Prepaid Funeral Plans

Brambling

Independent_Dave said:

What makes this worse is that in 5, 10, 20 years time when your family needs that plan to pay for your funeral, there probably won't be enough in the pot.  Your family will almost certainly have to pay more money at the time.

Funeral plans are a good thing, they remove the financial and emotional burden at the time of need.  But please, if you are going to buy one, don't do it online, Google your nearest independent funeral directors, pick up the phone, have a conversation and buy in confidence.   

our local family run funeral directors guarantee that there will be no additional costs at the time of the funeral, that they will absorb any additional cost if it's 20 years down the line. I not sure if it makes a difference as the elderly person I was helping was paying everything in a one off payment and not by an installment plan.  I'm not sure if the funeral directors have a lower age limit so they would not get caught absorbing a lot of costs in 40 years.  The pre-paid funeral was the same price as a similar funeral would have been at the time she pre-paying. 

Independent_Dave

Brambling said:

Independent_Dave said:

What makes this worse is that in 5, 10, 20 years time when your family needs that plan to pay for your funeral, there probably won't be enough in the pot.  Your family will almost certainly have to pay more money at the time.

Funeral plans are a good thing, they remove the financial and emotional burden at the time of need.  But please, if you are going to buy one, don't do it online, Google your nearest independent funeral directors, pick up the phone, have a conversation and buy in confidence.   

our local family run funeral directors guarantee that there will be no additional costs at the time of the funeral, that they will absorb any additional cost if it's 20 years down the line. I not sure if it makes a difference as the elderly person I was helping was paying everything in a one off payment and not by an installment plan.  I'm not sure if the funeral directors have a lower age limit so they would not get caught absorbing a lot of costs in 40 years.  The pre-paid funeral was the same price as a similar funeral would have been at the time she pre-paying. 

You did exactly the right thing by going to a funeral director to buy the plan.  They sold you a plan they were happy and confident to provide, safe in the knowledge that ALL the money you paid has been properly invested to pay for the eventual funeral.  The problem comes about when online plan sellers with absolutely no funeral knowledge sell a plan and take a huge administration fee.  There simply isn't enough in the plan to start with, it doesn't have a hope of keeping up with inflationary costs.  They are storing up a huge problem for 5, 10 years time but by then the plan sellers will probably have disappeared and its the funeral directors who will have to pick up the pieces.  The best advice will always be buy a plan from a funeral director, which is what you did. Good job.

Mojisola

Independent_Dave said:

The best advice will always be buy a plan from a funeral director, which is what you did.

What happens if you buy from a local FD and then end living (and dying) in a different part of the country?

Brambling

Mojisola said:

Independent_Dave said:

The best advice will always be buy a plan from a funeral director, which is what you did.

What happens if you buy from a local FD and then end living (and dying) in a different part of the country?

I think you would need to ask that question from the funeral director at the time of purchase, the lady I helped has no family and no intention of leaving the town so it wasn't a worry for her.

Independent_Dave

Mojisola said:

Independent_Dave said:

The best advice will always be buy a plan from a funeral director, which is what you did.

What happens if you buy from a local FD and then end living (and dying) in a different part of the country?

All funeral directors will place the funeral plan with their preferred funeral plan provider, its the law.  If you move to another part of the country, inform your local funeral director who will help you allocate a funeral director nearer to where you will live.  The plan will simply be transferred to another funeral director.  This is why its important to make sure that you don't buy a plan online.  It maybe really difficult for them to place a plan with a funeral director when so much money has been taken out of the plan in the first place. (See my post above)
If you are worried about simply dying away from home, don't panic.  All funeral directors are used to travelling all over the country to collect people.  However, there maybe additional fees to pay for that transportation.  Most plans will only include local collection.  If you die abroad, your holiday insurance will cover repatriation costs.

99Dave

Buying a plan from your local funeral director could be a good idea if you don’t plan to move area. However buying a plan from a national plan provider such as Golden Charter, Dignity , Coop etc will overcome this as should you move area the plan moves with you and will be reallocated to one of their directors in that area.

Buying a plan online is safe and easy to do and provided you use an FPA registered company that is a well known national provider.
Always check that the provider is an FPA registered company as their are still a few funeral plans companies that aren’t. 

It’s also worth noting that some companies guarantee more services than others fixed at today’s prices, so worth being sure what’s guaranteed and what isn’t.
I hope this helps.
D.

Mojisola

99Dave said:

Buying a plan from your local funeral director could be a good idea if you don’t plan to move area. However buying a plan from a national plan provider such as Golden Charter, Dignity , Coop etc will overcome this as should you move area the plan moves with you and will be reallocated to one of their directors in that area.

My parents had theirs from AgeUK who then contract the work to local FDs.  The only disadvantage I could see was that you had to use whoever they were contracted with.  The FD did change from the time they took out the plan to the time they died but we were very pleased with the service we received so that didn't matter.

I wondered how it worked if your contract was with one individual FD but Dave has answered that.

Tappers

Mojisola said:

99Dave said:

Buying a plan from your local funeral director could be a good idea if you don’t plan to move area. However buying a plan from a national plan provider such as Golden Charter, Dignity , Coop etc will overcome this as should you move area the plan moves with you and will be reallocated to one of their directors in that area.

My parents had theirs from AgeUK who then contract the work to local FDs.  The only disadvantage I could see was that you had to use whoever they were contracted with.  The FD did change from the time they took out the plan to the time they died but we were very pleased with the service we received so that didn't matter.

I wondered how it worked if your contract was with one individual FD but Dave has answered that.

@99Dave Unless the funeral plan is with the funeral directors own plan (this is very rare as few are large enough to warrant the cost) almost all plans provided by a national plan provider (make sure they're FPA registered) and are transferable to another funeral director in another part of the country. The only thing to consider is that the cost may be different depending on area.
@Mojisola Depending on when the plan was taken out Dignity may well have paid AgeUK in the region of £500 commission as they actually provide the AgeUk plan and many others and they don't pay (non Dignity owned FDs) all that much from the price paid. It's always worth asking the question.

99Dave

Don’t worry about the commission paid if the price you pay is competitive with that of the local funeral director as provided you have a set of guaranteed services it doesn’t matter as you are guaranteed to get them!

AgeUK, Dignity, Coop and Golden Leaves all provide more guarantees than most especially if it’s a cremation. Right now Dignity & AgeUK are the cheapest. 

Independent_Dave

99Dave said:

Don’t worry about the commission paid if the price you pay is competitive with that of the local funeral director as provided you have a set of guaranteed services it doesn’t matter as you are guaranteed to get them!

AgeUK, Dignity, Coop and Golden Leaves all provide more guarantees than most especially if it’s a cremation. Right now Dignity & AgeUK are the cheapest. 

Not sure I'd agree with not worrying about the commission. Don't you have a right to know where your money is going?  Its all well and good saying, don't worry, they're a big company you'll get your funeral.  Have you seen Dignitys share price recently, they have had to massively restructure in readiness for imminent legislation for pre need and at need funerals.  Their heirachy was reported for possible insider dealing as they sold huge amounts of their own stock right before the share price tumbled.  No company is ever safe, the bigger they are, the hard they fall.....