Informational research, not legal advice. Current as of the
source retrieval dates (principally August 6, 2026). Every rule below was
independently adjudicated against archived primary-source text and published only
on agreement of at least two of three adjudicators; each state's
Confidence & disputes section discloses the exceptions.
Authorization & consent
A decedent may give written disposition directions that must be faithfully carried out when they clearly and completely state the final wishes and binding payment arrangements have been made; material alteration requires a contrary statement signed and dated by the decedent (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7100.1(a)).
Written disposition directions contained in a will must be carried out immediately regardless of the will's validity in other respects or whether it has yet been offered for probate (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7100.1(c)).
Absent controlling written directions, the disposition right and duty descend in this order: a qualifying health-care power-of-attorney agent, competent surviving spouse, competent adult child or children, competent parent or parents, competent adult sibling or siblings, competent adults in the next degree of kinship, conservator of the person, conservator of the estate, and public administrator, with the statutory asset conditions for the last three classes (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7100(a)(1)-(9)).
A surviving registered domestic partner has the same statutory rights, protections, responsibilities, obligations, and duties as a widow or widower, so the spouse-level disposition rights extend to a surviving registered domestic partner (Cal. Fam. Code § 297.5(a), (c), (j); Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7100(a)(2)).
For a covered service member who dies while on duty, the DD Form 93 Person Authorized to Direct Disposition takes first priority as the disposition agent, and current federal law permits that PADD to be designated regardless of relationship to the decedent (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7100(h); 10 U.S.C. § 1482(c)(1)>)).
When multiple competent adult children, siblings, or persons in the same next-of-kin degree survive, a majority ordinarily controls, but fewer than a majority may act after reasonable efforts to notify the others if they know of no opposition by the majority (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7100(a)(3), (5), (6)).
If one surviving competent parent is absent, the remaining competent parent obtains the disposition right and duty after reasonable efforts to locate the absent parent are unsuccessful (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7100(a)(4)).
A person charged with first- or second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter in connection with the death loses disposition control when the charge is known to the funeral director or cemetery authority; control returns if the charge is dropped or the person is acquitted (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7100(b)(1)-(3)).
A spouse who fails to act, delegate, or become locatable after reasonable inquiry within 10 days loses control to the next class; the corresponding period is seven days for the other listed priority classes (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7105(a)-(b)).
If equal-priority persons fail to agree within seven days, the funeral establishment, cemetery authority in possession, or an equal-right person may petition superior court to choose who controls and to establish an alternate successor (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7105(c)).
A funeral director or cemetery authority gains complete control when none of the first eight priority classes exists or can be found or contacted after reasonable inquiry and the public administrator fails to assume responsibility within seven days after written notice (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7100(c)).
A cemetery authority or crematory may cremate upon receiving written authorization from a person representing that they have the section 7100 disposition right (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7111).
A funeral establishment must obtain a signed declaration containing specific disposition instructions from the section 7100 controller or from a person prearranging their own cremation and disposition; the arranger and the funeral-establishment representative both sign and date the form (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7685.2(b)).
A crematory licensee may not conduct a cremation without a written contract with the person or persons entitled to custody that states the location, manner, and time of disposition and provides for payment of the licensee's regular fees (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7712.6(a)).
A funeral director contracting for cremation services must give the purchaser written notice that the controller may remove cremated remains in a durable container and that an undersized remains container must be replaced or supplemented without an added charge (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7685.2(c)(1)-(2)).
A crematory that prohibits relatives or the responsible party from viewing cremation must disclose that fact in writing to the persons entitled to custody before any contract is signed (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7712.7).
A registered cremated-remains disposer who scatters without the controller's specific written instructions, or contrary to those instructions, is subject to discipline (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7672.4(a)).
Timing & permits
No fixed statewide interval measured from death to cremation was found in the reviewed current California death-registration, disposition-permit, custody, crematory-operation, or crematory-licensing provisions; those provisions instead require certification, a disposition permit, authorization, and specified preservation controls (search of Cal. Health & Safety Code §§ 7100-7117.1, 8341-8347, 102775-102805, 103050-103105; Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 7712-7713.4).
