HB0815 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB096 04021 KTG 14059 b

96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2009 and 2010
HB0815

Introduced 2/9/2009, by Rep. Dan Brady

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

225 ILCS 45/1	from Ch. 111 1/2, par. 73.101
225 ILCS 45/1a	from Ch. 111 1/2, par. 73.101a
225 ILCS 45/1c new
815 ILCS 390/4	from Ch. 21, par. 204
815 ILCS 390/15	from Ch. 21, par. 215
815 ILCS 390/15.5 new
815 ILCS 390/17	from Ch. 21, par. 217

Amends the Illinois Funeral or Burial Funds Act and the Illinois Pre-Need Cemetery Sales Act. Provides that, before a seller and purchaser enter into a pre-need contract or pre-need sales contract, the seller must disclose and fully explain that the purchaser may fund the contract by choosing one of the following options: depositing the funds into a local banking institution; depositing the funds into a trust program; or other means offered by the seller. Provides that the purchaser shall then choose one of those options. Provides that sellers of pre-need sales contracts must be licensed by the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. Makes other changes. Effective immediately.

FISCAL NOTE ACT MAY APPLY

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning business.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Illinois Funeral or Burial Funds Act is amended by changing Sections 1 and 1a and by adding Section 1c as follows:

(225 ILCS 45/1) (from Ch. 111 1/2, par. 73.101)

Sec. 1. Payment under pre-need contract. Except as otherwise provided in this Section, all sales proceeds paid to any person, partnership, association or corporation with respect to merchandise or services covered by this Act, upon any agreement or contract, or any series or combination of agreements or contracts, which has for a purpose the furnishing or performance of funeral services, or the furnishing or delivery of any personal property, merchandise, or services of any nature in connection with the final disposition of a dead human body, including, but not limited to, outer burial containers, urns, combination casket-vault units, caskets and clothing, for future use at a time determinable by the death of the person or persons whose body or bodies are to be so disposed of, shall be held to be trust funds, and shall be placed in trust in accordance with Sections 1b and 2, or shall be used to purchase life insurance or annuities in accordance with Section 2a. The person, partnership, association or corporation receiving said payments under a pre-need contract is hereby declared to be a trustee thereof until deposits of funds are made in accordance with Section 1b or 2a of this Act. Persons holding less than $500,000 in trust funds may continue to act as the trustee after the funds are deposited in accordance with subsection (d) of Section 1b.

This Section applies only to pre-need contracts entered into prior to the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 96th General Assembly.

Nothing in this Act shall be construed to prohibit the inclusion of outer burial containers in sales contracts under the Illinois Pre-Need Cemetery Sales Act.

(Source: P.A. 91-7, eff. 1-1-2000.)

(225 ILCS 45/1a) (from Ch. 111 1/2, par. 73.101a)

Sec. 1a. For the purposes of this Act, the following terms shall have the meanings specified, unless the context clearly requires another meaning:

"Beneficiary" means the person specified in the pre-need contract upon whose death funeral services or merchandise shall be provided or delivered.

"Licensee" means a seller of a pre-need contract who has been licensed by the Comptroller under this Act.

"Outer burial container" means any container made of concrete, steel, wood, fiberglass or similar material, used solely at the interment site, and designed and used exclusively to surround or enclose a separate casket and to support the earth above such casket, commonly known as a burial vault, grave box or grave liner, but not including a lawn crypt as defined in the Illinois Pre-need Cemetery Sales Act.

"Parent company" means a corporation owning more than 12 cemeteries or funeral homes in more than one state.

"Person" means any person, partnership, association, corporation, or other entity.

"Pre-need contract" means any agreement or contract, or any series or combination of agreements or contracts, whether funded by trust deposits or life insurance policies or annuities, which has for a purpose the furnishing or performance of funeral services or the furnishing or delivery of any personal property, merchandise, or services of any nature in connection with the final disposition of a dead human body. Nothing in this Act is intended to regulate the content of a life insurance policy or a tax-deferred annuity.

"Provider" means a person who is obligated for furnishing or performing funeral services or the furnishing or delivery of any personal property, merchandise, or services of any nature in connection with the final disposition of a dead human body.

"Purchaser" means the person who originally paid the money under or in connection with a pre-need contract.

"Sales proceeds" means the entire amount paid to a seller, exclusive of sales taxes paid by the seller, finance charges paid by the purchaser, and credit life, accident or disability insurance premiums, upon any agreement or contract, or series or combination of agreements or contracts, for the purpose of performing funeral services or furnishing personal property, merchandise, or services of any nature in connection with the final disposition of a dead human body, including, but not limited to, the retail price paid for such services and personal property and merchandise.

"Purchase price" means sales proceeds less finance charges on retail installment contracts.

