34-13-265

An endowment care fund and all payments or contributions to it are expressly permitted as and for charitable and eleemosynary purposes. No payment, gift, grant, bequest, or other contribution for endowment care is invalid by reason of any indefiniteness or uncertainty of the persons designated as beneficiaries in the instruments creating the fund, nor is the fund or any contributions to it invalid as violating any law against perpetuities, or the suspension of the power of alienation of title to property.

34-13-266

Any cemetery now existing or hereafter established, excluding those operated by governmental agencies or religious institutions, may be qualified as an endowment care cemetery, except those cemeteries that do not charge fees or sell plots, interment rights, or any related cemetery services.

34-13-267 (a)

Every cemetery authority operating an endowment care cemetery shall establish an endowment care fund which shall be placed with and held by a bank, trust company, savings and loan association, or other financial institution authorized to provide trust services under Title 5, as amended, or under the applicable laws of the United States or any other state, or a board of trustees, consisting of at least three members, who shall reside in the State of Alabama, one of whom is engaged in outside cemetery management, and each of whom shall be bonded to honestly perform the duties of trustee under a formal trust agreement.

34-13-268

  1. Each cemetery authority shall maintain at each place of business a list of the names and addresses of its owners and directors, which shall be available to the public.
  2. Each cemetery authority shall maintain a record of all interment space owners by name and last known address with a description of merchandise and location of burial lots, crypts, or niches, and the records shall be on a form or in a format prescribed by the board and shall detail all information required by the board. A plat map shall be maintained for each cemetery location at the cemetery business office. A book or file shall be kept as to the date, location by lot, and space number of each person interred or entombed in the cemetery. A written copy of the cemetery rules and regulations shall be maintained at each location and made available to the public upon request.

34-13-269

  1. From the sale price of each plot, crypt, or niche sold by the cemetery authority of an endowment care cemetery, the cemetery authority shall pay an amount, not less than as determined in accordance with the following schedule, to the trustee of the endowment care fund, which payment shall be paid over to the trustee not more than four months after the close of the month in which the total or final payment on the sale has been received:
    1. Fifteen percent of the net sales price of each grave or lawn crypt space.
    2. Five percent of the net sales price of each mausoleum crypt or niche.
    3. If a cemetery authority donates or gives a free space, mausoleum, or niche, a minimum of fifty dollars ($50) shall be paid to the endowment care fund.
    4. The amount received for special care funds, gifts, grants, contribution devises, or bequests made with respect to the separate or special care of a particular lot, grave, crypt, niche, mausoleum, monument, or marker or that of a particular family, as distinguished from the general endowed care of a cemetery or of a garden.
  2. In addition to subsection (a), a cemetery authority may receive and transfer to the trustee, as a part of or incident to the endowment care fund, any property, real, personal, or mixed, bequeathed, devised, given, or otherwise contributed to it for endowment care purposes. Any contractual endowment care deposits shall fall under this chapter.
  3. Any cemetery authority that is organized and engaged in business prior to May 1, 2002, shall qualify as an endowment care cemetery if the following occur:
    1. Not already placed, a cemetery authority shall within 90 days of May 1, 2002, have placed the entire principal of any endowment care fund in its possession, custody, or control, into the hands of a qualified trustee designated by it, to be administered as set forth in this chapter; and principal of its endowment care fund, or the aggregate principal of its endowment care funds, if more than one, shall have a fair market value on either May 1, 2002, or on the date of transfer to the trustee of not less than twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000); or the cemetery authority shall substitute 25 percent for each percentage of each sale for the next five years or five thousand dollars ($5,000) per year, whichever is greater, until the balance of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) is reached. In such case, the entire amount of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) shall be paid into the fund before the end of the fifth year, and no interest may be removed from the fund until the twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) minimum has been reached.
    2. A cemetery authority shall at all times after May 1, 2002, comply with the minimum requirements for payments to the trustee for endowment care.
  4. Any cemetery authority organizing a cemetery after May 1, 2002, whether it be by incorporation, association, individually, or by any other means, or having its first burial after May 1, 2002, before disposing of any burial lot or right or making any sale thereof or making its first burial, or both, shall cause to be deposited with a qualified trustee, in cash, the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) in the endowment care fund.

REGISTERING AS AN ENDOWMENT CARE CEMETERY

All endowment care cemeteries must be registered with the Board and obtain a license number.  A checklist for the application can be found here.  Sample contracts, agreements, and logs that may be required with the application can be found here.  Instructions for applying for a Certificate of Authority license through the online portal can be found here.

CEMETERY PROPERTY SALES LOG

34-13-268 (b)

Each cemetery authority shall maintain a record of all interment space owners by name and last known address with a description of merchandise and location of burial lots, crypts, or niches, and the records shall be on a form or in a format prescribed by the board and shall detail all information required by the board.

A sample Cemetery Property Sales Log can be found here.

Administrative Rule 395-X-12-.04

If the Board’s sample log form is not used, any substitute form of cemetery property sales log shall include the following information categories:

  1. Sequentially ordered contract number
  2. Property owner
  3. Date of contract
  4. Net amount of contract (contract price after all discounts; if complimentary or free so designate on the log)
  5. Itemization of purchase price of merchandise and services collected under the contract
  6. Amount to be trusted (if applicable)
  7. Paid-in -full amount or cumulative installment payments
  8. Paid-in-full date
  9. Cumulative amount due endowment care trust
  10. Cumulative amount of endowment care contributions
  11. Date of endowment care contributions
  12. Date of burial (at need)
  13. Date contract voided or canceled

REPORTING

34-13-274

An annual report of the endowment care fund shall be made to the board by each cemetery authority within 90 days of the close of each calendar year. This report shall include the qualified trustee’s name or names, the bond numbers if individual trustees or the name and address of the financial institution in which the fund is maintained, and the affidavit of the cemetery authority affirming compliance with this chapter.

Instructions for reporting through the online portal can be found here.

CHANGE OF OWNERSHIP

34-13-274

Prior to the sale or transfer of a cemetery, the cemetery authority shall report and document to the board that the endowment care fund is currently funded in accordance with this chapter.