All cemeteries in Alabama are endowment care cemeteries if they have charged fees for interment rights after April 30, 2002, except for cemeteries owned or operated by government entities and religious institutions. Endowment care cemeteries must establish and fund an endowment care trust fund with and held by a bank, trust company, savings and loan association, or a board of trustee consisting of at least three bonded board members. The endowment care fund must be held intact, except for income from the trust that may be used exclusively for cemetery maintenance. As of May 1, 2007, all endowment care cemeteries, including newly organized cemeteries, must have at least $25,000 in the endowment care trust fund. Code Sections of the Alabama Preneed Funeral and Cemetery Act of 2023 applicable to Endowment Care Cemeteries are Sections 34-13-265 thru 34-13-276.
Endowment care cemeteries are required to maintain a log of all cemetery property sales. The logs should show all transactions made since April 30, 2002. At a minimum, the logs should be updated quarterly, so that at no time is it ever more than a quarter behind. The specific requirements of the log are contained in Preneed Regulation 482-3-005. Use of the Board’s example Cemetery Property Sales Log complies with the aforementioned regulation.
Each endowment care cemetery must submit an Annual Report of Trust Activity. This report along with a statement of the activities of the Endowment Care Trust must be submitted to the Board within 90 days of the close of each calendar year. The report requires disclosure of the amount held in trust at the end of both the current and prior year.