75-63-53 - Definitions. - Mississippi Statutes

§ 75-63-53. Definitions.
 

As used in this article, unless the context requires otherwise: 
 

(a) "Buyer" means the person who purchases the preneed contract. 

(b) "Cash advance item" means any item of service or merchandise described to a purchaser as a "cash advance," "accommodation," "cash disbursement" or similar term. A cash advance item is also any item obtained from a third party and paid for by the funeral provider on the purchaser's behalf. Cash advance items may include, but are not limited to: cemetery or crematory services; pallbearers; public transportation; clergy honoraria; flowers; musicians or singers; nurses; obituary notices; gratuities and death certificates. 

(c) "Cemetery" means an organization as defined in Section 41-43-33. 

(d) "Contract insured" or "contract owner" means the person upon whose death will initiate the performance of a preneed contract. 

(e) "Contract provider" means the funeral home, cemetery or other providers of merchandise and/or service in a preneed contract that will be responsible for performing a preneed contract. 

(f) "Crematory" means an organization as defined in Section 73-11-41. 

(g) "Financial institution" means a bank, trust company, savings bank, or savings and loan association chartered or authorized to do business in this state. 

(h) "Funeral home" means a business licensed under Section 73-11-55. 

(i) "Inflation proof contract" means a preneed contract that establishes a fixed price for funeral services and merchandise without regard to future price increases. 

(j) "Insurance" means a life insurance policy, an annuity policy or a Class A or Class B burial insurance policy. 

(k) "Merchandise" means personal property associated with the disposal of or memorializing a deceased human being, including, but not limited to, a casket, burial vault, burial clothes, urn or monument. 

(l) "Preneed contract" means any contract, agreement or any series or combination of contracts or agreements, whether funded by trust deposits or insurance, or any combination thereof, which has for a purpose the furnishing or performance of funeral services, or the furnishing or delivery of merchandise, of any nature in connection with the final disposition of a dead human body, to be furnished or delivered at a time determinable by the death of the person whose body is to be disposed of but shall not mean the furnishing of a cemetery lot, crypt, niche or mausoleum. 

(m) "Seller" means the person who sells a preneed contract. 

(n) "Services" means services of any nature in connection with the final disposition of a dead human body. 

(o) "Standard contract" means a preneed contract that applies the trust funds or insurance proceeds to the purchase price of specific funeral services and specific merchandise at the time of death of the contract insured without a guarantee against future price increases. 

(p) "Trust" means an express trust created by a trust instrument whereby a trustee has the duty to administer a trust asset for the benefit of a named preneed contract insured. 

(q) "Trustee" or "trust officer" means an original, added or successor trustee including its successor by merger or consolidation. 

(r) "Trust documents" means documents, including, but not limited to, preneed contracts, receipts, contract owner's death certificate, proof of death, the trust agreement, and any and all correspondence between the trustee or trust institution and the contract provider or contract insured. 
 

Sources: Laws, 2001, ch. 513, § 2; Laws, 2006, ch. 448, § 1; Laws, 2009, ch. 549, § 1, eff from and after July 1, 2009.