2023 West Virginia Code › Chapter 47. Regulation of Trade › Article 14. Preneed Funeral Contracts › §47-14-2. Definitions

As used in this article, unless the context otherwise requires:
(1) "Burial goods" means all merchandise supplied in regard to burial, or entombment in a mausoleum or inurnment in a columbarium, but does not include those services actually performed by a cemetery acting only as such, or the sale by any person of cemetery lots, land or interests therein, services incidental thereto, or the sale by any person of markers, memorials, monuments, equipment, crypts, urns, burial vaults or vaults constructed or to be constructed in a mausoleum or columbarium.
(2) "Contract beneficiary" means any person specified or implied in a preneed funeral contract, upon whose death funeral services, funeral goods or burial goods are to be performed, provided or delivered.
(3) "Contract buyer" means any person, whether or not a contract beneficiary, who purchases goods or services pursuant to a preneed funeral contract but does not include any person other than a natural person.
(4) "Contract seller" or "seller" means a person, his agent or his employee who sells, makes available or provides preneed funeral contracts.
(5) "Division" means the consumer protection division of the office of the Attorney General.
(6) "Funds" means moneys or other consideration, other than premiums for insurance policies or annuities paid to a life insurance company, received pursuant to the sale of a preneed funeral contract, including interest accrued or earned thereon.
(7) "Funeral goods" means those items of merchandise sold or offered for sale directly to the public by any person which will be used in connection with a funeral or alternative for final disposition of human remains, but does not include those services actually performed by a cemetery acting only as such, or the sale by the cemetery of cemetery lots, land or interest therein, services incidental thereto, or the sale by any person of markers, memorials, monuments, equipment, crypts, urns, burial vaults or vaults constructed or to be constructed in a mausoleum or columbarium.
(8) "Funeral services" means those services usually performed by a licensed funeral establishment or director including, but not limited to, care and preparation of human remains and coordinating rites and ceremonies in connection with the disposition of human remains carried out at the request of any individual responsible for funeral and disposition arrangements.
(9) "Person" means a natural person, partnership, firm, association or corporation, including any agent or employee thereof residing in or doing business in this state who is engaged in the selling of, making available of or providing of preneed funeral contracts, as defined herein, or who is the recipient of funds paid for such purpose.
(10) "Person who makes a preneed funeral contract available" means a person who, while not directly selling the contents of a preneed funeral contract to the public through his efforts, makes such contracts available to the public, but does not include manufacturers of funeral goods or burial goods.
(11) "Personal residence" means any residential building in which one temporarily or permanently maintains his abode including, but not limited to, hotels, motels, apartments, nursing homes, convalescent homes, homes for the aged and public and private institutions.
(12) "Preneed funeral contract" means any contract, agreement, mutual understanding, series or combination of contracts, agreements and mutual understandings, including a contract that is financed by the purchase of an insurance policy or annuity, under which, for a specified consideration paid in advance of death in a lump sum or by installments, a person promises to furnish or make available or provide funeral services, funeral goods or burial goods for use at a time determinable by the death of the contract beneficiary who is either named or implied therein.
(13) "Provider" means a person who, though not necessarily a party to a preneed funeral contract, makes the services or goods referred to in such a contract available to the public pursuant to such a contract.
(14) "Trustee" means any natural person, partnership or corporation, including any bank, trust company, savings and loan association or credit union, which receives money pursuant to any agreement or contract made pursuant to the provisions of this article. The term "trustee" does not include an insurance company licensed pursuant to chapter thirty-three of this code.