As of July 1, 2026, the attending physician or nurse practitioner must complete the medical data and certification within 15 hours after death, while a coroner must complete it within three days after examining the body (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 102800(a) (operative July 1, 2026)).
A funeral director or other person with knowledge of or charge of a body must immediately notify the coroner for the listed unattended, unexplained, suspected-suicide, injury, accident, or suspected-criminal deaths; failure to notify is a misdemeanor (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 102850(a)-(c) (operative July 1, 2026)).
A death must be registered in the district where death was pronounced or the body was found within eight calendar days after death and before disposition; the funeral director or substitute prepares and registers the certificate (Cal. Health & Safety Code §§ 102775, 102780).
Human remains may not be disposed of until a death certificate has been obtained and filed and a local registrar has issued a disposition permit, subject to the statute's narrow adjacent-state transport exception (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 103050(a)-(b)).
A body may not be temporarily held pending disposition for more than eight calendar days after death unless the local registrar issues a disposition permit (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 103070).
A crematory may not cremate remains more than 24 hours after delivery unless the remains were preserved in the interim by refrigeration or embalming (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7712.6(b)).
Within two hours after taking custody of an unembalmed body, a California-licensed crematory must refrigerate it at no more than 50 degrees Fahrenheit unless cremation will begin within 24 hours of custody (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 8346).
A permit to remove cremated remains must identify the final place of disposition and may issue only after the applicant signs an acknowledgment that trespass and nuisance law still apply and that the permit grants no unrestricted access to another person's property (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 103060(a)-(b)).
The person issued a permit to remove cremated remains must endorse the final-disposition date and return the first endorsed copy to the registrar in the disposition district within 10 days (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 103060(c)).
A crematory must maintain an identification system for each decedent from acceptance of the body through release of the cremated remains to a third party and must maintain a written identification procedure (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 8344).
Before release, the crematory must place in the urn or container a permanent disk, tab, or label bearing its license number and a unique number recorded on all case paperwork and in the crematory log, except where a keepsake urn lacks space (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 8344).
Absent the controller's express written permission, no person may cremate more than one person's remains simultaneously or introduce a second person's remains before the prior incineration ends and reasonable fragment-removal efforts occur; unavoidable residue is not a violation (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7054.7(a)(1)).
Absent express written permission, cremated remains may not be disposed of or scattered so they commingle with another person's remains; that restriction does not apply to sea scattering from individual containers or dedicated-cemetery disposal of accumulated crematory residue (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7054.7(a)(2)).
Absent express written permission, remains of more than one person may not share a container or interment space, except for same-family interment in a multi-person cremains container, a space or container designated at sale for multiple persons, or dedicated-cemetery disposal of crematory residue (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7054.7(a)(3)(A)-(C)).
A crematory may not require a casket or refuse a body because it is not in a casket, although it may require another type of container or disposal unit (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 8342).
A Bureau-regulated crematory may knowingly cremate only human remains with the cremation container, the decedent's personal effects, and no more than a negligible amount of disease-control chlorinated plastic, subject to the statutory military-flag exception (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 8344.5(a)-(b)).
Crematory personnel involved in cremation must be instructed under a written plan on identification, equipment operation, and handling law, and no employee may operate cremation equipment before demonstrating required health, safety, and anti-commingling knowledge (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 8347(a)-(b)).
If one container cannot hold all of a decedent's cremated remains, the crematory must provide a larger container at no added cost or attach a secondary container to the primary so incidental contact will not easily detach it (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 8345).
Cremated remains may not be removed from the crematory, and no cremation charge may be made, unless the remains have been processed to be suitable for inurnment; every cremation contract must specifically notify the controller in writing of that processing (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7054.1).
Before disposition, every Cemetery and Funeral Act licensee or registrant handling cremated remains must remove and keep them in a durable container, store them free from exposure to the elements, and responsibly maintain them (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7054.6(c)).
A registered cremated-remains disposer must report each storage facility's address and telephone number, store remains free from the elements and responsibly maintain them, and permit the Bureau to inspect a storage location without notice; the Bureau must randomly inspect 5 to 10 percent of registered disposers annually (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7672.6(a)(2)).
