Regulation of Preneed Dealers, Registrants, and Cemetery Companies; Licenses

  1. Law
  2. Georgia Code
  3. Commerce and Trade
  4. Cemetery and Funeral Services
  5. Regulation of Preneed Dealers, Registrants, and Cemetery Companies; Licenses

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  1. The legislature recognizes that purchasers of preneed burial rights, funeral or burial merchandise, or funeral services or burial services may suffer serious economic harm if purchase money is not set aside for future use as intended by the purchaser and that the failure to maintain cemetery grounds properly may cause significant emotional distress. Therefore, it is necessary in the interest of the public welfare to regulate preneed dealers, licensees, registrants, and cemetery companies in this state. However, restrictions shall be imposed only to the extent necessary to protect the public from significant or discernible harm or damage and not in a manner which will unreasonably affect the competitive market.
  2. Subject to certain interests of society, the legislature finds that every competent adult has the right to control the decisions relating to his or her own funeral arrangements. Accordingly, unless otherwise stated in this chapter, it is the legislature's express intent that nothing contained in this chapter should be construed or interpreted in any manner as to subject preneed contract purchasers to federal income taxation under the grantor trust rules contained in Sections 671 et seq. of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended.
  3. Nothing herein is intended to prohibit or restrict the sale or purchase of life insurance as a funding vehicle for preneed contracts under this chapter, nor to change the state of the law prior to July 1, 2000, with respect to prohibiting or restricting the sale or purchase of life insurance as a funding vehicle for preneed contracts under this chapter.

(Code 1981, §10-14-2, enacted by Ga. L. 2000, p. 882, § 1.)

Cross references.

- Solicitation during final illness, § 10-1-393.7.

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Constitutional challenges.

- Nonprofit cemetery association was unable to sustain an equal protection challenge to the Georgia Cemetery and Funeral Services Act of 2000, O.C.G.A. § 10-14-1 et seq., on the basis that the Act regulated only private cemeteries; the association, which conceded that the Act's purpose was to protect consumers and the public welfare, health, and safety, did not argue that the regulation of the private cemeteries alone would not meet the purposes intended in the Act, but rather argued that it would have been better and more efficient if the Georgia General Assembly had regulated all cemeteries rather than only those privately owned, which was not a decision for the court to make. Ga. Cemetery Ass'n v. Cox, 403 F. Supp. 2d 1206 (N.D. Ga. 2003).


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