Paying for funeral costs where there is no will.

jeelz

A close friend passed a two days ago in a hospice in Scotland. We are not aware of any will although he has a Sun Life insurance policy sold to him as a funeral plan. He had around £10,000 debt which will not be covered by the value of the estate which will be no more than £2000-3000 with the Sun Life policy providing another £3500. There is no spouse or children and the few remaining family members are estranged and do not wish to take anything to do with the funeral or sorting out the estate. 
As I understand it if no-one is prepared to act as executor someone will be appointed by the Sheriff Court to wind up the estate. A few of his friends are prepared to take on the responsibility for organising the cremation (assuming that is something we are allowed to do) but is it legal for us to have the funeral plan money paid out to a funeral director? Or do we risk problems by effectively removing money from the estate?

RAS

In England, yes. 

Keep_pedalling

As I understand it Sunlife funeral plans use a company called Dignity to arrange the funeral. You should contact Sunlife to inform them of his death. The funeral plan should not form part of his estate, and as with any insolvent estate no one should attemt to administer it.

sheramber

 The funeral director will apply for the funeral plan from SunLife. It will not be paid out to anyone else or form part of the estate.
The hospice would normally contact the appointed funeral directors to collect the body and the funeral director will arrange things from there.
I suggest you start with the hospice to find out what the present position is and liaise with the funeral directors. They will need then plan documents to apply for the funds.
have a read of this
https://www.advicescotland.com/what-happens-to-your-debts-when-you-die/

Flugelhorn

Care homes / nursing homes / hospices usually have all the details of what people's "death wishes" are - I have verified plenty of deaths in care and nursing homes and there is usually an indication of whether it is to be burial / cremation - desired undertaker - whether there is a plan in place, special religious requirements  etc . Only time it went wrong was one lady with no family  had been admitted for respite care on a Friday and "hadn't seemed well enough to discuss it at the time, so we thought we would leave it" - few problems 48 hours later, rescued by her lovely neighbour who called the vicar and all went fine from there. 

Upshot is that the hospice probably have info, they are likely to have transferred his body to a local undertaker anyway so it would be a case of taking it from there - as others say the undertakers liaise with the insurance company though be careful they don't come back to you offering "extras"

jeelz

Thanks for your advice, I have contacted the hospice and will be speaking with someone from social work tomorrow.