Funeral Pre Payment Plan refusing to pay. Dignity/Capital Life

Girlzmum

Hi, hoping someone can help me. Unfortunately it is a bit complicated.

My mother had been paying into a funeral pre payment plan through Capital Life until October 31st 2022 when this was taken over by Dignity Funeral Plans but her monthly payments continued.

Unfortunately mum had gone to Australia to visit my brother when she took ill very suddenly, thankfully we all made it to Australia and we were with her when she passed away on 7th December 2022, she was cremated in Australia with the plan for me to bring her home with me but the cremation certificate was not available so her ashes are in Australia with my brother. We are planning to have a memorial service for her over the summer. When I got back home I just got my head down and concentrated on Christmas for my children so I didn't start contacting companies until January and ///one of the first companies I contacted was Dignity. Initially I was told I needed to contact an approved funeral director but when I explained she had passed in Australia and was already cremated I was told the only option was to cancel the plan to get a refund, they then explained that as Dignity had recently taken over Capital Life they were still waiting for funds to be transferred from Capital Life to cover the plans and it would take up to 12 weeks to get this sorted so I had to wait for a letter from themselves. I said no problem and waited.

I received a letter dated 30th January 2023 stating that the policy was valued at £4570.58 so I contacted Dignity again and was told this wasn't the letter I was waiting for and I had to wait for this different letter to be sent. I waited until last week, so 16 weeks at that stage, and emailed to find out what was going on. I received a reply stating:

"I do apologise but we are still awaiting for the monies from Capital Life.
It has been confirmed that Dignity will receive no monies (£0) from Capital Life for instalments paid by customers to Capital Life prior to 31st October 2022. Therefore, refunds will be capped at what Capital Life customers have paid towards their plans after this date."

I looked at my mothers payments made to Dignity and they work out at less than £60. Where has her payments gone? How can someone justify over £4500 disappearing from a dead womans estate?

Does anyone know what I can do to chase this? I will be making a complaint to FCA but is there any possibility of us getting the rest of her money back?

lincroft1710

Did CL go into administration and Dignity bought the assets (if there were any) and the "client list" (but not the debts) or was it a simple takeover of one company by another where assets and debts pass to the company taking over? 

tacpot12

Complaining in writing to Capital Life would seem to be the next step. I would make the point as to how long you have been waiting. 

I think you should be able to get a refund of premiums if this is what the contract allows. 

sheramber

Capital Life withdrew its application for authorisation from the FCA to sell funeral plans.

Plans were transferred to Dignity.

I t appears Capital Life have not transferred the money paid to them for these plans.

msb1234

here’s some info I found
https://www.dignityfunerals.co.uk/media/4935/capital-life-faqs-2022-11-29.pdf
it makes it clear that refunds will only be made of the monies paid to Dignity following the transfer in October. 

msb1234

Just a thought - I’m assuming your mum had travel insurance? Wouldn’t this pay out for her funeral costs?

Ganga

msb1234 said:

Just a thought - I’m assuming your mum had travel insurance? Wouldn’t this pay out for her funeral costs?

I think its the disappearance of the funds that concerns the poster rather than the costs of the funeral.

Malthusian

Girlzmum said:

I looked at my mothers payments made to Dignity and they work out at less than £60. Where has her payments gone? How can someone justify over £4500 disappearing from a dead womans estate?

She loaned her money to an unregulated company and there was always an inherent risk that they didn't pay her back. These companies are Farepak with funerals in place of Christmas hampers.
If Capital Life has said that they will not be transferring the money to Dignity, which Dignity were expecting them to based on their published FAQ, it sounds distinctly like they have gone bust, but it doesn't seem to have gone public yet. It may be just a matter of time and doing the legal paperwork.
If they aren't bust and they aren't transferring the money to Dignity for some other reason they still owe the money to her estate. So I agree that a complaint to Capital Life seems to be the next step.
But I would write off the £4,500 and treat any return as a nice surprise. 

TBagpuss

I think it's worth making a formal complaint to them and pointing out that you received confirmation from them that value was £4,500 - may be worth contacting a 'consumer champion' type journalist - they are probably legally correct but the fact that you were m,iseld by the letter saying the value was £4,,500 may make a difference, especially if you get a bit of punlicitly.

Another option would be to request that they reimburse the funeral home in Australia or cover the costs of the memorial 

Labradoodles

Hi Girlzmum
I’m sorry for your loss and to be raising this issue with Capital Life and Dignity again after a year  for you . We are in the similar situation with Dignity as yourself , they have delayed confirming a discrepancy in the balance of our funeral plan for 16 months now and was trawling through the internet to see if others were still struggling with the transfer from Capital Life . 
     I was wondering if you were able to resolve the question of the refund of your late Mother’s funeral plan funds  or did you just have to walk away from the outstanding balance in the end .  I’m not sure whether to continue with my fight for my refund or just to give up and mark it up to one of life’s bad decisions 
Thanks 

silvercar

msb1234 said:

Just a thought - I’m assuming your mum had travel insurance? Wouldn’t this pay out for her funeral costs?

Generally they pay for repatriation, though that is usually before a cremation. I don't know how complicated and cheap it is to transfer after cremation. I do know someone who did this, but they were with the remains and didn't necessarily investigate requirements.