05/01/2025

CAT Passes New Cemetery Law - 2025

Your Association Passed New Legislation in 2025

In 2025, our association passed a bill which made several revisions to the laws that govern our industry. This bill cut unnecessary regulatory burdens which were harmful to our industry and did not serve Tennessee consumers.

Here is the link to the 2025 TN Cemetery Law.

Below are key points of this new legislation. 

• Provide for a 3-year average of the trust value when calculating the earnings withdrawal allowed under the 5% Rule from your improvement care trust each year.

• The cap on both memorial care and installation fees will be reset to $.75 per square inch with annual CPI adjustments, while still requiring them to be the same rate for your own families as they are for outside memorial dealers.

• Remove the cap on document fees on cemetery contracts, allowing the cemetery to set their own fees.

• Remove the requirement for a deposit into your improvement care trust when selling second and subsequent interment rights for a site on which improvement care has already been paid.  

• Allow a cemetery to reclaim abandoned interment rights after 75 years of no known contact with a family, with a set process required to notify the family, and provisions for restitution to the family if they return to claim those interment rights within 25 years following reclamation.

• Clarify that cemeteries do not sell land, but rather they sell interment rights.

We encourage cemetery operators in Tennessee to review the new bill and consult with your attorneys and trustees for additional guidance. 

Have questions? Email us at: cemetery-tn@gmail.com

Cindy Foree

Cemetery Association of Tennessee

(615) 714-9605

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