Detaining human remains for a debt or failing to release remains, personal effects, or required certificates and permits forthwith after delivery of a release authorization signed by the next of kin or lawful custodian is a misdemeanor (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7053).
Outside a cemetery, cremated remains may be disposed of only through the statutory methods for private keeping, land scattering, sea disposition, or release and disposition under a permit; unauthorized disposal is a misdemeanor (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7054(a)-(b)).
Under a section 103060 permit, cremated remains in a durable container may be kept on real property owned or occupied by the controller or another person with the controller's permission, or in a church or shrine with its written permission and subject to zoning and use-permit law (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7054.6(a)).
Cremated remains may be divided among keepsake urns of no more than one cubic centimeter, but each urn requires a disposition permit identifying the recipient's home address and authorization by the person or persons controlling disposition (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7054.6(b)).
Land scattering is allowed where no local prohibition exists only if the remains are not publicly distinguishable, are removed from a container, and the controller has written permission from the property owner or governing agency (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7116(a)).
Cremated remains may be taken by boat from a California harbor or by air and scattered at sea, but they ordinarily must be removed from their container before scattering (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7117(a)).
For scattering from a boat, cremated remains may be transferred into a closed scattering urn that dissolves and releases its contents within four hours at sea no more than seven days before scattering; this urn exception does not apply to scattering by plane (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7117.1(a)-(b)).
For California's inland navigable waters other than lakes and streams, sea scattering must occur at least 500 yards from shore and may not occur from a bridge or pier (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7117(c)).
A person scattering at sea must file a verified statement with the registrar in the county nearest the scattering point and file the first endorsed permit copy within 10 days after disposition (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7117(b)).
Disposition includes shipment of cremated remains outside the state for lawful disposition elsewhere, and such disposition generally requires a filed death certificate and a local registrar's disposition permit (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7025; § 103050(a)).
The Bureau states that the reviewed Business and Professions Code, Health and Safety Code, and funeral-practice regulations specify no maximum period for an ordinary funeral establishment to retain cremated remains; the duration instead depends on the contracted final disposition, promised services, and a reasonable completion time (California Cemetery and Funeral Bureau, Unclaimed Cremated Remains guidance (June 2021)).
A crematory licensee must maintain a contractual relationship with a licensed cemetery for burial, entombment, or inurnment of remains not lawfully disposed of or not called for or accepted by the authorized controller within 90 days after death (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7712.6(c)).
A registered cremated-remains disposer must dispose of cremated remains within 60 days after receipt unless a written, signed reason for delay is presented to the section 7100 controller (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7672.6(a)(1)).
When the decedent made no disposition provision, or when the estate is insufficient and no person bearing the interment duty resides in California or can be found after reasonable diligence, the custodian may require the decedent's county coroner to take the remains for indigent interment; the Bureau says this path applies to abandoned cremated as well as uncremated remains (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7104(a); California Cemetery and Funeral Bureau, Unclaimed Cremated Remains guidance (June 2021)).
A coroner holding remains may inter them if, within 30 days after the coroner notifies or diligently attempts to notify the responsible person, that person fails, refuses, or neglects to inter; the coroner may recover the expense from that person (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7104.1).
An officer or institution head controlling remains to be interred at public expense must use due diligence to notify the decedent's relatives (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7200).
Unclaimed dead retained by the state for scientific or educational purposes must be held for 30 days by the assignee, subject to claim and identification by an authenticated relative for interment or other directed disposition (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7202).
A crematory must keep its statutory cremation record, including identity, operator and processing times, disposition, authorizing agent, identification number, and a permit copy, for at least 10 years after cremation (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 8343(a)-(k)).
The person arranging disposition must obtain the controller's written acknowledgment of the statutory cremation-and-residue disclosure, and the person who disposes of or inters the remains must retain it for at least five years (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7054.7(b)).
A crematory licensee must keep Bureau-required records needed to demonstrate compliance and file an annual Bureau report describing its operations, including cremation counts and dispositions (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7712.8).
A cremated-remains disposer must file by September 30 and maintain an updated annual report covering the fiscal year ended June 30, identifying the decedents, receipt dates, authorizers, disposition dates and locations, and means and manner of disposition (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7672.7(a)).
