2006 Louisiana Laws - RS 37:861 — Prepaid funeral services or merchandise

PART II.  PREPAID FUNERAL SERVICES OR MERCHANDISE

§861.  Prepaid funeral services or merchandise

A.  It shall be unlawful for a firm, partnership, corporation, an association of individuals, or anyone to engage in the selling of prearranged or prepaid burial or funeral services or merchandise, or distributing any contracts, certificates, or coupons, or any other method of granting or promising, expressed or implied, these benefits including caskets, grave vaults, and all other merchandise or services incidental to a funeral or final disposition of a human remains, excluding grave vaults when sold by a cemetery authority, grave lots, grave spaces, grave markers, monuments, tombstones, niches, and mausoleums, other than:

(1)  A duly licensed funeral establishment to be identified as "seller."

(a)  In such case all amounts paid to or received by the seller shall be deposited within seven days in a savings and loan association or in a savings account in a bank, in this state.  Such deposits shall be carried in individual accounts in the joint name of the seller and purchaser or in individual trust accounts, both for the exclusive use and benefit, including all earned interest, of the purchaser.  There shall be no commingling of these accounts.  The seller may withdraw the funds only at the death of the purchaser by presentation of a death certificate copy and a certified funeral statement for the amount to be withdrawn, together with other requirements of the financial institution.  The purchaser may withdraw the funds by written notice to the seller requesting the release of the depository document held by seller, or, if he so desires, may by his own request and by written notice to the seller at any time during the life of the contract, render any amount of the prepaid contract irrevocable.  

(b)  Each seller shall file annually a report with the Louisiana State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors as a prerequisite for licensing of said establishment.  The report shall list the name, address, contract number, and principal amount and interest of each deposit or contract outstanding.  This report shall be in affidavit form stating that the report is correct; that all funds received were deposited in a savings and loan association or bank as required under this Section; and that the seller has no other contracts or deposits effective after the date of this Part.  Records used to complete this report shall be available to the board and shall be inspected annually.  

(c)  No seller or representative thereof shall solicit by any personal means whatsoever for prearranged or prepaid funeral benefits herein defined.

(2)  Those licensed to sell contracts of funeral insurance as authorized by R.S. Title 22 with an insurance company licensed in Louisiana.  

B.  It shall be unlawful for any seller to give or offer to give, directly or indirectly, orally or in writing, any money, credit, discount, gratuity or other thing of value, or advertise the offering of such benefits as an inducement for the business of a prospective customer.  It shall also be unlawful for any seller to operate any burial insurance association or society, or issue, give, sell or distribute any contract or agreement, certificate or coupon, granting or promising any burial benefits or credit thereon, unless authorized under this Part or under R.S. Title 22.  

C.(1)  Whoever violates the provisions of this Part shall be fined not less than five hundred dollars, nor more than two thousand five hundred dollars and costs of the court reporter and attorney for the board for each offense, or by imprisonment for not less than thirty days nor more than one hundred eighty days for each offense, or both such fine and imprisonment.

(2)  If a firm violates the provisions of this Part, all the members of the firm who knowingly violate such provisions shall be subject to the penalty.  If a corporation violates the provisions of this Part, the members of the board of directors and the officers of the corporation who knowingly violate such provisions shall be subject to the penalty.  

D.  Nothing in this Part, however, shall alter or affect any provisions of R.S. Title 22 authorizing the issuance of life or funeral insurance policies.

E.  Anything in this Part contained to the contrary notwithstanding, this Part shall not apply to any person, firm, corporation, trustee, partnership, association or other legal entity who now or hereafter exclusively engages in, owns, operates, controls and manages a cemetery authority located in the State of Louisiana, unless it sells, or attempts to sell, or contracts for merchandise or services commonly furnished by a funeral home such as caskets, embalming, funeral directing, use of funeral home facilities and use of a hearse or transportation of a dead human body.  

Added by Acts 1974, No. 5, §1.  Amended by Acts 1982, No. 592, §1; Acts 1983, No. 454, §1.