AZ LAW BOOK

written instrument establishing the irrevocable trust fund accompanied by the receipt of the trustee designated in the written instrument for the minimum care fund hereinafter provided. Any cemetery that has been operating before January 1, 1998 and that was not previously required to establish an irrevocable trust fund shall not be required to establish an irrevocable trust fund unless a material change is made to the plan under which cemetery plots are offered for sale. 32-2194.25. Trust fund to be established before existing cemetery can advertise as endowed-care cemetery After the effective date of this article, no owner of a cemetery in existence at the effective date of this article, who previous to such date has not sold or contracted to sell lots in such cemetery with a provision for perpetual or endowed care, shall thereafter advertise or otherwise hold out to the public that such cemetery or any individual lot therein is entitled to perpetual or endowed care unless and until the owner shall have established a trust fund for the care of the cemetery, as provided by this article. 32-2194.26. Initial deposit required in endowment-care fund No corporation hereafter organized for the operation of a perpetual or endowed-care cemetery nor any owner of a cemetery not previously operating as a perpetual or endowed-care cemetery shall advertise or sell plots in such cemetery under the representation that the cemetery or any individual plot therein is entitled to perpetual or endowed care until there has been established an irrevocable trust fund to provide for such care in accordance with the following schedule: 1. Cemeteries located in an area having a population of less than ten thousand persons within a radius of fifteen miles from the center of such cemetery must deposit with the trustee the sum of ten thousand dollars in cash. 2. Cemeteries located in an area having a population of ten thousand or more persons but less than fifteen thousand persons within a radius of fifteen miles from the center of such cemetery must deposit with the trustee the sum of fifteen thousand dollars in cash. 3. Cemeteries located in an area having a population of fifteen thousand or more persons but less than twenty-five thousand persons within a radius of fifteen miles from the center of such cemetery must deposit with the trustee the sum of twenty thousand dollars in cash. 4. Cemeteries located in an area having a population of twenty-five thousand or more persons, but less than fifty thousand persons within a radius of fifteen miles from the center of such cemetery must deposit with the trustee the sum of thirty thousand dollars in cash. 5. Cemeteries located in an area having a population of fifty thousand or more persons within a radius of fifteen miles from the center of such cemetery must deposit with the trustee the sum of fifty thousand dollars in cash. 32-2194.27. Restrictive use of income from endowed-care fund; obligation The irrevocable trust fund established pursuant to section 32-2194.26 shall be evidenced by an instrument in writing and shall contain the following provisions: 1. There shall be designated a trustee for the endowed-care fund that is a financial institution authorized to do business in this state and authorized to act as trustee by the laws of this state for such investments. The trustee must be one in which no officer, director or owner of the cemetery is financially interested in any way. 2. The principal of the trust fund shall remain permanently intact, and only the income or the unitrust amount specified in section 14-11014 or 14-11015 shall be expended. It is the intent of this section that the income or unitrust amount of the fund shall be used solely for the care of plots or other burial spaces sold to third persons with a provision for perpetual or endowed care and the care of such other portions of the cemetery immediately surrounding such plots as may be necessary to preserve the beauty and dignity of the plots sold. The fund or its income shall never be used for the development, improvement or embellishment of unsold portions of the cemetery so as to relieve the owner of the cemetery of the ordinary cost incurred in preparing such property for sale. 3. A financial institution acting as a trustee does not have a legal obligation to operate a cemetery other than providing trust fund income to the receiver or successor of a cemetery unable to meet its perpetual care obligations. A trustee, in its sole discretion and without the approval of the

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Law Book Revised 11.02.2017