"Seller" means a the person, licensed as a funeral director or a funeral director and embalmer under the Funeral Directors and Embalmers Licensing Code, who sells or offers to sell the pre-need contract to a purchaser, whether funded by a trust agreement, life insurance policy, or tax-deferred annuity, or other means agreed to by the purchaser and seller in the pre-need contract.

"Trustee" means a person authorized to hold funds under this Act.

(Source: P.A. 92-419, eff. 1-1-02.)

(225 ILCS 45/1c new)

Sec. 1c. Disclosures; options. Beginning on the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 96th General Assembly, before a seller and purchaser enter into a pre-need contract, the seller must disclose and fully explain that the purchaser may fund the pre-need contract by choosing one of the following options:

(1) depositing funds into a local banking institution of the purchaser's choosing;

(2) depositing funds into a trust program operated by the seller; or

(3) other means offered by the seller.

The purchaser shall then choose one of those options.

Section 10. The Illinois Pre-Need Cemetery Sales Act is amended by changing Sections 4, 15, and 17 and by adding Section 15.5 as follows:

(815 ILCS 390/4) (from Ch. 21, par. 204)

Sec. 4. Definitions. As used in this Act, the following terms shall have the meaning specified:

(A) "Pre-need sales contract" or "Pre-need sales" means any agreement or contract or series or combination of agreements or contracts which have for a purpose the sale of cemetery merchandise, cemetery services or undeveloped interment, entombment or inurnment spaces where the terms of such sale require payment or payments to be made at a currently determinable time and where the merchandise, services or completed spaces are to be provided more than 120 days following the initial payment on the account. An agreement or contract for a memorial, marker, or monument shall not be deemed a "pre-need sales contract" or a "pre-need sale" if the memorial, marker, or monument is delivered within 180 days following initial payment on the account and work thereon commences a reasonably short time after initial payment on the account.

(B) "Delivery" occurs when:

(1) Physical possession of the merchandise is transferred or the easement for burial rights in a completed space is executed, delivered and transferred to the buyer; or

(2) Following authorization by a purchaser under a pre-need sales contract, title to the merchandise has been transferred to the buyer and the merchandise has been paid for and is in the possession of the seller who has placed it, until needed, at the site of its ultimate use; or

(3) Following authorization by a purchaser under a pre-need sales contract, the merchandise has been permanently identified with the name of the buyer or the beneficiary and delivered to a licensed and bonded warehouse and both title to the merchandise and a warehouse receipt have been delivered to the purchaser or beneficiary and a copy of the warehouse receipt has been delivered to the licensee for retention in its files; except that in the case of outer burial containers, the use of a licensed and bonded warehouse as set forth in this paragraph shall not constitute delivery for purposes of this Act. Nothing herein shall prevent a seller from perfecting a security interest in accordance with the Uniform Commercial Code on any merchandise covered under this Act.

All warehouse facilities to which sellers deliver merchandise pursuant to this Act shall:

(i) be either located in the State of Illinois or qualify as a foreign warehouse facility as defined herein;

(ii) submit to the Comptroller not less than annually, by March 1 of each year, a report of all cemetery merchandise stored by each licensee under this Act which is in storage on the date of the report;

(iii) permit the Comptroller or his designee at any time to examine stored merchandise and to examine any documents pertaining thereto;

(iv) submit evidence satisfactory to the Comptroller that all merchandise stored by said warehouse for licensees under this Act is insured for casualty or other loss normally assumed by a bailee for hire;

(v) demonstrate to the Comptroller that the warehouse has procured and is maintaining a performance bond in the form, content and amount sufficient to unconditionally guarantee to the purchaser or beneficiary the prompt shipment of the cemetery merchandise.

(C) "Cemetery merchandise" means items of personal property normally sold by a cemetery authority not covered under the Illinois Funeral or Burial Funds Act, including but not limited to:

(1) memorials,

(2) markers,

(3) monuments,

(4) foundations, and

(5) outer burial containers.

(D) "Undeveloped interment, entombment or inurnment spaces" or "undeveloped spaces" means any space to be used for the reception of human remains that is not completely and totally constructed at the time of initial payment therefor in a:

(1) lawn crypt,

(2) mausoleum,

(3) garden crypt,

(4) columbarium, or

(5) cemetery section.

(E) "Cemetery services" means those services customarily performed by cemetery or crematory personnel in connection with the interment, entombment, inurnment or cremation of a dead human body.

(F) "Cemetery section" means a grouping of spaces intended to be developed simultaneously for the purpose of interring human remains.

(G) "Columbarium" means an arrangement of niches that may be an entire building, a complete room, a series of special indoor alcoves, a bank along a corridor or part of an outdoor garden setting that is constructed of permanent material such as bronze, marble, brick, stone or concrete for the inurnment of human remains.

