§ 309. Incorporated cemetery company as qualified trustee.

(a) General rule.--Every incorporated cemetery company may act as qualified trustee of the permanent lot care fund required by this chapter and may be appointed the original trustee, or, when for any reason a vacancy may occur in a trusteeship, substituted or successor trustee, and as such may receive devises, or gifts, the principal of which is to be held, in trust, in perpetuity or for a lesser period of time, for the care, maintenance, preservation, ornamentation or benefit of its cemetery, or the cemetery lots therein, upon giving its own bond without surety. The directors of any such corporation are hereby made trustees of any such funds so deposited or received, and neither such funds nor the income derived therefrom shall be used by such trustees for any purpose other than the purpose for which they were deposited, devised, donated, or otherwise acquired. The directors of such corporation shall cause accurate accounts to be kept of such trust funds separate and apart from the other funds of the corporation. Any such corporation may combine and merge the principal of two or more such trust funds and any funds so set aside in an omnibus fund for the purposes of investment of the same.

(b) Transfers to institutional fiduciary.--Any incorporated cemetery company may, by appropriate action of its stockholders or members and board of directors and with the approval of the court of common pleas of the county in which the cemetery, or any part thereof, is situated, transfer any of such funds to one or more institutional trustees, and with like investment restrictions, such transfer to be either revocable, or absolute and irrevocable, and upon the transfer of any such funds, the incorporated cemetery company and its directors shall be relieved of all liability for the investment and reinvestment thereof.

Cross References. Section 309 is referred to in sections 101, 308 of this title.