OHIO LEGISLATIVE SERVICE COMMISSION
Office of Research Legislative Budget
www.lsc.ohio.gov and Drafting Office
4717
S.B. 224 Final Analysis
134th General Assembly
Click here for S.B. 224’s Fiscal Note
Primary Sponsor: Sen. Cirino
Effective date: September 13, 2022
Effective Date:
Carla Napolitano, Attorney
S. Ben Fogle, Attorney
Alyssa Bethel, Attorney
SUMMARY
Preneed funeral contracts
 Requires, whenever there are funds left over following performance of a preneed
funeral contract, the holder of the funds to pay the remaining funds to the seller of the
contract, who must then deposit those funds into a trust or purchase insurance or
annuity policies to fund additional preneed funeral contracts.
 Adds the person with the right of disposition of the deceased person’s body as a
possible payee for purposes of the continuing requirement that, if funeral goods or
services are provided by someone other than the seller of a preneed funeral contract
that was funded by a trust, the seller direct the trustee to pay the money in trust to
certain persons.
 Authorizes a mistaken payee of funds intended to fund a preneed funeral contract to
sign over the mistaken payment to the appropriate entity.
 Allows the $10 preneed funeral contract fee that is paid to the Board of Embalmers and
Funeral Directors to be paid by any method, including cash.
 Requires the Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors to study the trusting
requirements in other states relating to caskets purchased on a preneed basis and to
report its findings to the General Assembly within three months after the act’s effective
date.
Unclaimed Funds Law
 Adds to the Unclaimed Funds Law certain unclaimed funds held pursuant to a preneed
funeral contract.
 Requires the holder of funds for a preneed funeral contract to, in the calendar year in
which the beneficiary turns 105, contact the seller or successor seller to inform the
seller or successor seller of the beneficiary’s 105th birthday.
July 21, 2022
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 Requires the holder and the seller or successor seller to agree that one of them will
attempt to confirm that the beneficiary is still alive.
Funeral professionals
 Provides that a facility that is closing must give notice to various parties regarding any
unclaimed cremated remains.
 Requires the Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors to add the violation of specified
license transfer requirements to its list of violations for which it establishes forfeiture.
 Increases the fee to reactivate an embalmer’s or funeral director’s license from $140 to
$200.
 Requires the Board to issue reciprocal licenses if certain criteria are met.
 Requires, rather than permits, the Board to determine under what conditions a courtesy
card permit is to be issued to funeral directors in bordering states.
 Permits the Board to take disciplinary action against a licensee who provided services to
a person knowing that those services were sold to that person by another person who
lacked a license.
 Eliminates the requirement that a funeral director, embalmer, or crematory operator
conspicuously display their name at the primary entrance to their facility.
 Limits the requirement that an identification tag be provided for cremated remains to
vessels that contain all the remains or more than ten cubic inches of remains.
 Changes the retention period for receipts for acceptance of a dead body and delivery of
cremated remains to the shorter of ten years or the time the crematory remains in
business.
 Provides a qualified immunity from civil liability for funeral professionals and facilities
when a cremation was performed in accordance with the laws governing the disposition
of cremated remains.
 Replaces the requirement that a writing designating a new cremation authorizing agent
be acknowledged by a notary public with a requirement that the writing be signed by a
witness.
 Requires the Director of the Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors to investigate
and prosecute people who provide unlicensed funeral directing services or operate
funeral homes without a license.
 Requires the county prosecutor or the Attorney General to conduct the prosecution
upon the Director’s request.
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Right of disposition
 Disqualifies a person from serving as a decedent’s representative to manage the
decedent’s final disposition (i.e., burial, cremation, and funeral arrangements) if any of
following occur:
 The person refuses to assume financial responsibility for the costs of the final
disposition.
 The person fails to exercise their rights as representative within 48 hours of
notification of the decedent’s death.
 The person fails to exercise their rights as representative within 72 hours of the
decedent’s death or the discovery of the decedent’s remains (if discovered more
than one hour after death) if the person is not notified of the decedent’s death.
 Removes consideration of a person’s willingness to assume financial responsibility for
the costs of a decedent’s final disposition from the factors that a probate court must
consider when the court assigns the right of disposition.
Parental rights of disposition for a deceased adult child
 Gives precedence for the right of disposition of a decedent’s remains to the parent who
was the residential parent and legal custodian of the decedent over the parent who was
not the residential parent and legal custodian at the time the decedent reached the age
of majority.
 Prohibits a parent who has been disqualified from the right of disposition to have the
parental precedence.
 Specifies that the parental precedence for the right of disposition is not affected by a
group of people or class of persons being assigned the right of disposition.
 Provides that a parent’s status as a residential parent and legal custodian must be
established by a court order or decree allocating parental rights and responsibilities that
was in effect up to or at the time that the decedent reached the age of majority, or by
other uncontroverted evidence.
 Provides that funeral directors, embalmers, and crematory operators are not required
to investigate whether the person claiming to be the residential parent and legal
custodian of a decedent is in fact the residential parent and legal custodian.
Funeral vehicles
 Authorizes a funeral hearse and a funeral escort vehicle to be equipped with and display
a flashing, oscillating, or rotating purple light (in addition to an amber light authorized
by continuing law).
Fetal death certificates
 Allows a funeral director to apply for a fetal death certificate and burial permit.
