The civic record
Read. Follow. Verify.Prepaid Funeral Providers Face Mandatory Electronic Filing, Strict Deadlines, and Expanded Insurance Commissioner Penalties
Last action · May 6, 2025: Becomes law without Governor's signature 05/06/2025Sponsor: Mark Tedford
Track this bill to get notified when it advances a stage. One tap to stop, anytime.
What This Bill Does
Prepaid funeral and cemetery merchandise providers must submit permit applications, renewals, annual reports, and business change notices electronically under stricter statutory deadlines. The Insurance Commissioner gains expanded powers to censure, suspend, revoke, or refuse to renew permits, along with authority to impose administrative penalties or felony charges for regulatory violations. These updated regulatory requirements become effective on November 1, 2025.
Prepaid funeral service permit holders, cemetery merchandise providers, and individual licensees face new operational burdens, explicit filing timelines, and heightened legal liabilities starting November 1, 2025.
- The Oklahoma Insurance Department regulates insurance companies, surety bonds, and pre-need funeral trust accounts to ensure consumer protection and financial solvency. context
- Pre-need funeral contracts allow individuals to plan and pay for funeral services in advance, with funds traditionally held in trusts or funded via life insurance assignments until services are rendered. context
Who It Affects
Groups the bill's text affects, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
Prepaid funeral service permit holders
Organizations offering prepaid funeral benefits must comply with electronic filing rules, tighter reporting deadlines, and new penalty structures.
Cemetery merchandise trust permit holders
Cemetery merchandise trusts are subject to revised surety bond cancellation notice periods, electronic annual reporting, and commissioner examination rules.
Insurance Commissioner
The Commissioner gains explicit authority to enforce electronic filings, demand timely inquiry responses, levy fines, and oversee receiverships.
Key Facts
You don't have to trust us. Each fact below is taken straight from the official document - click any one to see the exact passage, highlighted in the original.
Frequently Asked Questions
How quickly must permit holders report changes of address or email to the Insurance Commissioner?
What happens if a prepaid funeral or cemetery merchandise permit expires?
What is the penalty for failing to file an annual financial statement for prepaid funeral funds?
What else do you want to know?
News Coverage
Follow the record
Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
Current status: Became law without the governor's signature.
Procedural history
27 actions- May 6, 2025HouseBecomes law without Governor's signature 05/06/2025
- Apr 29, 2025HouseSent to Governor
- Apr 29, 2025SenateEnrolled measure signed, returned to House
- Apr 29, 2025HouseEnrolled, signed, to Senate
- Apr 28, 2025HouseCommitteeReferred for enrollment
- Apr 28, 2025SenateEngrossed measure signed, returned to House
Show 21 earlier actions
- Apr 28, 2025SenateFloorMeasure passed: Ayes: 44 Nays: 0
- Apr 28, 2025SenateGeneral Order, Considered
- Apr 22, 2025SenatePlaced on General Order
- Apr 17, 2025SenateFloorReported Do Pass Business and Insurance committee; CR filed
- Apr 1, 2025SenateCommitteeSecond Reading referred to Business and Insurance
- Mar 25, 2025SenateIntroducedFirst Reading
- Mar 25, 2025HouseEngrossed, signed, to Senate
- Mar 24, 2025HouseCommitteeReferred for engrossment
- Mar 24, 2025HouseFloorThird Reading, Measure passed: Ayes: 87 Nays: 0
- Mar 24, 2025HouseGeneral Order
- Mar 3, 2025HouseAuthored by Senator Reinhardt (principal Senate author)
- Mar 3, 2025HouseFloorCR; Do Pass, amended by committee substitute Commerce and Economic Development Oversight Committee
- Feb 25, 2025HouseCoauthored by Representative(s) Tedford
- Feb 25, 2025HouseFloorPolicy recommendation to the Commerce and Economic Development Oversight committee; Do Pass, amended by committee substitute Insurance
- Feb 12, 2025HouseCommitteeReferred to Insurance
- Feb 12, 2025HouseCommitteeReferred to Commerce and Economic Development Oversight
- Feb 12, 2025HouseCommitteeWithdrawn from Rules Committee
- Feb 4, 2025HouseRemove Representative Tedford as principal House author and substitute with Representative Chapman
- Feb 4, 2025HouseCommitteeSecond Reading referred to Rules
- Feb 3, 2025HouseAuthored by Representative Tedford
- Feb 3, 2025HouseIntroducedFirst Reading
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Mandatory Electronic Transition
The legislation shifts multiple filing mechanisms from paper processes to mandatory electronic submissions across prepaid funeral and cemetery merchandise regulations.
Connected Entities
Sources
www.oklegislature.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance60How much this matters to a regular citizen
- Controversy10Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment5Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz15Current news / social attention level
Publisher tools