(1)(a) No person, including any cemetery exempt under s. 497.260, may sell, advertise to sell, or make an arrangement for a preneed contract without first having a valid preneed license.

Terms Used In Florida Statutes 497.452

  • Cemetery: means a place dedicated to and used or intended to be used for the permanent interment of human remains or cremated remains. See Florida Statutes 497.005
  • Cemetery company: means any legal entity that owns or controls cemetery lands or property. See Florida Statutes 497.005
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Cremation: means any mechanical or thermal process whereby a dead human body is reduced to ashes and bone fragments. See Florida Statutes 497.005
  • Direct disposal establishment: means a facility licensed under this chapter where a direct disposer practices direct disposition. See Florida Statutes 497.005
  • Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
  • Funeral establishment: means a facility licensed under this chapter where a funeral director or embalmer practices funeral directing or embalming. See Florida Statutes 497.005
  • License: includes all authorizations required or issued under this chapter, except where expressly indicated otherwise, and shall be understood to include authorizations previously referred to as registrations or certificates of authority in chapters 470 and 497 as those chapters appeared in the 2004 edition of the Florida Statutes. See Florida Statutes 497.005
  • merchandise: means any personal property offered or sold by any person for use in connection with the final disposition, memorialization, interment, entombment, or inurnment of human remains or cremated remains, including, but not limited to, caskets, outer burial containers, alternative containers, cremation containers, cremation interment containers, urns, monuments, private mausoleums, flowers, benches, vases, acknowledgment cards, register books, memory folders, prayer cards, and clothing. See Florida Statutes 497.005
  • Monument: means any product used for identifying a grave site and cemetery memorials of all types, including monuments, markers, and vases. See Florida Statutes 497.005
  • Net worth: means total assets minus total liabilities pursuant to generally accepted accounting principles. See Florida Statutes 497.005
  • Person: when used without qualification such as "natural" or "individual" includes both natural persons and legal entities. See Florida Statutes 497.005
  • Preneed: means any arrangement or method, of which the provider of funeral merchandise or services has actual knowledge, whereby any person agrees to furnish funeral merchandise or service in the future. See Florida Statutes 497.005
  • Preneed contract: means any arrangement or method for which the provider of funeral merchandise or services receives any payment in advance for funeral or burial merchandise and services after the death of the contract beneficiary. See Florida Statutes 497.005
  • Religious institution: means an organization formed primarily for religious purposes that has qualified for exemption from federal income tax as an exempt organization under the provisions of…. See Florida Statutes 497.005
(b) No person, including any cemetery exempt under s. 497.260, may sell, advertise to sell, or make an arrangement for services, merchandise, or burial rights on a preneed basis unless such person is authorized pursuant to this chapter to provide such services, merchandise, or burial rights on an at-need basis.
(2)(a) No person may receive any funds for payment on a preneed contract who does not hold a valid preneed license.
(b) Paragraph (a) does not apply to a trust company, to a national or state bank holding trust powers, or to a federal or state savings and loan association having trust powers which company, bank, or association receives any money in trust pursuant to the sale of a preneed contract.
(3) No person may obtain a preneed license under this chapter for the preneed sale of merchandise or services unless such person or its agent, in the case of a corporate entity, holds a license as a funeral establishment, cemetery company, direct disposal establishment, or monument establishment.
(4) The provisions of this section do not apply to religious-institution-owned cemeteries exempt under s. 497.260(1)(d), in counties with a population of at least 960,000 persons on July 1, 1996, with respect to the sale to the religious institution‘s members and their families of interment rights, mausoleums, crypts, cremation niches, cremation interment containers, vaults, liners, urns, memorials, vases, foundations, memorial bases, floral arrangements, monuments, markers, engraving, and the opening and closing of interment rights, mausoleums, crypts, cremation niches, and cremation interment containers, if such cemeteries have engaged in the sale of preneed contracts prior to October 1, 1993, and maintain a positive net worth at the end of each fiscal year of the cemetery.
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