LEGISLATIVE
REPORT, October 2011
These are the bills concerning funerals and cemeteries that FCA of California followed in the California legislature in 2011. Note at the end that the
bill allowing alkaline hydrolysis method of body disposition died in the
Appropriations Committee in May, and the bill requiring posting of services and
products they offer on funeral home web sites was passed and approved by the
Governor.
If you want more details about a particular bill, go here and use the bill number.
CHAPTERED (Passed and Signed
by Governor)
MEASURE: S.B. No. 658, Negrete
McLeod. Posting Price Lists on Internet.
Licensed funeral establishments: with web sites would need to post their lists
of services and products offered on
the internet for the convenience of consumers. Would go into effect on January
1, 2013. The original bill called
for posting prices also, but this was amended out.
MEASURE:
AB 1305, Huber. Decedents' estates: smaller estates.
Existing
law establishes simplified procedures for addressing a decedent's estate valued
under $100,000, including authorizing the
successor of the decedent to collect property due to the decedent without letters of administration or
awaiting probate of a will. The bill increases the values in the succession and
transfer provisions from $100,000 to $150,000 for an estate, from $20,000 to
$50,000 for real property, and from $5,000 to $15,000 for salary or
compensation
MEASURE: S.B. No. 706—Price:
Internet Disclosure. The Cemetery
and Funeral Bureau shall disclose information on internet about its licensees,
including cemetery brokers, cemetery salespersons, cemetery managers, crematory
managers, cemetery authorities, crematories, cremated remains disposers,
embalmers, funeral establishments,
and funeral directors.
MEASURE : AB 325 —Bonnie
Lowenthal). Employee's right to bereavement leave.
Existing law provides employees
with the right to take time off from work without discharge or discrimination
for a number of reasons. This bill would authorize an employee who has been
discharged, disciplined, or discriminated against for exercising his or her
right to bereavement leave to bring a civil action against his or her employer
for reinstatement, specified damages, and attorney's fees. The provisions of
the bill would not apply to an employee who is covered by a valid collective
bargaining agreement that provides for bereavement leave
and other specified
working conditions.
MEASURE: AB 966—Yamada. Public cemetery districts: nonresident burial.
The Public Cemetery District Law
limits interments in public cemetery district cemeteries to residents of the
district and nonresidents who meet specified criteria. This bill would allow the Davis
Cemetery District to inter, in a specified section of the cemetery,
nonresidents if specified conditions are met.
MEASURE: AB 905, as
amended—Pan. Disposition of remains: authorized agent.
Existing law lists the
person or persons who, in an order of succession, have the right to control,
and duty of disposition of, the remains of a deceased person if other
directions have not been given by the decedent. The first among the list of
persons so authorized pursuant to this list is an agent under a power of
attorney for health care who has the right and duty of disposition. This bill
would specify that the designation of a person authorized to direct disposition
(PADD) on a United States Department of Defense Record of Emergency Data, DD
Form 93, as that form exists on December 31, 2011, or its successor form if
approved by the State Registrar, shall take first priority and be used to establish an agent who has the right
and duty of disposition for a decedent who died
while on duty in any branch or component of the Armed Forces of the United
States, as defined. This bill would provide that this provision will become operative only if the form and a
specified federal statute are amended to allow a service member to designate
any person, regardless of the relationship of the designee to the decedent, as the agent who has the
right of disposition of a service member's remains.
MEASURE; AB 689— Blumenfield Amendment to Insurance Code. Agents selling funeral and
burial insurance or annuities under $15,000 wouldn’t have to take the same exam
as full life agents. The applicant shall be required to take an examination
developed to test their knowledge of topics relevant to the type of policies
that they are restricted to sell. Amends SEC. 18. Section 1676.
VETOED BY GOVERNOR
MEASURE: S.B. 888,—Lieu (Coauthor: Senator Anderson)
TOPIC : Crime: picketing at funerals. Would set
limitations and penalties. Fine of
up to $1,000 and six months of jail.
MEASURE: S.B. 590—Calderon. Would have granted an
exemption to salesman from an existing law requiring funeral and burial
insurance salesmen to notify seniors in writing 24 hours in advance of selling
policies at the seniors’ homes. Gov. Brown said he saw no compelling reason to take
the protection away from seniors, pointing out that the bill was sponsored by
the American Bankers Insurance Co.
NOT PASSED
MEASURE; AB
4—Jeff Miller. Human remains: allowing alkaline hydrolysis type of cremation.
LAST HIST. ACT. DATE: 05/27/2011. In committee: Held under submission. This stalled in the
Assembly because of the increased cost to the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau to
set up, administer, and monitor this new type of “cremation.” See the Legislative
Analysis.
National Bill Seeks to Protect Cemetery Users
Funeral Consumers Alliance (FCA) supports The Bereaved Consumer’s Bill of Rights Act of 2009, introduced in late 2009 as HR 3655 by Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL). The bill sets national standards for the protection of funeral and cemetery consumers by expanding the Funeral Rule, which currently applies only to funeral homes. The Bill requires the FTC to enact rules that will:
• Compel cemeteries to give consumers accurate prices before the sale
• Give cemetery consumers the right to buy only the goods and services they want; families will be able to buy markers, monuments, or grave vaults from less expensive retail vendors rather than being captive to the cemetery’s prices
• Bar cemeteries from forcing families to buy entire packages of goods or services, if the family wants to choose item by item
• Require cemeteries to disclose rules and regulations, and consumer rights, before the purchase
• Require cemeteries to keep accurate records of all burials sold, and where remains are interred, and to make those records available to regulators
• Bar cemeteries from lying about the law - claiming state laws “require” vaults to surround an in-ground casket, for example
The bill will also require retail monument dealers and casket-sellers to offer accurate price information to consumers and refrain from misrepresenting legal requirements.
