Section 58-17-11 - Deposit or bond of endowed care cemeteries.
58-17-11. Deposit or bond of endowed care cemeteries.
If a cemetery authority is duly organized and desires to accept care funds authorized by the Endowed Care Cemetery Act [58-17-2 NMSA 1978], it shall make an initial deposit to the care fund of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000). In lieu of the initial deposit, the cemetery authority may furnish a surety bond issued by a bonding company or insurance company authorized to do business in this state in the face amount of thirty-five thousand dollars ($35,000), and the bond shall run to the trustee for the benefit of the care funds held by the trustee. This bond shall be for the purpose of guaranteeing an accumulation of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) in the care fund and also for the purpose of assuring that the cemetery authority shall provide annual endowed care in an amount equal to the annual reasonable return on a secured cash investment of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) until that amount is accumulated in the care funds, and these shall be the conditions of the surety bond; provided, however, the liability of the principal and surety on the bond shall in no event exceed thirty-five thousand dollars ($35,000). Provided further that whenever a cemetery authority which has made an initial deposit to the care fund demonstrates to the satisfaction of the director that more than twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) has been accumulated in the care fund, the cemetery authority may petition the director for an order allowing the cemetery authority to begin to withdraw its deposit from the care fund, so long as at least twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) always remains in the care fund.