43-10.1 Pre-Need Funeral Services

Statutes > North Dakota Statutes > Chapter 43 Occupations and Professions > 43-10.1 Pre-Need Funeral Services

Loading PDF...

CHAPTER 43-10.1PRE-NEED FUNERAL SERVICES43-10.1-01. Definitions. As used in this chapter:1."Cemetery association" means any person, corporation, municipality, association, or organization owning, conducting, or maintaining a cemetery or plot for the burial of dead human bodies.2."Cemetery merchandise" means all service or property to be used in funeral services or burials other than professional service or personal property to be used in funeral services.3."Commissioner" means the securities commissioner.4."Licensed funeral establishment" means a funeral establishment as defined and licensed in accordance with sections 43-10-21 and 43-10-22.5."Person" means any natural person, firm, association, corporation, limited liability company, or agents or employees thereof.6."Pre-need funeral service contract" means any contract, other than an insurance contract, under which for a specified consideration paid in advance in a lump sum or by installments, a person promises, upon the death of a beneficiary named or implied in the contract, to furnish professional service or personal property to be used in funeral services, or to furnish cemetery merchandise.7."Professional service or personal property to be used in funeral services" means all personal property, services, supplies, and equipment normally performed or furnished by a licensed embalmer, a licensed funeral establishment, or a cemetery association including any inside interment receptacles or containers into which a dead human remains may be directly placed, caskets, crypt beds, catafalques, and all other articles of merchandise incident to a funeral service, but excluding any outside interment receptacles into which any inside receptacle or container will be placed, grave lots, grave spaces, grave markers, monuments, tombstones, crypts, niches, and mausoleums unless these items are sold by a companion agreement or in contemplation of a trade or barter which includes the sale or rental of any inside interment receptacles or containers into which a dead human remains may be directly placed, caskets, crypt beds, catafalques, or other articles of merchandise incident to a funeral service.43-10.1-02. Pre-need funeral service contracts. A person may not engage in the saleor execution of a pre-need funeral service contract unless that person is the operator, agent, employee, or manager of a licensed funeral establishment or cemetery association. As part of the sale of a pre-need funeral service contract, the seller shall inform the purchaser of the extent to which the person with the duty of burial under section 23-06-03 might be bound by any pre-need funeral arrangements.43-10.1-03. Annual report filed with commissioner. On or before January thirty-firstof each year, the owner or manager of each cemetery association or licensed funeral establishment that has entered into any pre-need funeral service contracts during the preceding calendar year shall file a report covering the period of the preceding calendar year with the commissioner, which report must include:1.The name and address of the licensed funeral establishment or cemetery association and the name and address of the manager or operator thereof.Page No. 12.The name of the purchaser and beneficiary of each pre-need funeral service contract entered into on behalf of the licensed funeral establishment or cemetery association during the preceding calendar year and the date each contract was made.3.The lump sum consideration paid upon such pre-need funeral service contract required to be reported under subsection 2 or the total amount in dollars of any installments paid upon each pre-need funeral service contract required to be reported under subsection 2.4.The name and address of the bank, credit union, savings and loan association, or trust company in which such consideration was deposited in accordance with section 43-10.1-03.1.5.The total in dollars of all sums received as consideration upon pre-need funeral service contracts executed by the licensed funeral establishment or cemetery association or in its behalf during all periods after July 1, 1973, which are undrawn or unexpended and on deposit in a bank, credit union, savings and loan association, or trust company or in the hands of the licensed funeral establishment or cemetery association.6.Such other information as may reasonably be required by the commissioner for the purpose of the proper administration of this chapter.Such report must be accompanied by a filing fee of fifteen dollars and is a public record.43-10.1-03.1. Payments on pre-need funeral contracts to be deposited - Depositoryshall keep record of deposit - Personal property storage. Whenever payments are made to a person upon pre-need funeral service contracts, one hundred percent of the funds collected under the contracts for the sale of professional service or personal property to be used in funeral services and fifty percent of the funds collected under the contracts for the sale of cemetery