The Finance Commission of Texas (commission), on behalf of the Texas Department of Banking (department), adopts amendments to §26.2, concerning perpetual care cemetery records, and §26.4, concerning ordering and setting burial markers and monuments. The amendments are adopted without changes to the proposed text as published in the November 3, 2006, issue of the Texas Register (31 TexReg 8932). The text will not be republished.

As explained in this preamble, the adopted amendments as a general matter reflect and clarify the department's present interpretation and application of the requirements of Chapter 26.

Section 26.2 specifies the records that a perpetual care cemetery must maintain. In addition to reflecting the department's existing practice, the amendments to §26.2 facilitate the examination process and ensure the availability of information required for timely and correct account reconciliation. The amendment to §26.2(b)(1) requires that information be maintained in a file that is readily accessible to the department. The amendment to §26.2(b)(1)(H) requires that a perpetual care cemetery receive trustee or depository statements related to the cemetery's perpetual care trust at least quarterly. The amendment to §26.2(b)(3) requires that purchasers' separate files be organized alphabetically or numerically. Finally, the amendment to §26.2(c)(1) clarifies where records may be maintained and the banking commissioner's authority to approve alternate locations.

Section 26.4 establishes the time periods within which a perpetual care cemetery must order and set burial markers and monuments. The adopted amendment to §26.4(a)(4) revises the definition of "you" or "I" to provide that a purchaser's payment to a perpetual care cemetery's sales representative or agent is considered payment to the perpetual care cemetery for purposes of §26.4(b)(1). If a perpetual care cemetery authorizes its sales representative or agent to receive a purchaser's payment on behalf of the cemetery and the representative or agent in fact receives payment, the payment constitutes payment to the cemetery within the meaning of the §26.4(b)(1) triggering event.

The adopted amendment to §26.4(b) clarifies that a perpetual care cemetery must pay the amount, if any, required by a vendor or manufacturer of a marker to initiate an order. Payment must be made only if and to the extent the vendor or manufacturer requires payment at the time the order is placed. The amendment also extends from 10 days to 21 days the time within which an order must be placed after all the applicable events listed in the subsection have occurred.

The commission received no comments in response to the publication of the proposed amendments.

The amendments are adopted under the authority of Health and Safety Code, §712.008, which authorizes the commission to adopt rules to administer and enforce Health and Safety Code, Chapter 712, relating to Perpetual Care Cemeteries, and Health & Safety Code, §712.008(b), which authorizes the commission to adopt rules establishing reasonable standards for the timely placement of burial markers and monuments in a perpetual care cemetery.

Health and Safety Code, Chapter 712, is affected by the amendments.