{"id":14579,"date":"2019-10-09T17:16:28","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T21:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/legalcounselnj.com\/?p=14579"},"modified":"2020-04-13T17:36:10","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T21:36:10","slug":"designation-funeral-agent-need-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legalcounselnj.com\/designation-funeral-agent-need-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Designation of a Funeral Agent – What You Need To Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your Designation of a Funeral Agent Under the Revised Right to Control Law<\/h3>\n

On July 19, 2019, New Jersey Governor Murphy signed into law the revised, \u201cRight to Control Law\u201d.\u00a0 This law specifies who can authorize the funeral and disposition of the remains of a deceased person. Previously, the only way an individual could appoint someone to carry out their final wishes was through a valid Last Will and Testament. If no such clause existed in the Will, then funeral directors had to rely upon a hierarchy: the spouse, then a child (or agreement among the children), and down the line. Many times, there were disputes. For example, there would be a dispute over a deceased\u2019s wish to be cremated.\u00a0 Sometimes, unmarried, \u201csignificant others\u201d, claimed decision making power with the funeral director.\u00a0 All of this resulted in a need to re-examine the old law.<\/p>\n

Your Designation Can Now Be Made By A New Form\"Funeral<\/a><\/h3>\n

Those wishing to designate a \u201cfuneral agent\u201d will soon be able to fill out a new form.\u00a0 The form will need to be witnessed by two people and notarized.\u00a0 Although the law is now in effect, the form has not yet been approved or issued.\u00a0 It is anticipated that the form will be available by funeral directors, attorneys and others.\u00a0 Hopefully, it will also be available online.<\/p>\n

What This Might Mean to You<\/h3>\n

By designating a funeral agent, you will be giving someone the legal authority to carry out your wishes regarding the disposition of your remains.\u00a0 Funeral directors will be looking for this document, particularly if there is any disagreement.\u00a0 Many have made a designation under your Last Will and Testament.\u00a0 This is still valid as long as you do not change it by filling out this new form.\u00a0 The statute specifically states that the most recently executed document, whether a Last Will<\/a> or funeral agent form, will control.<\/p>\n

Other Rules for the Funeral Agent<\/h3>\n

The revised Right to Control Law gives a funeral agent 72 hours after the decedent\u2019s death to exercise their control.\u00a0 It is assumed that this means that the funeral agent has contacted a funeral home and advised that they are the funeral agent.\u00a0 If this does not happen, the next family member in the hierarchy gains control.\u00a0 Nevertheless, these next people must state, in writing, that they attempted to contact the funeral agent, in \u201cgood faith\u201d.<\/p>\n

Further, if the appointed funeral agent has been deemed to be incapacitated by a physician, then authority passes to the next person in the hierarchy. \u00a0In addition, a funeral agent may resign, in which case the authority then passes to the next person.<\/p>\n

If the deceased has a restraining order against the agent, or if the agent is charged with the intentional killing of the deceased, then the authority passes to the next person in the family hierarchy. The law also provides for problems between parents of the deceased, divorce, annulment, civil unions and domestic partnerships.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Our Take on This Revised Law<\/h3>\n

Clearly, something had to be done with the old law.\u00a0 Most people did not name a funeral agent in their Last Will and Testament (unless of course, it was prepared at Law Offices of Robert J. Shanahan, Jr.!). If they did, often the Last Will was not found until arrangements had been made and completed.\u00a0 With the popularity of cremation rising, there has been increasing disagreement expressed by children and other family members<\/a> to funeral directors.\u00a0 In turn, these funeral directors needed to know who had the legal authority to make these decisions. Sadly, like most legislation requiring a form, the form is not available even though the law is in effect. We eagerly await the issuance of the form to designate a funeral agent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Your Designation of a Funeral Agent Under the Revised Right to Control Law On July 19, 2019, New Jersey Governor Murphy signed into law the revised, \u201cRight to Control Law\u201d.\u00a0 This law specifies who can authorize the funeral and disposition of the remains of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":14580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,228,24,3007],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legalcounselnj.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14579"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legalcounselnj.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legalcounselnj.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legalcounselnj.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legalcounselnj.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/legalcounselnj.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legalcounselnj.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legalcounselnj.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legalcounselnj.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legalcounselnj.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}