merchandise must be deposited in or transferred to a trust company in this state or to a federally insured bank, credit union, or savings and loan association in this state, within ten days. The deposit must be placed in a federal deposit insurance corporation or national credit union administration insured certificate of deposit or negotiable debt obligation of the United States government. Payments received from the sale of professional service or personal property to be used in funeral services or cemetery merchandise which cannot or would not be serviced by a licensed funeral establishment or cemetery association in the area where the service or property was sold are specifically included, whether or not the sales might otherwise be considered pre-need funeral service contracts, within the payments to be deposited under this section. The funds may be released or transferred by the bank, credit union, savings and loan association, or trust company to the depositor upon the death of the person for whose benefit the funds were paid. A certified copy of the certificate of death must be furnished to the bank, credit union, savings and loan association, or trust company as prima facie evidence of death. The funds may be released or transferred by the bank, credit union, savings and loan association, or trust company to the person making the payment, before the death of the person for whose benefit the funds are paid, upon a five-day written notice by registered or certified mail made by the bank, credit union, savings and loan association, or trust company to the depositor or transferor at the request of the person making the payment. Upon written request, however, a purchaser of a pre-need funeral service contract may make a certain amount of the pre-need funds irrevocable. The irrevocable amount may not exceed the amount of the allowable asset exclusion used for determining eligibility for medical assistance under section 50-24.1-02.3 at the time the contract is entered. A purchaser of a pre-need funeral service contract has forty-five days from entering the contract to cancel the irrevocable part of the contract by giving notice to the cemetery association or licensed funeral establishment with whom the contract was entered. Any pre-need funeral service contract held by a cemetery association or a licensed funeral establishment must be fully transferable to another cemetery association or funeral establishment licensed under chapter 43-10 or a substantially similar law of another jurisdiction which agrees to accept the obligations.Page No. 2A bank, credit union, savings and loan association, or trust company receiving such adeposit or transfer shall keep a complete record of the deposit or transfer, showing the name of the depositor or transferor, name of the person making payment, name of the person for whose benefit payment is made, and any other pertinent information.Any personal property to be used in funeral services or cemetery merchandise which issold to a purchaser on the basis that it will be identified and marked as belonging to such purchaser, and stored or warehoused for the purchaser, must be stored or warehoused at some location within this state.43-10.1-04.Bond.Each owner or operator of a licensed funeral establishment orcemetery association, who files an annual report, must file with the commissioner a corporate surety bond approved by the commissioner in an amount deemed adequate by the commissioner running to the state of North Dakota. The bond must be in such form and style as the commissioner may require for the use and benefit of the purchasers or persons making payments upon pre-need funeral service contracts or their estates, or the beneficiary of the pre-need funeral service contract or the beneficiary's estate for damages suffered by them because of the failure to comply with all provisions of the pre-need funeral service contract or the provisions of this chapter.43-10.1-05.Verification by commissioner.Within ninety days after the filing of areport as required by section 43-10.1-03, the commissioner shall verify the report by mailing to the banks, credit unions, savings and loan associations, or trust companies where the report indicates the consideration has been deposited, a questionnaire which the bank, credit union, savings and loan association, or trust company is requested to complete and return, verifying the facts stated in the report in regard to the contract or the deposit of funds. The commissioner shall verify the facts on additional contracts reported if the commissioner has reason to believe additional verification to be necessary.43-10.1-06. Special audits - Violations of law. Repealed by S.L. 1979, ch. 463, </DIV></DIV></DIV> </DIV>  <DIV></DIV> <DIV></DIV> <DIV></DIV> <DIV></DIV>  <DIV id=footer> <DIV class=container> Copyright © 2012-2022 Laws9.Com All rights reserved.  <A href="/contactus.html">Contact Us</A> | <A href="/aboutus.html">About Us</A> | <A href="/terms.html">Terms</A> | <A href="/privacy.html">Privacy</A> </DIV> </DIV> </BODY></HTML>

Find Legal Information

North Dakota Codes and Statutes

43-10.1 Pre-Need Funeral Services