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 court, may convert the trust to a total return unitrust and administer the endowed-care fund as provided in section 14-11014.