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Ohio Elections Commission alternates
 Requires the appointment of alternates to the Ohio Elections Commission.
County commissioner ex officio membership
 Allows a county commissioner who is required to serve on another public body as an ex
officio member but has a conflict or potential conflict, to be replaced by an appointee
(by the remaining two county commissioners).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Ohio Elections Commission alternates ........................................................................................... 4
County commissioner ex officio membership ................................................................................ 4
Preneed funeral contracts .............................................................................................................. 5
Excess and unpaid funds ............................................................................................................. 5
Purchase of preneed funeral contract ........................................................................................ 6
Mistaken payee ...................................................................................................................... 6
Preneed funeral contract fee ................................................................................................. 6
Study of trusting requirements for preneed casket purchases .................................................. 6
Unclaimed Funds Law ..................................................................................................................... 7
Confirmation that beneficiary is alive ......................................................................................... 7
Funeral professionals ...................................................................................................................... 8
Requirements for a facility that is closing ................................................................................... 8
Requirements relating to transfers of licenses and locations .................................................... 8
Licenses and courtesy cards ........................................................................................................ 9
Display of name at facility entrance ............................................................................................ 9
ID tag for cremated remains ....................................................................................................... 9
Retention of crematory receipts ............................................................................................... 10
Civil immunity of funeral professionals and facilities ............................................................... 10
Replacement of notary requirement with witness requirement ............................................. 10
Unlicensed funeral directing ..................................................................................................... 11
Right of disposition ....................................................................................................................... 11
Background................................................................................................................................ 11
Disqualification of named representative ................................................................................. 11
Court assignment of the right of disposition ............................................................................ 12
Right of disposition for children ................................................................................................ 12
Parental rights of disposition for a deceased adult child ............................................................. 13
Multiple assignees of the right of disposition ........................................................................... 13
Establishment of status as the residential parent and legal custodian .................................... 13
Funeral vehicles ............................................................................................................................ 14
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Fetal death certificates ................................................................................................................. 14
Ohio Elections Commission alternates ......................................................................................... 14
County commissioner ex officio membership .............................................................................. 15
DETAILED ANALYSIS
Preneed funeral contracts
A preneed funeral contract is a contract for certain funeral services or goods to be used
in connection with the funeral or final disposition of a decedent (a person that has died), where
payment for the goods or services is made prior to the person’s death. The contract can be
funded in a number of ways. It can be funded through an insurance policy or an annuity. Or the
purchaser can pay the cost directly, either in a single payment or through installments. If this
approach is used, the seller is required to place the money in a preneed funeral contract trust,
with the trustee being a state-licensed trust company, a national bank, federal savings bank, or
federal savings association that pledges securities in accordance with the requirements of the
Trust Companies Law, or a credit union authorized to conduct business in Ohio.1
The act makes changes relating to how these funds are managed.
Excess and unpaid funds
The act provides that when funds are left over following performance of a preneed
funeral contract, the entity holding the excess funds must pay them directly to the seller of the
preneed funeral contract. The seller then must deposit them into a trust or purchase insurance
or annuity policies to fund additional preneed funeral contracts.2
Under continuing law, if the seller of a preneed funeral contract using a preneed funeral
contract trust receives notice that the funeral goods and services have been provided by
another provider, the seller must direct the trustee holding the funds to pay that provider, if
still unpaid, or the beneficiary’s estate, all funds held by the trustee minus any incurred costs.
The act adds a third option if no estate has been opened: paying the person with the right of
disposition of the body. Thus, under the act, that money must go to the provider, if still unpaid,
with the remainder going to the beneficiary’s estate or, if no estate has been opened, to the
person with the right of disposition. The person with the right of disposition is the person
assigned by a court to direct the disposition of the decedent’s remains (see “Right of
disposition,” below.)
If payment is to be made to the beneficiary’s estate or the person with the right of
disposition, the act requires the trustee to make a reasonable attempt to pay within 180 days
of receipt of notice that the beneficiary has died. If the trustee is unable to pay within 180 days,
1 R.C. 4717.36(D); R.C. 4717.01(T), 4717.31, and 4717.32(B), not in the act.
2 R.C. 4717.35 and 4717.36(K).
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the trustee must report and remit the funds to the Director of Commerce pursuant to the
Unclaimed Funds Law (see “Unclaimed Funds Law” below).3
Purchase of preneed funeral contract
Mistaken payee
As noted above, a preneed funeral contract made by direct purchase requires the seller
to create a preneed funeral contract trust for the funds. Continuing law generally requires all
payments by a purchaser of a preneed funeral contract made through direct purchase to be
made payable only to the trustee of the preneed funeral contract trust or to the trustee’s
depository. Under the act, if the direct purchaser mistakenly makes payment in the form of a
check made payable to the seller, the seller may, within five business days of receiving the
check, sign over and forward the check to the trustee or the trustee’s designated depository.
Similarly, if a preneed funeral contract is to be funded by the purchase of an insurance
policy, continuing law requires the insurance agent selling the policy to require the purchaser to
make payment in a form payable only to the insurance company. Under the act, if the
purchaser made payment in the form of a check made payable to the seller, the seller may,
within five business days of receiving the check, sign over and forward the check to the
insurance company designated in the contract.4
Preneed funeral contract fee
Under continuing law, the Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors must charge and
collect a $10 fee for each preneed funeral contract except for those funded by the assignment
of an existing insura