missing match should be preserved rather than filled with an inferred identity, broader geography, or conclusion about another record.

Limits and what to verify next

A closure date from the Closed Firms report should not be used to describe a different firm, a different street address, or a different location. It should also not be used alone to establish another record's current licensing or operating status. Those questions require the identity and authority appropriate to the separate record.

The Opened Firms report can provide administrative identity, contact, and manager fields for a listed opened-firm record. It does not provide ratings, quality findings, or endorsement. A directory listing based on those fields therefore should not be read as a quality badge or regulator endorsement.

The renderer may display registered firm fields, source revision, an active-manager name match, a closed-firm conflict result, and the verification date used by the directory when those validated fields are available. These fields describe the measured registry snapshot and do not establish service quality or completeness beyond that snapshot.

If a directory record appears outdated, the implemented correction form can send the matter into a manual review queue. A submission does not guarantee a change, response time, or outcome. A record changes only after primary-source verification, so an unresolved identity or status should remain unresolved until the relevant evidence is verified.

Questions people ask

The questions below apply the same record-specific matching approach to common interpretations of a New York closure date.

Evidence behind this page

Each point below is restricted to what the cited primary source supports. Administrative listing status is not a quality endorsement.