§454.  Trust funds required; master trust fund

A. No corporation hereafter organized for the operation of a perpetual or endowed care cemetery and no cemetery authority not operating prior to August 1, 1962, as a perpetual or endowed care cemetery shall advertise or sell interment spaces in the cemetery under the representation that such cemetery or any individual interment space therein is entitled to perpetual or endowed care, until there has been established a trust fund to provide for such care in the sum of fifty thousand dollars in cash, or in lieu thereof securities listed upon a national exchange or obligations of the United States government, any state, parish, county, or municipality, having a fair market value equal to said amount of cash on the date of deposit.

B. The trust fund so created shall be evidenced by an instrument in writing and shall be placed with a designated trustee which shall be a federally insured financial institution or trust company located in Louisiana and authorized to exercise trust or fiduciary powers under the laws of Louisiana or the United States.

C.(1) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, for the purposes of collective investment and administration and with written consent of each participant in a master trust fund, a designated trustee of two or more trust funds may apply to the board to establish a master trust fund in which deposits are made pursuant to the provisions of this Title.

(2) The master trust fund shall be subject to the following requirements:

(a) It shall include only trust funds with a principal balance of less than two hundred fifty thousand dollars. Upon a determination that a trust fund made a part of a master trust fund has a principal sum exceeding two hundred fifty thousand dollars at the end of a reporting period, such trust fund shall no longer be subject to the collective investment and administration of the master trust fund and shall be removed from the master trust fund within ninety days.

(b) The designated trustee of a master trust fund shall maintain separate records of principal and income for each participant in the master trust fund.

(c) The income and associated expenses of the master trust fund shall be divided among the participants in the master trust fund based on the proportion that each participant contributes to the balance of the master trust fund.

(d) The annual report by the designated trustee of the master trust fund shall include an itemized separate accounting for each participant in the master trust fund. Such annual report shall comply with the provisions of R.S. 8:456.

(e) The operation of the master trust fund shall be subject to the provisions of this Title and the rules and regulations of the board.

Acts 1974, No. 417, §1. Amended by Acts 1980, No. 428, §1; Acts 1992, No. 86, §1; Acts 2001, No. 468, §1; Acts 2003, No. 501, §1, eff. July 1, 2003; Acts 2018, No. 391, §1, eff. May 20, 2018.