Request By:
Mr. Carl H. Harper
Regional Attorney
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
50 Seventh Street, N.E.
Atlanta, Georgia 30323
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: William H. Mohr, Assistant Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of December 6, 1976, in which you request the opinion of this office relative to the scope of KRS 316.310(3) and 316.320(1).
It is the opinion of this office that KRS 316.320(1) represents a comprehensive legislative treatment of the area of payments made for the purpose of future burial service needs. KRS 316.320(1) encompasses any attempted escrow agreement within the embrace of the chapter by the language "All payments of money made to any person, partnership or corporation upon any agreement or contract, or any series or combination of agreements. . . ."
KRS 316.320 proceeds to denominate all such payments as trust assets and the recipient as a trustee. KRS 316.330(1) makes all such statutory trust relationships revocable. It is not possible to defeat the legislative intent of making all such agreements revocable by styling it an irrevocable escrow account with a third party.