As used in this chapter, the following terms have the meanings ascribed:
Act - the District of Columbia Services Regulatory Act of 1984, D.C. Law 5-84, D.C. Code, section 2-2801et seq.
Board - Board of Funeral Directors for the District of Columbia as established by the act.
Business day - a day other than a Saturday, Sunday, legal holiday, or other day on which the Department is officially closed.
Department - the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.
Designated funeral director - A funeral director, licensed and in good standing in the District of Columbia, who has been appointed by a funeral services establishment, and registered with the Board, to be responsible for the daily operation and management of the funeral services establishment.
Director - the Director of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, or the Director's designee.
Escrow account - a bank account held in the name of a funeral services establishment that is returnable to the pre-need funeral contract purchaser or paid to a third person on the fulfillment of specified conditions.
Federally insured - a bank account insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or by the National Credit Union Administration.
Funeral goods - personal property typically sold or provided in connection with the practice of funeral directing, including caskets, cremation or transportation containers, vaults, grave liners, funeral clothing or accessories, monuments, and grave markers.
Funeral services - services rendered in connection with the practice of funeral directing.
Funeral services establishment - A licensed funeral home establishment, of any class, at an authorized location in the District where funeral services are provided or the practice of funeral directing is performed.
Guaranteed pre-need funeral contract - a pre-need funeral contract for funeral services and goods that protects the purchaser from future price increases. This type of contract may allow the funeral services establishment to retain all escrow funds deposits and insurance proceeds after performance of the pre-need funeral contract.
Legal holiday - a day designated as a legal holiday by the President, the Congress, or the Mayor or Council of the District of Columbia and which is observed by the government of the District of Columbia.
License - a license issued by the Director pursuant to the act and this chapter.
Licensee - a funeral services establishment licensed by the District of Columbia.
Next of kin - the relatives and priority of relatives as set forth in section 3012.2 of Chapter 30 of this title.
Non-guaranteed pre-need funeral contract - a pre-need funeral contract for funeral services and goods that does not protect the purchaser from future price increases.
Party - a respondent, the Corporation Counsel, or any other person recognized by the Director as a party in proceedings under this chapter.
Practice of funeral directing - the care, preservation, disposal, or preparation of human remains for funeral services, burial, cremation, or transportation.
Pre-need funds - monies received to pay for a pre-need contract.
Pre-need funeral contract - a contract, agreement, or mutual understanding, or any series or combination of contracts, agreements, or mutual understandings, which has for its purpose the furnishing or performance of funeral services, or the furnishing or delivery of personal property, goods, or services of any nature in connection with the final disposition of a dead human body, to be furnished or delivered at a time determinable by the death of the person whose body is to be disposed of, and are paid to the funeral services establishment in advance of the death of the pre-need funeral contract beneficiary, but does not mean the furnishing of a cemetery lot, crypt, niche, or mausoleum. A pre-need funeral contract can be either guaranteed or non-guaranteed.
Pre-need funeral contract beneficiary - the person upon whose death the pre-need funeral contract will be performed; this person may also be the purchaser of the pre-need funeral contract.
Pre-need funeral contract purchaser - a person who purchases a pre-need funeral contract.
Respondent - a person against whom an adverse action is contemplated, proposed, or taken.
Trust account - a bank account, usually interest bearing, in which a funeral establishment deposits money belonging to a client.
D.C. Mun. Regs. r. 17-3199