This bill makes the following changes and additions to present law concerning the regulation of cemeteries: (1) Present law authorizes a cemetery owner to select one of the following methods to calculate the net earnings of an improvement care trust for the first fiscal year in which disbursements are made from the trust: (A) All net income, excluding capital gains; or (B) An amount not exceeding 5 percent of the fair market value of the trust, averaged over the lesser of the balance as of the last day of the trust fiscal year immediately preceding the distribution year and the two preceding years or, if less than two years, the period of time the trust has been in existence. This bill changes (B) to an amount not exceeding 5 percent of the fair market value of the trust, averaged over the balance as of the last day of the trust fiscal year immediately preceding the distribution year and the two preceding years or, if less than two years, the average of the balance as of the last day of each trust fiscal year for the period of time the trust has been in existence; (2) Under present law, a cemetery company's memorial care fee is capped at 23 cents per square inch of the ground covered by the commodity, and annual increases to the fee cannot exceed the percentage increase in the consumer price index at the end of the calendar year. This bill removes such caps on the memorial care fee. This bill retains present law that limits the memorial care fee to the fee charged for installation of the commodity to which the memorial fee applies; (3) Present law caps a cemetery commodity installation fee at 26¢ per square inch of the ground covered by the commodity, and annual increases to the fee cannot exceed the percentage increase in the consumer price index at the end of the calendar year. This bill removes such caps on the installation fee; (4) Under present law, if a cemetery owner's commodity installation fee exceeds the caps described in (3), the owner is required to permit installation of the commodity by non-cemetery personnel, if requested by the lot owner. This bill deletes such requirement; (5) This bill removes the $100 cap on the amount of an administrative, processing, or documentation fee charged by a cemetery owner. This bill adds a requirement that any such fee be posted on the schedule of charges; (6) Present law specifies certain provisions that must be stated in a written improvement care trust agreement, including that, within 30 days of a transaction, certain minimum amounts will be set aside and deposited in trust by the cemetery company. This bill adds that additional deposits to the improvement care trust fund are not required on the sale of subsequent interment rights for the same cemetery land, lawn crypt, mausoleum, crypt, niche, or any memorial other than a commodity, for which an improvement care deposit has already been made; (7) This bill establishes a process whereby an interment right is considered abandoned, and will revert to the cemetery company that owns or controls the cemetery where the right was purchased, if the following occurs: (A) Seventy-five years pass without known contact with the recorded owner of the interment right or, if the recorded owner is deceased, with an heir or beneficiary of the recorded owner of the right; (B) The cemetery company conducts a reasonable search for the recorded owner of the interment right and, if the recorded owner of the interment right is deceased, an heir or beneficiary of the owner. The full text of this bill specifies what constitutes a reasonable search and includes publication; and (C) An individual does not provide proof of ownership of the interment right within one year from the first date of the publication required by (B). A cemetery may not reclaim any interment right if a memorial has been installed on the cemetery space. This bill provides that an individual who provides proof of ownership of an interment right that is deemed abandoned and that has been used or sold by the cemetery company is entitled to receive an interment right from the cemetery company's available inventory of equal value to the resale price of the abandoned interment right that reverted to the cemetery company or the original purchase price, whichever is greater, for up to 25 years after the right was reclaimed by the cemetery company. This bill requires a cemetery that reclaims an interment right to keep a record of such reclamation and provide the record to the commissioner of commerce and insurance upon request; (8) This bill renames the "cemetery consumer protection account" to be the "cemetery state administrative account"; (9) This bill specifies that a cemetery company is prohibited from charging a consumer more than one state administrative fee for the execution of one or more cemetery contracts entered into by the consumer at any one time; and (10) This bill specifies that cemeteries sell internment rights rather than lots or land as stated in present law. ON MARCH 10, 2025, THE SENATE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 715, AS AMENDED. AMENDMENT #1 makes the following revisions:  Revises the definitions of cemetery, cemetery company, crypt, grave space, interment, and niche to match the definitions of those terms in present law relative to the regulation of cemeteries.  Adds that a cause of action does not arise from reclamation of an abandoned interment right if the interment right was reclaimed in accordance with the bill.  Changes the effective date of the bill from upon becoming a law to January 1, 2026. ON MARCH 17, 2025, THE HOUSE SUBSTITUTED SENATE BILL 715, ADOPTED AMENDMENT #2, AND PASSED SENATE BILL 715, AS AMENDED. AMENDMENT #1 increases, instead of removing the caps for, the maximum amount of fees that a cemetery company may charge with regard to commodities installed in the cemetery, as follows: (1) For installation, from 26 to 75 cents per square inch of the ground covered by the commodity; and (2) For maintenance, from 23 to 75 cents per square inch of the ground covered by the commodity. This amendment makes an additional change to present law consistent with this bill's reclassification of lot owners as internment rights owners.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 46-1-204(e)(1)(A)(ii), 46-1-204, 46-1-204(c), 46-2-101(b), 46-2-101, 46-2-101(b)(3), 46-2-101(c), 46-1-204(b)(3), 46-1-105(a), 46-1-105, 46-1-204(b)(3)(A), 46-1-108(a), 46-1-108