(H) "Lawn crypt" means a permanent underground crypt usually constructed of reinforced concrete or similar material installed in multiple units for the entombment of human remains.

(I) "Mausoleum" or "garden crypt" means a grouping of spaces constructed of reinforced concrete or similar material constructed or assembled above the ground for entombing human remains.

(J) "Memorials, markers and monuments" means the object usually comprised of a permanent material such as granite or bronze used to identify and memorialize the deceased.

(K) "Foundations" means those items used to affix or support a memorial or monument to the ground in connection with the installation of a memorial, marker or monument.

(L) "Person" means an individual, corporation, partnership, joint venture, business trust, voluntary organization or any other form of entity.

(M) "Seller" means any person selling or offering for sale cemetery merchandise, cemetery services or undeveloped interment, entombment, or inurnment spaces in accordance with a pre-need sales contract. The seller must be licensed in the State of Illinois by the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, and shall attend at least 24 hours of continuing education every two year period, that shall be approved by the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

(N) "Religious cemetery" means a cemetery owned, operated, controlled or managed by any recognized church, religious society, association or denomination or by any cemetery authority or any corporation administering, or through which is administered, the temporalities of any recognized church, religious society, association or denomination.

(O) "Municipal cemetery" means a cemetery owned, operated, controlled or managed by any city, village, incorporated town, township, county or other municipal corporation, political subdivision, or instrumentality thereof authorized by law to own, operate or manage a cemetery.

(O-1) "Outer burial container" means a container made of concrete, steel, wood, fiberglass, or similar material, used solely at the interment site, and designed and used exclusively to surround or enclose a separate casket and to support the earth above such casket, commonly known as a burial vault, grave box, or grave liner, but not including a lawn crypt.

(P) "Sales price" means the gross amount paid by a purchaser on a pre-need sales contract for cemetery merchandise, cemetery services or undeveloped interment, entombment or inurnment spaces, excluding sales taxes, credit life insurance premiums, finance charges and Cemetery Care Act contributions.

(Q) (Blank).

(R) "Provider" means a person who is responsible for performing cemetery services or furnishing cemetery merchandise, interment spaces, entombment spaces, or inurnment spaces under a pre-need sales contract.

(S) "Purchaser" or "buyer" means the person who originally paid the money under or in connection with a pre-need sales contract.

(T) "Parent company" means a corporation owning more than 12 cemeteries or funeral homes in more than one state.

(U) "Foreign warehouse facility" means a warehouse facility now or hereafter located in any state or territory of the United States, including the District of Columbia, other than the State of Illinois.

A foreign warehouse facility shall be deemed to have appointed the Comptroller to be its true and lawful attorney upon whom may be served all legal process in any action or proceeding against it relating to or growing out of this Act, and the acceptance of the delivery of stored merchandise under this Act shall be signification of its agreement that any such process against it which is so served, shall be of the same legal force and validity as though served upon it personally.

Service of such process shall be made by delivering to and leaving with the Comptroller, or any agent having charge of the Comptroller's Department of Cemetery and Burial Trusts, a copy of such process and such service shall be sufficient service upon such foreign warehouse facility if notice of such service and a copy of the process are, within 10 days thereafter, sent by registered mail by the plaintiff to the foreign warehouse facility at its principal office and the plaintiff's affidavit of compliance herewith is appended to the summons. The Comptroller shall keep a record of all process served upon him under this Section and shall record therein the time of such service.

(Source: P.A. 91-7, eff. 1-1-00; 91-357, eff. 7-29-99; 92-16, eff. 6-28-01; 92-419, eff. 1-1-02.)

(815 ILCS 390/15) (from Ch. 21, par. 215)

Sec. 15. (a) Whenever a seller receives anything of value under a pre-need sales contract, the person receiving such value shall deposit 50% of all proceeds received into one or more trust funds maintained pursuant to this Section, except that, in the case of proceeds received for the purchase of outer burial containers, 85% of the proceeds shall be deposited into one or more trust funds. Such deposits shall be made until the amount deposited in trust equals 50% of the sales price of the cemetery merchandise, cemetery services and undeveloped spaces included in such contract, except that, in the case of deposits for outer burial containers, deposits shall be made until the amount deposited in trust equals 85% of the sales price. In the event an installment contract is factored, discounted or sold to a third party, the seller shall deposit an amount equal to 50% of the sales price of the installment contract, except that, for the portion of the contract attributable to the sale of outer burial containers, the seller shall deposit an amount equal to 85% of the sales price. Proceeds required to be deposited in trust which are attributable to cemetery merchandise and cemetery services shall be held in a "Cemetery Merchandise Trust Fund". Proceeds required to be deposited in trust which are attributable to the sale of undeveloped interment, entombment or inurnment spaces shall be held in a "Pre-construction Trust Fund". If merchandise is delivered for storage in a bonded warehouse, as authorized herein, and payment of transportation or other charges totaling more than $20 will be required in order to secure delivery to the site of ultimate use, upon such delivery to the warehouse the seller shall deposit to the trust fund the full amount of the actual or estimated transportation charge. Transportation charges which have been prepaid by the seller shall not be deposited to trust funds maintained pursuant to this Section. As used in this Section, "all proceeds" means the entire amount paid by a purchaser in connection with a pre-need sales contract, including finance charges and Cemetery Care Act contributions, but excluding sales taxes and credit life insurance premiums.

