Sub. H.B. 426

126th General Assembly

(S. Judiciary Civil Justice)

The Senate Committee adopted amendments that do the following:

(1)  Prohibit an owner, employee, or agent of a funeral home, cemetery, or crematory providing funeral, burial, or cremation services for a declarant from serving as a representative or successor representative for the declarant unless the owner, employee, or agent is related to the declarant by blood, marriage, or adoption;

(2)  Require that every preneed funeral contract entered into or executed on or after the bill's effective date include a notice that the purchaser of the contract will be notified in writing when the trustee of the contract has received a deposit of the fund the purchaser paid the seller under the contract and that, if the person does not receive the notice within 60 days of the date the purchaser paid the funds to the seller, the purchaser should contact the trustee;

(3)  Require the trustee of a preneed funeral contract to notify the purchaser of the contract in writing of the amount of any deposit with the trustee of a payment under the contract within 15 days of receiving the deposit from the seller of the contract;

(4)  Remove the authority of a declarant to appoint a first successor representative and a second successor representative and instead allow the declarant to appoint a successor representative and require each successor representative to be considered in the order the representative is designated by the declarant;

(5)  Change a reference to a business operating a crematory to a reference to "crematory operator."

H0426-126.doc/blf 05/22/06