Life insurance or funeral plan?

dojoman

Please forgive me if this is in the wrong section! What I would like to know is whether it is better to purchase a funeral plan for my mother or to try and get life insurance for her. My mother is presently in a nursing home as she has dementia, but is in good health apart from that. She has some life insurance but not enough to cover a funeral. She is 81 years of age this month. Whilst I do not want to seem callous, I would like to prepare for the future now, to avoid any problems when the unthinkable does happen, any help would be greatly appreciated.

dzug1

Well a funeral plan generally involves paying up front now for a defined set of services. Can you/she afford that? It guarantees that set of services whatever happens to prices.

I think she is too old for the payment by instalments option but it may depend on the provider - worth checking.

Willman_Rodders

The second advantage of a pre-paid funeral plan is that it reduces her estate in size now, so that she will qualify for 100% State assistance for her care just that little bit sooner.

Farway

Given the circumstances I doubt if affordable life insurance is even an option

stevewallis100

I would say a funeral plan would be better value. I believe the only insurance policy that would accept your mother is one offered by Sun Life Direct, which provides guaranteed acceptance cover up to 85 years of age. But the premiums will be very high and if your mother is in good health you are likely to pay more into the policy than you will get back out of it. Also, this policy will not actually guarantee to cover the cost of the funeral.

Funeral costs have increased by an average of 6.4% over the last 20 years, which is higher than inflation during the same period. A funeral costs on average about £2,800 today. This will probably increase to in excess of £3,500 within the next 5 to 10 years, so this is the amount of cover you will need if you go for life insurance.

If you want to consider a funeral plan you should opt for one that guarantees to fully cover the funeral costs. Only two providers currently offer such plans: Dignity Funeral Plans and the Co-op Funeralcare. The Dignity plan is better value, but there isn't much between them.

Hope this helps.

hampa

My father's been looking at funeral plans - he's found the same in that Dignity and Co-op are best. The only thing with the Dignity one is it says everything is guaranteed in terms of costs, but in the small print you'll find they only make a contribution to doctor/cremation/minister's fees, think it's about £800, so there could be extra to pay. Best to find out the costs in your area I guess just to see.

Also, there are set plans you can choose from which cover the essentials (so it's easy and less time consuming to do) or you can get bespoke plans too (not sure if Dignity do this but Co-op do) - depending on what you want, bespoke could work out cheaper.. just a thought.

There's other differences in terms of relocation distances, type of coffin, limo or not.

Co-op have an offer at the moment where you get free legal advice and £25 off Wills when you buy a funeral plan - friend of mine works at Co-op - I can't put links up apparently, but if you go to the main website for co-op and then put /008 at the end after .coop you should find it.

Hope this helps.

A

dzug1

Have had another look at the Coop plan - if you can get it set up before her birthday instalments are acceptable. They are paid up to age 90.

However, it won't pay out for two years - in that time you get the premiums back less an admin fee.

margaretclare

stevewallis100 wrote: »

I would say a funeral plan would be better value. I believe the only insurance policy that would accept your mother is one offered by Sun Life Direct, which provides guaranteed acceptance cover up to 85 years of age. But the premiums will be very high and if your mother is in good health you are likely to pay more into the policy than you will get back out of it. Also, this policy will not actually guarantee to cover the cost of the funeral.

Funeral costs have increased by an average of 6.4% over the last 20 years, which is higher than inflation during the same period. A funeral costs on average about £2,800 today. This will probably increase to in excess of £3,500 within the next 5 to 10 years, so this is the amount of cover you will need if you go for life insurance.

If you want to consider a funeral plan you should opt for one that guarantees to fully cover the funeral costs. Only two providers currently offer such plans: Dignity Funeral Plans and the Co-op Funeralcare. The Dignity plan is better value, but there isn't much between them.

Hope this helps.

Costs can vary enormously according to what you want/don't want. Much more so now than - say - 50 years ago. In the village where I grew up, everyone was buried in either the churchyard or the chapel graveyard, a service in church or chapel (depending on where the deceased worshipped), simple flowers from the garden, a 'ham tea' afterwards.

Nowadays, along with the basic options of burial vs cremation, you have limousines/no limousines, flowers vs a donation to favourite charity, religious service vs no service, newspaper announcements or not, a whole lot of different options.

So it is a bit misleading to quote simply 'funeral costs' as if it was all the same.

I got a quote last October when DH was literally hanging at death's door, and that was for a 'green burial' in a wildflower meadow, no limousines, no flowers, donations (if wished) to charity, no black, service in our Methodist church (no charge for that) - the whole thing came to £2,500. From what I've heard the most expensive things can be the limousines and the flowers.

My eldest GD's friend's granny's funeral was on Friday - it seems to have been a very formal occasion with black for everyone and all the men in black ties. The funeral ended at 2 pm but the 'wake' went on - GD was looking after her friend's children and didn't get home until 8 pm. So, the 'wake' is a big thing in some parts - does that get included in the costs?

dzug1

margaretclare wrote: »

. So, the 'wake' is a big thing in some parts - does that get included in the costs?

Not in a funeral plan. You could allow for it in an insurance policy

Errata

Costs also vary depending on region. A funeral in say West Yorkshire would cost far less than its equivalent in the London area.

scotsbob

stevewallis100 wrote: »

A funeral costs on average about £2,800 today. .

Depends where you live and how lavish you want it.

It's less than £1500 here.


http://www.cremationservices.co.uk/disbursements.html