214.310. Endowed care and maintenance fund, minimum amount--bond--posting of sign, when, information required. - Missouri Statutes

Endowed care and maintenance fund, minimum amount--bond--posting ofsign, when, information required.

214.310. 1. Any cemetery operator who elects to operate a new cemeteryas an endowed care cemetery or who represents to the public that perpetual,permanent, endowed, continual, eternal care, care of duration or similar carewill be furnished cemetery property sold shall create an endowed care fund andshall deposit a minimum of twenty-five thousand dollars for cemeteries thathave in excess of one hundred burials annually or a minimum of five thousanddollars for cemeteries that have one hundred or less burials annually in suchfund before selling or disposing of any burial space in said cemetery, or inlieu thereof such cemetery owner may furnish a surety bond issued by a bondingcompany or insurance company authorized to do business in this state in theface amount of thirty thousand dollars, and such bond shall run to the officeof endowed care cemeteries for the benefit of the care funds held by suchcemetery. This bond shall be for the purpose of guaranteeing an accumulationof twenty-five thousand dollars in such care fund and also for the furtherpurpose of assuring that the cemetery owner shall provide annual perpetual orendowment care in an amount equal to the annual reasonable return on a securedcash investment of twenty-five thousand dollars until twenty-five thousanddollars is accumulated in said endowed care funds, and these shall be theconditions of such surety bond; provided, however, the liability of theprincipal and surety on the bond shall in no event exceed thirty thousanddollars. Provided further, that whenever a cemetery owner which has made aninitial deposit to the endowed care fund demonstrates to the satisfaction ofthe administrator of the office of endowed care cemeteries that more thantwenty-five thousand dollars has been accumulated in the endowed care fund,the cemetery owner may petition the administrator of the office of endowedcare cemeteries for an order to dissolve the surety bond requirement, so longas at least twenty-five thousand dollars always remains in the endowed carefund.

2. Construction of a mausoleum, lawn crypt, columbarium or crematoriumas part of a cemetery then operated as an endowed care cemetery shall not beconsidered the establishment of a new cemetery for purposes of this section.

3. Any endowed care cemetery which does not maintain a fully staffedoffice in the county in which the cemetery is located shall have prominentlydisplayed on the premises a sign clearly stating the operator's name, addressand telephone number. If the operator does not reside in the county in whichthe cemetery is located, the sign shall also state the name, address andtelephone number of a resident of the county who is the authorized agent ofthe operator or the location of an office of the cemetery which is within tenmiles of such cemetery. In jurisdictions where ordinances require signs tomeet certain specifications, a weatherproof notice containing the informationrequired by this subsection shall be sufficient.

(L. 1961 p. 538 § 5, A.L. 1990 H.B. 1079, A.L. 1994 S.B. 496, A.L. 1999 H.B. 343)