A cremated-remains disposer must give the section 7100 controller a copy of the completed disposition permit within 30 days after scattering (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7672.5).
Penalties & liability
The Cemetery and Funeral Bureau, within the Department of Consumer Affairs and under the department director's supervision and control, administers and enforces the Cemetery and Funeral Act (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 7600-7602).
A crematory must at all times employ and designate a licensed crematory manager, who is responsible for direct supervision and control needed to ensure statutory and regulatory compliance; inadequate supervision is a ground for discipline (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7713(a)-(c)).
A person who offers to dispose of cremated remains generally must register with the Bureau as a cremated-remains disposer, subject to statutory exemptions for listed death-care licensees and a controller or designee disposing of no more than 10 remains in a calendar year (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7672(a)).
The Bureau may inspect premises where a funeral establishment, cemetery, or crematory conducts business, where embalming occurs, or where human remains are stored (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7607(a)).
After notice and hearing, the Bureau may suspend or revoke a license for a proven disciplinary ground; violation of the Cemetery and Funeral Act, its rules, or a law or local rule affecting handling, custody, care, or transportation of human remains is a disciplinary ground (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 7686, 7703-7704).
A licensee's refusal to surrender promptly the remains, personal effects, and required certificates or permits on the express order of the lawful custodian is a ground for discipline (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7706).
A Cemetery and Funeral Act violation is generally a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in county jail, a fine up to $1,000, or both, unless a more specific provision controls (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 7715, 7719).
A Bureau licensee, registrant, employee, agent, or person acting in a licensed capacity who unlawfully disposes of human remains outside a cemetery faces a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in county jail, a fine up to $10,000, or both (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7054(a)(2)).
A Bureau licensee, registrant, employee, agent, or unlicensed person acting in a licensed capacity who omits a legally imposed interment duty within a reasonable time commits a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail, a fine up to $10,000, or both, and may also owe treble disposition expenses (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7103(b)-(c)).
A cremated-remains disposer who recklessly stores remains and thereby loses any part or makes individual identification impossible commits a public offense punishable by up to one year in county jail, a fine up to $5,000, or both (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7673.1(a)).
Cremating human remains or engaging in their disposition without a valid, unexpired crematory license is a misdemeanor, and each cremation is a separate violation (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7713.3).
A cemetery authority or crematory acting on section 7111 written authorization is not liable for the authorized lawful disposition unless it has actual notice that the signer's representation of authority is untrue (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7111).
Anyone signing an interment or cremation authorization warrants the stated facts, the decedent's identity, and the signer's authority, and is personally liable for damage resulting from breach of that warranty (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7110).
A licensed funeral director is not liable in damages for the lawful disposition of cremated human remains (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7112).
Recent & pending changes
Effective January 1, 2026, enacted SB 861 requires the Bureau's online licensee disclosures to include crematories, cremated-remains disposers, funeral establishments, funeral directors, hydrolysis facilities, and reduction facilities, among the other listed licensees (2025 Cal. Stats. ch. 592 (SB 861), amending Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 27(b)(4)).
Effective July 1, 2026, the operative death-certificate provisions added an attending nurse practitioner alongside an attending physician as a person who may complete and attest the medical and health data and time of death (Cal. Health & Safety Code §§ 102795, 102800, § 102825 (versions operative July 1, 2026)).
As of August 6, 2026, AB 2542 (Marissa's Law) was an active Senate floor bill on the consent calendar; it proposed transferring disposition control away from a domestic-violence restraining-order respondent and, in specified cases, from a parent when a court or legally determinative document shows parental control would have been contrary to the decedent's best interests (Cal. AB 2542 (2025-2026), amended June 25, 2026, § 2).
As of August 6, 2026, SB 344 remained on the Assembly inactive file and proposed adding a dock attached to shore to the existing prohibition on scattering cremated remains from a bridge or pier (Cal. SB 344 (2025-2026), amended March 20, 2025, § 1).
