Paying for your funeral

sharktale

Hi all, my husband and I are wanting to sort out paying for our funerals. We are looking to go with a well known company but I just want to check about the best way of paying for it now. We wont be taking finance so should we put say a couple of hundred on a credit card and pay the rest? Was thinking if the company goes into liquidation for example, would we still be covered?
Many thanks

dacouch

I can't help, but here's a link you may find helpful

http://www.which.co.uk/money/insurance/reviews-ns/funeral-plans/the-costs-of-funeral-plans/

rs65

sharktale wrote: »

We are looking to go with a well known company

One in particular?

lemontart

I am going with the co-op they have been doing them for years.

sharktale

Thanks all, the company has 6/7 branches and have been going for over 140 years. I had a quick read through and it said our money is covered by the finanancial services compensation scheme. Dacouch- I will have a read of the link.

safestored4

From our experience of buying pre-paid funerals for both our mothers through local undertakers, they in effect act as middlemen equivilent to financial advisors. They sell policies on behalf of companies who specialise in this sort of cover. We never experiencied any problems. As an aside, if your relative has to move into a care home this is a legitimate way of depleting capital to run this down to the polint where you can apply for support.

sharktale

I'm still looking into this, but I noticed that some say once youve paid it covers everything, whilst some others say it covers all the funeral directors costs and Each plan also includes a contribution towards third party costs such as clergy and doctors' fees. I'm confused about this as I thought once you've paid that was it. I would appreciate any advice anyone has about this.
Thanks

Faith177

On personal experience avoid the company called Dignity they were awful when my mum passed away last year and delayed her funeral by 2 weeks nearly trying to weasel out of paying.

They caused my family so much stress that in the end it got to the point I was threatening to turn up at their offices in Sutton Coldfield until they backdown.

My mums plan was quite extensive and covered nearly everything we were left with about just over £1000 to pay but that was because of things we added personally that weren't covered by the plan (these weren't the things I was rowing over btw). For example we had a piper at the graveside, we also had to purchase a laird (grave) we had a double one in London where my dad was but we decided not to use this so this ate up a great deal of the costs also if I remember rightly the announcements weren't paid for by the plan either.

When I started to look into mine Golden Charter were recommended highly and their plans seemed quite comprehensive

Weighty1

sharktale wrote: »

I'm still looking into this, but I noticed that some say once youve paid it covers everything, whilst some others say it covers all the funeral directors costs and Each plan also includes a contribution towards third party costs such as clergy and doctors' fees. I'm confused about this as I thought once you've paid that was it. I would appreciate any advice anyone has about this.
Thanks

There are 2 elements of cover within a pre-paid funeral plan. The element that covers the costs which the funeral director has complete control over ie. funeral director costs and those which they don't have control over medical fees, crematorium fees, clergy fees etc etc. These are called disbursements.

Funeral director fees would normally be guaranteed to be covered in full.
Disbursements costs are normally provided for with a fixed amount of cover which then increases annually either by a fixed percentage, rpi or whatever index the plan provider wishes. These disbursement fees are normally set at an amount which would cover the costs of most standard funerals ie. they are unlikely to cover the cost of a burial where plots are expensive.

HTH

sheramber

sharktale wrote: »

I'm still looking into this, but I noticed that some say once youve paid it covers everything, whilst some others say it covers all the funeral directors costs and Each plan also includes a contribution towards third party costs such as clergy and doctors' fees. I'm confused about this as I thought once you've paid that was it. I would appreciate any advice anyone has about this.
Thanks

What you buy determines what is covered. Each policy will tell you what options you have and how much it will cost.

e.g standard of coffin- basic or more ornate
How many cars you want - hearse only or with one car or several cars
iF third party costs are covered or a set amount covered- as these fees are variable
cremation or burial. Cost of burial lair may not be covered.
Viewing at the funeral home during set hours or anytime
etc . etc

What you buy is what you get.

sharktale

Thanks all, we are looking at cremations but I did read about cremation costs and the rpi, if the costs rise more than the rpi then the difference would need to be paid. How likely is it that the rpi doesn't rise with the costs?
Thanks again