Funeral Plans are they worth it? 31 December 2022 at 7:44PM in Deaths, funerals & probate 8 replies 313 views

jazzy

I took out a funeral plan around two years ago with Golden Charter. I paid off the funeral plan in full, when discussing the plan I thought that the only additional cost could be the Crematorium fee, because the council is responsible for increasing this fee annually.

A few days ago I received a letter from Golden Charter which stated that some of the items on the funeral plan are subject to extra contributions. These are Crematorium fee (expected), Doctors fee, Officiant fee, Floral tributes, Order of service, Community Council (burial plot) and Cremation stone.

I thought the whole idea of taking out a funeral plan was to pay off the funeral so the family and yourself don't have to worry about being presented with a large bill in the event of a death.

Do all funeral plans operate in the same way and can increase costs in the event of a death? If so what is the point of a funeral plan?

user1977

I expect the point is that the main cost of the funeral is the undertakers' fees, as opposed to the third party costs which might go via them. The other costs shouldn't be all that much, and some aren't essential.

In general though I've never been all that convinced about funeral plans being worthwhile. If you can afford a funeral plan now, you'll almost certainly be able to afford a funeral when the time comes. And there'll be instances of the funeral plan never being used (unprotected providers going bust / families/executors not knowing there was a funeral plan taken out decades ago / death ends up being abroad or the desired funeral not being covered for some other reason, etc).

MikeJXE

I bought 2 funeral plans, myself and my wife in October 2008 from the Co-op and paid cash 

They include 

Coffin 

Hearse

2 cars

Removal 

Professional services

Church fee

Organist fee

Minister for church and grave

Grave fee

Embalming

Each cost £2183

The double plot cost £120 extra

I buried my wife in 2012 and was charged no extras

I only needed to buy flowers

No Idea what a funeral cost now but I guess a lot more than I paid

tooldle

My folks did the same with the co-op, although just a cremation, coffin, hearse, with no extras. Dad’s was used in 2013 with the only extra charge being some flowers which mum wanted. The bonds were purchased in 1996 and cost just under £1k each. 

MikeJXE

tooldle said:

My folks did the same with the co-op, although just a cremation, coffin, hearse, with no extras. Dad’s was used in 2013 with the only extra charge being some flowers which mum wanted. The bonds were purchased in 1996 and cost just under £1k each. 

So now the OP should be able to work out if they are worth it, obviously the hardest part is to decide how soon you buy it  before you die

MikeJXE

Google found this 

The average cost for a funeral in the UK in 2022 was £4,216. This figure is an average of both cremation and burial costs, but more specifically, the average cost of cremation in 2022 was £3,940, and for burials it was £5,241.

So to me it was very much worth it 

jazzy

Thanks for the replies. Looks like Golden Charter are going over the top compared to other funeral plans. Perhaps it's because of the current rate of inflation when the funeral arrangements will double in price?

jj_43

Should the plan take the risk of inflation into account, isn’t that the point of them? 

lisyloo

jj_43 said:

Should the plan take the risk of inflation into account, isn’t that the point of them? 

Yes it is the point.

I've been involved in 4 funerals now where funeral plans were used and I'd say they have been incredibly helpful both financially and in terms of the wishes expressed in advance.

It might depend on the package you buy. There may be choices to make and if you pay for the minimum package then there will be extras to pay later on, whereas if you pay for everything up front there should be little if anything to pay later on.
I don't recall having much to pay in the ones I've been involved in (there's usually the wake to pay for).

2 were golden charter and I don't recall extras (although we didn't get refunds either for services not provided during covid).