Florida Funeral Law Vocabulary
Alternative Container - ANSWER: Unfinished wood box or other nonmetal receptacle or enclosure, without
ornamentation or a fixed interior lining, that is designed for the encasement of human remains and that is
made of fiberboard, pressed wood, composition materials, or like material
At-Need Solicitation - ANSWER: Any uninvited contact by a licensee or his or her agent for the purpose of the
sale of burial services or merchandise to the family or next of kin of a person after his or her death has
occurred
Below ground crypts - ANSWER: Interment space in preplaced chambers, either side by side or multiple depth
covered by earth and sod and known also as "lawn crypts," "westminsters," or "turf-top crypts"
Funeral goods/burial merchandise - ANSWER: Any personal property offered or sold by any person for use in
connection with the final disposition, memorialization, interment, entombment, or inurnment of human
remains or cremated remains
Burial right - ANSWER: The term which means the right to use a grave space, mausoleum, columbarium,
ossuary, or scattering garden for the interment, entombment, inurnment, or other disposition of human
remains or cremated remains
Funeral Service - ANSWER: Any service offered or provided in connection with the final disposition,
memorialization, interment, entombment, or inurnment of human remains or cremated remains
Care and maintenance - ANSWER: Perpetual process of keeping a cemetery and its lots, graves, grounds,
landscaping, roads, paths, parking lots, fences, mausoleums, columbaria, vaults, crypts, utilities, and other
improvements, structures, and embellishments in a well-cared-for and dignified condition, so that the
cemetery does not become a nuisance or place of reproach to the community.
Casket - ANSWER: A rigid container that is designed for the encasement of human remains and that is usually
constructed of wood or metal, ornamented, and lined with fabric
Cemetery - ANSWER: A place dedicated to and used or intended to be used for the permanent interment of
human remains or cremated remains
, Cemetery Company - ANSWER: Any legal entity that owns or controls cemetery lands or property
Centralized embalming facility - ANSWER: A facility in which embalming takes place that operates
independently of a funeral establishment licensee and that offers embalming services to funeral directors for a
fee
Bank of below ground crypts - ANSWER: Any construction unit of below ground crypts that is acceptable to the
Department of Financial Services and that a cemetery uses to initiate its below ground crypt program or to
add to existing below ground crypt structures
Cinerator - ANSWER: A facility where dead human bodies are subjected to cremation
Closed container - ANSWER: Any container in which cremated remains can be placed and closed in a manner
so as to prevent leakage or spillage of the remains
Columbarium - ANSWER: A structure of building that is substantially exposed above the ground and that is
intended to be used for the inurnment of cremated remains
Common business enterprise - ANSWER: A group of two or more business entities that share common
ownership in excess of 50 percent
Cremated remains - ANSWER: All the remains of the human body recovered after the completing of the
cremation process, including processing or pulverization that leaves only bone fragments reduced to
unidentifiable dimensions and may include the residue of any foreign matter, including casket material,
bridgework, or eyeglasses that were cremated with the human remains
Cremation - ANSWER: Any mechanical or thermal process whereby a dead human body is reduced to ashes
and bone fragments; also includes any other mechanical or thermal process whereby human remains are
pulverized, burned, recremated, or otherwise further reduced in size or quantity
Cremation chamber - ANSWER: Enclosed space within which the cremation process takes place; Anything
covered by these procedures shall be used exclusively for the cremation of human remains
Cremation container - ANSWER: The casket or alternative in which the human remains are transported to and
placed in the cremation chamber for a cremation
Alternative Container - ANSWER: Unfinished wood box or other nonmetal receptacle or enclosure, without
ornamentation or a fixed interior lining, that is designed for the encasement of human remains and that is
made of fiberboard, pressed wood, composition materials, or like material
At-Need Solicitation - ANSWER: Any uninvited contact by a licensee or his or her agent for the purpose of the
sale of burial services or merchandise to the family or next of kin of a person after his or her death has
occurred
Below ground crypts - ANSWER: Interment space in preplaced chambers, either side by side or multiple depth
covered by earth and sod and known also as "lawn crypts," "westminsters," or "turf-top crypts"
Funeral goods/burial merchandise - ANSWER: Any personal property offered or sold by any person for use in
connection with the final disposition, memorialization, interment, entombment, or inurnment of human
remains or cremated remains
Burial right - ANSWER: The term which means the right to use a grave space, mausoleum, columbarium,
ossuary, or scattering garden for the interment, entombment, inurnment, or other disposition of human
remains or cremated remains
Funeral Service - ANSWER: Any service offered or provided in connection with the final disposition,
memorialization, interment, entombment, or inurnment of human remains or cremated remains
Care and maintenance - ANSWER: Perpetual process of keeping a cemetery and its lots, graves, grounds,
landscaping, roads, paths, parking lots, fences, mausoleums, columbaria, vaults, crypts, utilities, and other
improvements, structures, and embellishments in a well-cared-for and dignified condition, so that the
cemetery does not become a nuisance or place of reproach to the community.
Casket - ANSWER: A rigid container that is designed for the encasement of human remains and that is usually
constructed of wood or metal, ornamented, and lined with fabric
Cemetery - ANSWER: A place dedicated to and used or intended to be used for the permanent interment of
human remains or cremated remains
, Cemetery Company - ANSWER: Any legal entity that owns or controls cemetery lands or property
Centralized embalming facility - ANSWER: A facility in which embalming takes place that operates
independently of a funeral establishment licensee and that offers embalming services to funeral directors for a
fee
Bank of below ground crypts - ANSWER: Any construction unit of below ground crypts that is acceptable to the
Department of Financial Services and that a cemetery uses to initiate its below ground crypt program or to
add to existing below ground crypt structures
Cinerator - ANSWER: A facility where dead human bodies are subjected to cremation
Closed container - ANSWER: Any container in which cremated remains can be placed and closed in a manner
so as to prevent leakage or spillage of the remains
Columbarium - ANSWER: A structure of building that is substantially exposed above the ground and that is
intended to be used for the inurnment of cremated remains
Common business enterprise - ANSWER: A group of two or more business entities that share common
ownership in excess of 50 percent
Cremated remains - ANSWER: All the remains of the human body recovered after the completing of the
cremation process, including processing or pulverization that leaves only bone fragments reduced to
unidentifiable dimensions and may include the residue of any foreign matter, including casket material,
bridgework, or eyeglasses that were cremated with the human remains
Cremation - ANSWER: Any mechanical or thermal process whereby a dead human body is reduced to ashes
and bone fragments; also includes any other mechanical or thermal process whereby human remains are
pulverized, burned, recremated, or otherwise further reduced in size or quantity
Cremation chamber - ANSWER: Enclosed space within which the cremation process takes place; Anything
covered by these procedures shall be used exclusively for the cremation of human remains
Cremation container - ANSWER: The casket or alternative in which the human remains are transported to and
placed in the cremation chamber for a cremation
