This post will be the first in a series looking at the rulemaking proposed on December 9, 2015 on “Cemetery Annual Financial Reports; Commercial Crime Coverage; and Permanent Maintenance Fund Contributions.” Today’s post looks at the changes to how cemeteries are categorized.  

From the very first clauses, this proposed rulemaking makes some major changes, the first of which is how small, medium, and large cemeteries are categorized. Currently, small cemeteries are those with under $400,000 in total funds, medium cemeteries have between $400,000 and $1 million in total funds, and large cemeteries are those with more than $1 million in total funds. The proposed rulemaking changes this in two significant ways: it significantly raises the dollar amount of each category, and no longer bases that value on “total funds.” Instead, valuation is based upon “Total Financial Assets,” which includes “all general funds, permanent maintenance funds, perpetual care funds, special trust funds and other funds under the control of the cemetery, including both restricted and unrestricted funds, regardless of the form in which they are held.”

Thus the new categories are:

(1) Small cemeteries will now be those with under $1 million in total financial assets in the preceding calendar year;

(2) Medium cemeteries will be those with between $1 million and $10 million in total financial assets and less than $1 million in total receipts for the preceding calendar year; and

(3) Large cemeteries will be those with either (i) over $10 million in financial assets or (ii) more than $1 million in total receipts for the preceding calendar year.

Finally, this section defines non-traditional cemeteries as “any cemetery corporation which does not offer and has not in the past offered full body ground burials,” and excludes such cemeteries from the size categories discussed above.