N.Y. Religious Corporations Law Section 5-A
Investment of funds

Subject to the discipline, rules and usages of the corporation and of the ecclesiastical governing body, if any, to which the corporation is subject and subject to the limitations and conditions contained in any gift, devise or bequest, and subject to any applicable provisions of law with respect to the investment of funds for the perpetual care and maintenance of cemetery lots, the trustees of every religious corporation, created by or under a general or special law, may invest the funds of such corporation in such securities, investments or other property, real or personal, located within or without the state of New York, as to them shall seem advisable without being restricted to those classes of securities which are lawful for the investment of trust funds under the laws of this state. The trustees of an incorporated Roman Catholic church, or of a Ruthenian Greek Catholic church, shall not invest its funds as in this sub-division provided without the consent of the archbishop or bishop of the diocese to which such church belongs or in case of their absence or inability to act, without the consent of the vicar general or administrator of such diocese.

Source: Section 5-A — Investment of funds, https://www.­nysenate.­gov/legislation/laws/RCO/5-A (updated Sep. 22, 2014; accessed Jan. 31, 2026).

3
Filing and recording certificates of incorporation of religious corporations 4
Property of unincorporated society transferred by its incorporation 4–A
Age qualifications of voters 5
General powers and duties of trustees of religious corporations 5–A
Investment of funds 5–B
Any investment of the funds of any religious corporation heretofore made by the trustees thereof shall not be deemed to have been restric... 6
Acquisition of property by religious corporations for branch institutions 7
Acquisition of property by religious corporations for cemetery purposes 7–A
Deeds for cemetery purposes 8
Lot owners’ rights 8–A
Reacquisition of a lot, plot or part thereof by a cemetery 9
Removal of human remains from one cemetery of a religious corporation to another cemetery owned by it 10
Acquisition of property by two or more religious corporations for a common parsonage 11
Correction and confirmation of conveyances to religious corporations 12
Sale, mortgage and lease of real property of religious corporations 13
Consolidation or merger of incorporated churches 14
Judicial investigation of amount of property of religious corporations 15
Corporations with governing authority over, or advisory relations with, churches or synods, or both 15–A
Consolidation of incorporated presbyteries 15–B
Consolidation or merger of incorporated Presbyterian and Lutheran synods 16
Property of extinct churches 17
Property of extinct Free Baptist churches 17–A
Property of extinct Seventh Day Baptist churches and Seventh Day Baptist religious societies 17–B
Property of extinct Presbyterian churches in connection with the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U 17–C
Property of Lutheran congregations 18
Dissolution of religious corporations 19
Corporations for organizing and maintaining mission churches and Sunday schools 20
Corporations for acquiring parsonages for district superintendents and camp-meeting grounds 21
Corporations for acquiring camp-meeting grounds for the Reformed Methodist denomination 21–A
Corporations for acquiring lands for parsonage or camp-meeting purposes for the Free Methodist denomination 22
Establishing and maintaining a home for aged poor 23
Powers of churches created by special laws 24
Government of churches incorporated prior to January first, eighteen hundred and twenty-eight 25
Pastoral relation 26
Worship 27
Reservation as to Baptist churches, churches of the United Church of Christ and Congregational Christian churches 28
Electronic meetings
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Verified:
Jan. 31, 2026

Last modified:
Sep. 22, 2014

§ 5-A. Investment of funds's source at nysenate​.gov

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