A. No person who works in, or owns any interest in, any business which sells or furnishes any of the property, facilities or services customarily furnished in connection with funerals, burials or other services attending the disposition of human bodies after death may be licensed or otherwise authorized to sell prearranged funeral plans, but may be licensed or otherwise authorized to sell life insurance specifically designed to fund funeral plans.

B. No person licensed or otherwise authorized to sell funeral plans may pay any retainer, salary, commission or premium to any person who sells or furnishes any personal property, facilities or services customarily furnished in connection with funerals or other services attending the disposition of human bodies after death for soliciting or otherwise promoting the sale of funeral plans.

History: Laws 1984, ch. 127, § 903; 1987, ch. 48, § 1.

Sale of life insurance. — A person licensed to sell life insurance specifically designed to fund funeral plans need not be licensed to practice "funeral service." 1987 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 87-60.

If the seller of life insurance specifically designed to fund funeral plans is a funeral practitioner, the seller must be sure to conduct the sale in a way that does not deprive or tend to deprive a person desiring to acquire funeral services of the advantages of competition in their acquisition, such as representing that his particular funeral establishment must be the beneficiary, or that the funds generated by the policy can be used only at his establishment; such practice would cause the life insurance to become a "funeral plan" under 59A-49-4A NMSA 1978, which a funeral practitioner is forbidden to prearrange. 1987 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 87-60.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 43 Am. Jur. 2d Insurance § 8.

What constitutes insurance - burial expenses, 63 A.L.R. 723, 100 A.L.R. 1449, 119 A.L.R. 1241.

Contracts entered into before death, relating to burial or cremation, or steps incident thereto, as opposed to public policy, or as proper subject of regulation by statute, 68 A.L.R. 1525.

Validity of statutes regulating pre-need contracts for the sale or furnishing of burial services and merchandise, 68 A.L.R.2d 1251.