Article 13D.

Preneed Funeral Funds.

§ 90-210.60.  Definitions.

As used in this Article, unless the context requires otherwise:

(1) Board. - The North Carolina Board of Funeral Service as created pursuant to Article 13A of Chapter 90 of the General Statutes.

(1a) Cash advance item. - Any item obtained from a third party and paid for by the funeral provider on the purchaser's behalf. Cash advance items may include, but are not limited to, sales tax, certified copies of death certificates, clergy honoraria, flowers, musicians or singers, obituary notices, and gratuities.

(2) Financial institution. - A bank, credit union, trust company, savings bank, or savings and loan association authorized by law to do business in this State.

(3) Insurance company. - Any corporation, limited liability company, association, partnership, society, order, individual or aggregation of individuals engaging in or proposing or attempting to engage as principals in any kind of insurance business, including the exchanging of reciprocal or interinsurance contracts between individuals, partnerships, and corporations.

(3a) Legal representative. - The person authorized by G.S. 130A-420 who would be otherwise authorized to dispose of the remains of the preneed funeral contract beneficiary.

(4) Prearrangement insurance policy. - A life insurance policy, annuity contract, or other insurance contract, or any series of contracts or agreements in any form or manner, issued by an insurance company authorized by law to do business in this State, which, whether by assignment or otherwise, has for a purpose the funding of a preneed funeral contract or an insurance-funded funeral or burial prearrangement, the insured or annuitant being the person for whose service the funds were paid.

(5) Preneed funeral contract. - Any contract, agreement, or mutual understanding, or any series or combination of contracts, agreements, or mutual understandings, whether funded by trust deposits or prearrangement insurance policies, or any combination thereof, which has for a purpose the furnishing or performance of funeral services, or the furnishing or delivery of personal property, merchandise, or services of any nature in connection with the final disposition of a dead human body, to be furnished or delivered at a time determinable by the death of the person whose body is to be disposed of, but does not mean the furnishing of a cemetery lot, crypt, niche, mausoleum, outer burial containers, or pre-installed interment receptacle sold by a cemetery that is regulated by the Cemetery Commission. The term does not include a transportation protection agreement.

(6) Preneed funeral contract beneficiary. - The person upon whose death the preneed funeral contract will be performed; this person may also be the purchaser of the preneed funeral contract.

(7) Preneed funeral funds. - All payments of cash made to any person, partnership, association, corporation, or other entity upon any preneed funeral contract or any other agreement, contract, or prearrangement insurance policy, or any series or combination of preneed funeral contracts or any other agreements, contracts, or prearrangement insurance policies, but excluding the furnishing of cemetery lots, crypts, niches, mausoleums, outer burial containers, or pre-installed interment receptacles sold by a cemetery regulated by the Cemetery Commission, which have for a purpose or which by operation provide for the furnishing or performance of funeral or burial services, or the furnishing or delivery of personal property, merchandise, or services of any nature in connection with the final disposition of a dead human body, to be furnished or delivered at a time determinable by the death of the person whose body is to be disposed of, or the providing of the proceeds of any insurance policy for such use.

(8) Preneed funeral planning. - Offering to sell or selling preneed funeral contracts, or making other arrangements prior to death for the providing of funeral services or merchandise.

(9) Preneed licensee. - A funeral establishment which has applied for and has been granted a license to sell preneed funeral contracts under the Article. Such license is also referred to in this Article as a "preneed funeral establishment license" or "preneed funeral establishment permit."

(10) Transportation protection agreement. - An agreement, sold separately from a preneed funeral contract, that primarily provides for the coordination and arranging of all professional services related to the preparation of human remains or cremated remains for the purpose of initial and subsequent transportation of those remains.  (1969, c. 187, s. 1; 1983, c. 657, s. 1; 1985, c. 12, s. 1; 1991 (Reg. Sess., 1992), c. 901, s. 2; 1993, c. 553, s. 27; 1997-399, s. 23; 2001-294, ss. 7, 8; 2003-420, s. 1; 2007-531, s. 7.1; 2010-96, s. 38; 2010-102, s. 6; 2010-191, s. 3; 2025-76, ss. 2.1(a), 4.1.)