2009 Missouri Revised Statutes
Title XII PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE
Chapter 214 Cemeteries
214.310. Endowed care and maintenance fund, minimum amount--bond--posting of sign, when, information required.

214.310. 1. Any cemetery operator who elects to operate a new cemetery as an endowed care cemetery or who represents to the public that perpetual, permanent, endowed, continual, eternal care, care of duration or similar care will be furnished cemetery property sold shall create an endowed care fund and shall deposit a minimum of twenty-five thousand dollars for cemeteries that have in excess of one hundred burials annually or a minimum of five thousand dollars for cemeteries that have one hundred or less burials annually in such fund before selling or disposing of any burial space in said cemetery, or in lieu thereof such cemetery owner may furnish a surety bond issued by a bonding company or insurance company authorized to do business in this state in the face amount of thirty thousand dollars, and such bond shall run to the office of endowed care cemeteries for the benefit of the care funds held by such cemetery. This bond shall be for the purpose of guaranteeing an accumulation of twenty-five thousand dollars in such care fund and also for the further purpose of assuring that the cemetery owner shall provide annual perpetual or endowment care in an amount equal to the annual reasonable return on a secured cash investment of twenty-five thousand dollars until twenty-five thousand dollars is accumulated in said endowed care funds, and these shall be the conditions of such surety bond; provided, however, the liability of the principal and surety on the bond shall in no event exceed thirty thousand dollars. Provided further, that whenever a cemetery owner which has made an initial deposit to the endowed care fund demonstrates to the satisfaction of the administrator of the office of endowed care cemeteries that more than twenty-five thousand dollars has been accumulated in the endowed care fund, the cemetery owner may petition the administrator of the office of endowed care cemeteries for an order to dissolve the surety bond requirement, so long as at least twenty-five thousand dollars always remains in the endowed care fund.

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

3. Any endowed care cemetery which does not maintain a fully staffed office in the county in which the cemetery is located shall have prominently displayed on the premises a sign clearly stating the operator's name, address and telephone number. If the operator does not reside in the county in which the cemetery is located, the sign shall also state the name, address and telephone number of a resident of the county who is the authorized agent of the operator or the location of an office of the cemetery which is within ten miles of such cemetery. In jurisdictions where ordinances require signs to meet certain specifications, a weatherproof notice containing the information required 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)