Effective 28 Aug 2010

214.320. Deposits in fund required, amount — annual report, form furnished by division — audits may be conducted, when — exemption from chapter 436 requirements, when. — 1. An operator of an endowed care cemetery shall establish and deposit in an endowed care trust fund not less than the following amounts for burial space sold or disposed of, with such deposits to the endowed care trust fund to be made monthly on all burial space that has been fully paid for to the date of deposit:

(1) A minimum of fifteen percent of the gross sales price, or twenty dollars, whichever is greater, for each grave space sold;

(2) A minimum of ten percent of the gross sales price of each crypt or niche sold in a community mausoleum, or a minimum of one hundred dollars for each crypt or fifty dollars for each niche sold in a community mausoleum, whichever is greater;

(3) A minimum of ten percent of the gross sales price of each crypt or niche sold in a garden mausoleum, or a minimum of one hundred dollars for each crypt or twenty-five dollars for each niche sold in a garden mausoleum, whichever is greater;

(4) A minimum of ten percent of the gross sales price of each lawn crypt sold or a minimum of seventy-five dollars, whichever is greater.

2. Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision (2) of subsection 1 of this section, a cemetery operator who has made the initial deposit in trust as required by sections 214.270 to 214.410 from his own funds, and not from funds deposited with respect to sales of burial space, may deposit only one-half the minimum amounts set forth in subdivisions (1) and (2) of subsection 1 of this section, until he shall have recouped his entire initial deposit. Thereafter, he shall make the minimum deposits required under subdivisions (1), (2), (3), and (4) of subsection 1 of this section.

3. As required by section 214.340, each operator of an endowed care cemetery shall file with the division of professional registration, on a form provided by the division, an annual endowed care trust fund report. The operator of any cemetery representing the cemetery, or any portion of the cemetery, as an endowed care cemetery shall make available to the division for inspection or audit at any reasonable time only those cemetery records and trust fund records necessary to determine whether the cemetery's endowed care trust fund is in compliance with sections 214.270 to 214.410. Each cemetery operator who has established an* escrow account pursuant to section 214.387 shall make available to the division for inspection or audit at any reasonable time those cemetery records and financial institution records necessary to determine whether the cemetery operator is in compliance with the provisions of section 214.387.

4. No cemetery operator shall operate or represent to the public by any title, description, or similar terms that a cemetery provides endowed care unless the cemetery is in compliance with the provisions of sections 214.270 to 214.410.

5. A cemetery operator shall be exempt from the provisions of chapter 436 for the sale of cemetery services or for grave lots, grave spaces, markers, monuments, memorials, tombstones, crypts, niches or mausoleums, outer burial containers or other receptacle. A cemetery operator shall be prohibited from adjusting or establishing the sales price of items with the intent of evading the trusting or escrow provisions of this chapter.

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(L. 1961 p. 538 § 7, A.L. 1990 H.B. 1079, A.L. 1994 S.B. 496 merged with S.B. 701, A.L. 2010 H.B. 1692, et al. merged with H.B. 2226, et al. merged with S.B. 754)

*Word "a" appears in original rolls.

(1984) A district court erred in allowing cemetery owners to require third party memorial installers to contribute a percentage of amounts charged for monument installation to endowed care cemetery funds. Rosebrough Monument Co. v. Memorial Park Cemetery (8th Cir.), 736 F.2d 441.