saving for funeral

Zola.

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

I hope you are not one of the many who view your own mortality as depressing, so pretend it will never happen and so fail to make a will, and / or fail to insure your family are financially OK should you die unexpectedly.

Certainly not!

Malthusian

bigadaj wrote: »

One example was someone who burnt out completely while seated in their armchair. Test with a pigs carcass and a low flame showed that the body acted as a wick, so smouldered away over many hours and even days, everything pretty much was consumed apart from a few bones (the majority burnt) and some teeth and any metallic bits, fillings, pins

As you say, this process takes days. If Dird's kids chucked him on a bonfire, even assuming they arranged him the right way up and with enough oxygen available to allow the body to act as a wick, the police or Environmental Health would turn up long before the corpse was even half done.

Which, to stop us getting dragged too far off the point, illustrates that it is worth ensuring you have enough in your bank account to cover the fairly modest cost of a proper cremation. Not just for the sake of your family, but because this money will also cover the boiler or car breaking down or being without work for a few months.

Mojisola

mikeywales wrote: »

I am a 53 year old, non smoking male that has various medical issues, should I consider an over 50s life insurance or funeral plan or should I just put the money into a savings account - any advice is much appreciated

Unless your health issues are serious, you are probably going to be around for another 25 - 30 years. That's a lot of life to live before you'll need a funeral!

I would go for savings which can then be used to make life more comfortable if needed along the way.

A pre-paid funeral can be useful - my parents saved quite a bit by having them but they were well into their 70s before they bought them.

Don't touch those awful over-50 plans - the celebrities who promote them should be ashamed of themselves.

Aquamania

mikeywales wrote: »

I want to start putting some money away every month to go towards paying for my funeral but I am very confused with what's on offer and which way to go. I am a 53 year old, non smoking male that has various medical issues, should I consider an over 50s life insurance or funeral plan or should I just put the money into a savings account - any advice is much appreciated

It really depends on what your aims are.

Life insurance may be expensive, especially as you say you have existing medical conditions

Funeral plans really play on the fear that the cost of funerals has recently increased alot more than inflation.
So whereas as mum2one says, it costs about £3200 for a rather simple funeral today, about 5-10 years ago that would only have cost about £2000. The plan marketers extrapolate that and claim it may therefore cost about £4400 in about another 5-10 years. But who knows? What the plans do is lock in the cost at todays price, but you need to look carefully at the cost of the plan as it may not actually as good value as the headline figures imply.
And check what you will actually get when you do eventually die by way of a funeral. And what happens if the plan provider goes bust or cannot meet it's obligations when you die?

So if you want to keep things simple, I would suggest a regular saver account.

sheramber

A lot depends on who you expect to be dealing with your funeral. Do you want to make sure there is enough money to cost/

Do you pay into a pension scheme which could pay out in the event of your death?

With savings you need to ensure there will always be enough to cover every thing. A local funeral director will give you an estimate of today's cost of what you want - basic or more elaborate.- but of course prices will always increase.

With an over 50's plan you have to keep paying in or you lose all your payments so you can end up paying in more than they will pay out.

A funeral plan means you pay at today's prices for elements within a plan. So you are fixing the price of these. e.g my sister took out a plan 11 years ago to cover everything and paid £1500. She is still alive and well so has paid a lot less what her funeral will cost.

There are options of what you can cover from a basic funeral with minimum extras to a more comprehensive one.
What ever is covered in the plan will not cost your family anymore. They will only have to pay for anything extra they want.

e'g. you can select a basic plan but if your family wanted more than what was included they would have to pay more.

Different companies offer different plans so you need to compare and select which meets your requirements.

Funeral plans funds are held in a trust so are secure.

Whatever you decide on make sure you have a will and whoever will be dealing with your affairs knows what provision you have made and where the paperwork is kept.

Mojisola

sheramber wrote: »

Whatever you decide on make sure you have a will and whoever will be dealing with your affairs knows what provision you have made and where the paperwork is kept.

This is very important. I've heard of someone whose relatives arranged and paid for the funeral and then found a paid-up funeral plan among his papers. The company refused to refund any money so his funeral was paid for twice.

bigadaj

Malthusian wrote: »

As you say, this process takes days. If Dird's kids chucked him on a bonfire, even assuming they arranged him the right way up and with enough oxygen available to allow the body to act as a wick, the police or Environmental Health would turn up long before the corpse was even half done.

Which, to stop us getting dragged too far off the point, illustrates that it is worth ensuring you have enough in your bank account to cover the fairly modest cost of a proper cremation. Not just for the sake of your family, but because this money will also cover the boiler or car breaking down or being without work for a few months.

Depends, can see my father favouring this option, and as they live on a farm in rural Wales then don't think anyone would find out or be bothered.