The Bereaved Consumer’s Protection Act grew out of a hearing before the House Subcommittee on Consumer Protection on July 27, 2009, after the discovery that 300 graves had been dug up and resold at Chicago’s historic Burr Oak Cemetery. FCA executive director Joshua Slocum testified before lawmakers, urging them to take a broader look at an industry riddled with deceptive practices that take advantage of vulnerable families. While scandals like Burr Oak grab headlines, he said, many ongoing abuses of funeral and cemetery consumers never make the news and get swept under the rug.
Bills passed in the California Legislature in 2010
Disposition Permits
SB 1491 Keepsake Urns—In the future, a disposition fee (currently $11) must be paid for each keepsake urn ordered by a family. Also, six or more urns containing cremated remains may be kept in a church or religious shrine, but this does not classify it as a cemetery. Disposition fees are required for each interment.
SEC. 33. Section 7054.6 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read: 7054.6. (a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), cremated remains may be removed in a durable container from the place of cremation or interment and kept in or on the real property owned or occupied by a person described in Section 7100 or any other person, with the permission of the person with the right to disposition, or the durable container holding the cremated remains may be kept in a church or religious shrine, if written permission of the church or religious shrine is obtained and there is no conflict with local use permit requirements or zoning laws, if the removal is under the authority of a permit for disposition granted under Section 103060. The placement, in any place, of six or more cremated remains under this section does not constitute the place a cemetery, as defined in Section 7003.
(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, cremated remains may be placed in one or more keepsake urns. Keepsake urns shall be kept as authorized by the person or persons with the right to control disposition pursuant to Section 7100, provided that a permit for disposition of human remains pursuant to Section 103060 is issued by the local registrar for each keepsake urn designating the home address of each person receiving a keepsake urn and a permit fee pursuant to Section 103065 is paid. No keepsake urn shall be subject to Section 8345. For purposes of this section, a keepsake urn shall mean a closed durable container that will accommodate an amount of cremated remains not to exceed one cubic centimeter. (c) Prior to disposition of cremated remains, every licensee or registrant pursuant to Chapter 12 (commencing with Section 7600) or Chapter 19 (commencing with Section 9600) of Division 3 of the Business and Professions Code, and the agents and employees of the licensee or registrant shall do all of the following: (1) Remove the cremated remains from the place of cremation in a durable container. (2) Keep the cremated remains in a durable container. (3) Store the cremated remains in a place free from exposure to the elements. (4) Responsibly maintain the cremated remains.
Burial of Veterans’ Remains
AB 1644 (Nielsen)--Provides for burial of honorably discharged veterans, spouses, or eligible dependents by veterans organizations if the family has insufficient funds for them to be “decently interred.”
This allows prescribed entities in possession of the cremated remains of a veteran, upon the request of a veterans' remains organization, as defined, to release specified information and remains to a veterans' remains organization for the purpose of interment if certain conditions are met. The bill would require the veterans' remains organization to take all reasonable steps to inter remains received. The bill would also exempt from civil liability, except for willful or wanton misconduct, an entity that releases information or remains after meeting the specified conditions and exempt from negligence a veterans' remains organization that receives and inters remains if the veterans' remains organization does not know or have reason to know that the remains were not released in compliance with the above conditions. Existing law requires the board of supervisors of each county to designate an honorably discharged soldier, sailor, or marine in the county who has served in or with the army or navy of the United States, and shall cause to be decently interred the body of any veteran or widow of a veteran who dies in the county without having sufficient means to defray the expenses of burial, except as otherwise provided. This bill would require the board of supervisors of each county to designate an honorably discharged veteran of the United States military or a member of a veterans' remains organization who shall cause to be decently interred the body of any veteran or spouse or eligible dependent of a veteran as defined by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs for compensation purposes who dies in the county. This bill would encourage the board of supervisors of each county to designate personnel from a veterans' remains organization for that purpose. This bill would also require the specified entities to verify and inter unclaimed cremated remains of veterans in accordance with specified laws.
Bill Passed by California Legislature in 2009
Waived burial fees for deceased dependents of veterans whose families have insufficient funds. To be paid out of NON-STATE, DONATED funds. SB 469Introduced by Senator Aanestad (Coauthors: Senators Cogdill, Cox, and Maldonado) (Coauthors: Assembly Members Bill Berryhill, Block, DeVore, and Huffman)
An act to add Chapter 10.5 (commencing with Section 1480) to Division 6 of the Military and Veterans Code, relating to veterans.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 469, Aanestad. Veterans' cemeteries: fees. Existing law provides for the establishment and operation of certain state-owned and operated veterans' cemeteries. Existing law authorizes honorably discharged veterans and their spouses and children to be interred at these cemeteries, and provides for a fee to be charged for each spouse or child interred at the cemetery, as specified. This bill would authorize the fee for the interment of the spouses and children of honorably discharged veterans in these cemeteries to be waived if the cemetery administrator determines that the families of the spouses or children do not have sufficient means to pay for the costs of interment, and would require any costs for these interments to be paid from nonstate funds. This bill would require the cemetery administrator to seek reimbursements, as specified, and would authorize the cemetery administrator to solicit private donation
