diff --git a/lib/dao.js b/lib/dao.js
index 9ecb8b87..0b042700 100644
--- a/lib/dao.js
+++ b/lib/dao.js
@@ -939,6 +939,27 @@ DataAccessObject.all = function () {
   return DataAccessObject.find.apply(this, arguments);
 };
 
+/**
+ * Get settings via hiarchical determiniation
+ *
+ * @param {String} key The setting key
+ */
+DataAccessObject._getSetting = function(key) {
+  // Check for settings in model
+  var m = this.definition;
+  if(m && m.settings && m.settings[key]) {
+    return m.settings[key]
+  }
+
+  // Check for settings in connector
+  var ds = this.getDataSource();
+  if(ds && ds.settings && ds.settings[key]) {
+    return ds.settings[key];
+  }
+
+  return;
+};
+
 var operators = {
   gt: '>',
   gte: '>=',
@@ -1037,7 +1058,9 @@ DataAccessObject._normalize = function (filter) {
       Object.keys(this.definition.properties), this.settings.strict);
   }
 
-  filter = removeUndefined(filter);
+  var handleUndefined =  this._getSetting('normalizeUndefinedInQuery');
+  // alter configuration of how removeUndefined handles undefined values
+  filter = removeUndefined(filter, handleUndefined);
   this._coerce(filter.where);
   return filter;
 };
diff --git a/lib/utils.js b/lib/utils.js
index f6be3e98..15852f1b 100644
--- a/lib/utils.js
+++ b/lib/utils.js
@@ -294,9 +294,10 @@ function selectFields(fields) {
 /**
  * Remove undefined values from the queury object
  * @param query
+ * @param handleUndefined {String} either "nullify", "throw" or "ignore" (default: "ignore")
  * @returns {exports.map|*}
  */
-function removeUndefined(query) {
+function removeUndefined(query, handleUndefined) {
   if (typeof query !== 'object' || query === null) {
     return query;
   }
@@ -304,7 +305,17 @@ function removeUndefined(query) {
   // as traverse doesn't transform the ObjectId correctly
   return traverse(query).forEach(function (x) {
     if (x === undefined) {
-      this.remove();
+      switch (handleUndefined) {
+        case 'nullify':
+          this.update(null);
+          break;
+        case 'throw':
+          throw new Error('Unexpected `undefined` in query');
+          break;
+        case 'ignore':
+        default:
+          this.remove();
+      }
     }
 
     if (!Array.isArray(x) && (typeof x === 'object' && x !== null
diff --git a/test/loopback-dl.test.js b/test/loopback-dl.test.js
index 14d9892b..3aeb54e3 100644
--- a/test/loopback-dl.test.js
+++ b/test/loopback-dl.test.js
@@ -1487,6 +1487,22 @@ describe('DataAccessObject', function () {
     assert.deepEqual(filter, {limit: 100, offset: 5, skip: 5});
   });
 
+  it('should apply settings for handling undefined', function () {
+    filter = model._normalize({filter: { x: undefined }});
+    assert.deepEqual(filter, {filter: {}});
+
+    ds.settings.normalizeUndefinedInQuery = 'ignore';
+    filter = model._normalize({filter: { x: undefined }});
+    assert.deepEqual(filter, {filter: {}}, 'Should ignore undefined');
+
+    ds.settings.normalizeUndefinedInQuery = 'nullify';
+    filter = model._normalize({filter: { x: undefined }});
+    assert.deepEqual(filter, {filter: { x: null }}, 'Should nullify undefined');
+
+    ds.settings.normalizeUndefinedInQuery = 'throw';
+    (function(){ model._normalize({filter: { x: undefined }}) }).should.throw(/`undefined` in query/);
+  });
+
   it('should skip GeoPoint', function () {
     where = model._coerce({location: {near: {lng: 10, lat: 20}, maxDistance: 20}});
     assert.deepEqual(where, {location: {near: {lng: 10, lat: 20}, maxDistance: 20}});
@@ -1514,6 +1530,20 @@ describe('DataAccessObject', function () {
       assert.deepEqual(where, {age: {inq: ['xyz', 12]}});
     });
 
+  // settings
+  it('should get settings in priority',
+    function () {
+      ds.settings.test = 'test';
+      assert.equal(model._getSetting('test'), ds.settings.test, 'Should get datasource setting');
+      ds.settings.test = undefined;
+
+      model.settings.test = 'test';
+      assert.equal(model._getSetting('test'), model.settings.test, 'Should get model settings');
+
+      ds.settings.test = 'willNotGet';
+      assert.notEqual(model._getSetting('test'), ds.settings.test, 'Should not get datasource setting');
+    });
+
 });
 
 describe('Load models from json', function () {
@@ -1796,4 +1826,3 @@ describe('ModelBuilder options.models', function () {
     });
 
 });
-
diff --git a/test/util.test.js b/test/util.test.js
index aa2859a1..27307e28 100644
--- a/test/util.test.js
+++ b/test/util.test.js
@@ -66,6 +66,13 @@ describe('util.removeUndefined', function () {
     var q4 = {where: {x: 1, y: date}};
     should.deepEqual(removeUndefined(q4), {where: {x: 1, y: date}});
 
+    // test handling of undefined
+    var q5 = {where: {x: 1, y: undefined}};
+    should.deepEqual(removeUndefined(q5, 'nullify'), {where: {x: 1, y: null}});
+
+    var q6 = {where: {x: 1, y: undefined}};
+    (function(){ removeUndefined(q6, 'throw') }).should.throw(/`undefined` in query/);
+
   });
 });