Confidence & disputes
Verdict tally: 90 CONFIRMED, 0 REJECTED. All three adjudicators voted on all 90 claims — council AGREE on 90, agy AGREE on 90, codex AGREE on 86 and DISAGREE on 4. No adjudicator was recorded NOT_RUN.
No claim was rejected, so no claim is excluded from the sections above on that ground.
Codex dissents on CONFIRMED claims (published under the 2-of-3 rule; precision caveats, not reversals):
CA-085, the funeral director's written cremation-contract notice (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7685.2(c)(1)-(2)): codex read the statute to make only the larger replacement container available at no additional cost, the alternative second container carrying an anti-separation requirement but no stated no-charge requirement. Remains published under the 2-of-3 rule.
CA-067, the general Cemetery and Funeral Act misdemeanor (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 7715, 7719): codex accepted the misdemeanor classification and the six-month/$1,000 maxima but found no exception or hierarchy rule in the transcript stating that a more specific provision controls. Remains published under the 2-of-3 rule.
CA-037, the exceptions to the cemetery one-year rule (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7112): codex read section 8341 as unconditionally requiring interment within one year and section 7112's contract and permanent-interment clauses as qualifying a no-action provision rather than section 8341, leaving the broader exception supported only by Bureau guidance. Remains published under the 2-of-3 rule.
CA-031, the funeral establishment's duty to release (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7053): codex noted that section 7053 requires release only upon delivery of a release authorization signed by the next of kin or lawful custodian, a material condition the claim omits, leaving the broader statement supported only by Bureau guidance. Remains published under the 2-of-3 rule.
Currency: the natural organic reduction provisions in the Alternative processes group are future-effective on January 1, 2027 and are not current as of August 6, 2026, and the AB 2542 and SB 344 entries state legislative status as of August 6, 2026.
Sources
CA-01Cal. Health & Safety Code div. 7, pt. 1, ch. 1, §§ 7000-7025 (Definitions) — official source
CA-07Cal. Health & Safety Code div. 102, pt. 1, ch. 6, art. 1, §§ 102775-102805 (Duty of Registering Death) — official source
CA-08Cal. Health & Safety Code div. 102, pt. 1, ch. 6, art. 2, § 102825 (Responsibility of Attending Physician) — official source
CA-09Cal. Health & Safety Code div. 102, pt. 1, ch. 6, art. 3, §§ 102850-102870 (Responsibility of Coroner) — official source
CA-10Cal. Health & Safety Code div. 102, pt. 1, ch. 8, §§ 103050-103105 (Permits for Disposition of Human Remains) — official source
CA-12Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code div. 3, ch. 12, art. 1, §§ 7600-7610.1 (Cemetery and Funeral Act - Administration) — official source
CA-20Cal. Health & Safety Code div. 8, pt. 3, ch. 2, art. 5, SS 8341-8347 (Operation of Crematories) — official source
CA-21Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code div. 3, ch. 12, art. 6.5, SS 7712-7713.4 (Crematories) — official source
CA-22Cal. Health & Safety Code div. 7, pt. 1, ch. 3, SS 7100-7117.1 (Custody, and Duty of Interment) — official source
CA-23Cal. Health & Safety Code div. 7, pt. 1, ch. 2, SS 7050.5-7055 (General Provisions - crimes, disposal, commingling) — official source
CA-24Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code div. 3, ch. 12, art. 4.5, SS 7672-7673.2 (Cremated Remains Disposer) — official source
CA-25Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code div. 3, ch. 12, art. 7, SS 7715-7719 (Penal Provisions) — official source
CA-26Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code div. 3, ch. 12, art. 6, SS 7686-7711.12 (Disciplinary Proceedings) — official source
CA-27Cal. Health & Safety Code div. 7, pt. 1, ch. 4, SS 7200-7208 (Disposal of Unclaimed Dead) — official source
CA-30Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code div. 3, ch. 12, art. 5.5, SS 7685-7685.6 (Funeral Practices) — official source
CA-34AB-2542 (Patterson, 2025-2026) Human remains: disposition ('Marissa's Law') - amended Senate 06/25/26, pending — official source
CA-35SB-344 (Weber Pierson, 2025-2026) Disposition of human remains: scattering at sea - on Assembly inactive file — official source