(b) All trust deposits required by this Act shall be made within 30 days following the end of the month of receipt.

(c) A trust established under this Act must be maintained:

(1) in a trust account established in a bank, savings and loan association or credit union authorized to do business in Illinois where such accounts are insured by an agency of the federal government;

(2) in a trust company authorized to do business in Illinois; or

(3) in an investment company authorized to do business in Illinois insured by the Securities Brokers Insurance Corporation.

(d) Funds deposited in the trust account shall be identified in the records of the seller by the name of the purchaser. Nothing shall prevent the trustee from commingling the deposits in any such trust fund for purposes of the management thereof and the investment of funds therein as provided in the "Common Trust Fund Act", approved June 24, 1949, as amended. In addition, multiple trust funds maintained pursuant to this Act may be commingled or commingled with other funeral or burial related trust funds, provided that all record keeping requirements imposed by or pursuant to law are met.

(e) In lieu of a pre-construction trust fund, a seller of undeveloped interment, entombment or inurnment spaces may obtain and file with the Comptroller a performance bond in an amount at least equal to 50% of the sales price of the undeveloped spaces or the estimated cost of completing construction, whichever is greater. The bond shall be conditioned on the satisfactory construction and completion of the undeveloped spaces as required in Section 19 of this Act.

Each bond obtained under this Section shall have as surety thereon a corporate surety company incorporated under the laws of the United States, or a State, the District of Columbia or a territory or possession of the United States. Each such corporate surety company must be authorized to provide performance bonds as required by this Section, have paid-up capital of at least $250,000 in cash or its equivalent and be able to carry out its contracts. Each pre-need seller must provide to the Comptroller, for each corporate surety company such seller utilizes, a statement of assets and liabilities of the corporate surety company sworn to by the president and secretary of the corporation by January 1 of each year.

The Comptroller shall prohibit pre-need sellers from doing new business with a corporate surety company if the company is insolvent or is in violation of this Section. In addition the Comptroller may direct a pre-need seller to reinstate a pre-construction trust fund upon the Comptroller's determination that the corporate surety company no longer is sufficient security.

All performance bonds issued pursuant to this Section must be irrevocable during the statutory term for completing construction specified in Section 19 of this Act, unless terminated sooner by the completion of construction.

(f) Whenever any pre-need contract shall be entered into and include 1) items of cemetery merchandise and cemetery services, and 2) rights to interment, inurnment or entombment in completed spaces without allocation of the gross sale price among the items sold, the application of payments received under the contract shall be allocated, first to the right to interment, inurnment or entombment, second to items of cemetery merchandise and cemetery services, unless some other allocation is clearly provided in the contract.

(g) Any person engaging in pre-need sales who enters into a combination sale which involves the sale of items covered by a trust or performance bond requirement and any item not covered by any entrustment or bond requirement, shall be prohibited from increasing the gross sales price of those items not requiring entrustment with the purpose of allocating a lesser gross sales price to items which require a trust deposit or a performance bond.

(h) This Section applies only to pre-need sales entered into prior to the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 96th General Assembly.

(Source: P.A. 91-7; eff. 1-1-2000.)

(815 ILCS 390/15.5 new)

Sec. 15.5. Disclosures; options. Beginning on the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 96th General Assembly, before a seller and purchaser enter into a pre-need sales contract, the seller must disclose and fully explain that the purchaser may fund the pre-need sales contract by choosing one of the following options:

(1) depositing funds into a local banking institution of the purchaser's choosing;

(2) depositing funds into a trust program operated by the seller; or

(3) other means offered by the seller.

The purchaser shall then choose one of those options.

(815 ILCS 390/17) (from Ch. 21, par. 217)

Sec. 17. (a) The principal and undistributed income of the trust created pursuant to Section 15 or Section 15.5 of this Act shall be paid to the seller if:

(1) the seller certifies by sworn affidavit to the trustee that the purchaser or the beneficiary named in the pre-need contract has deceased and that seller has fully delivered or installed all items included in the pre-need contract and fully performed all pre-need cemetery services he is required to perform under the pre-need contract; or

(2) the seller certifies by sworn affidavit to the trustee that seller has made full delivery, as defined herein.

(Source: P.A. 84-239.)

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.