Pre-paid funerals – Time to say Goodbye

We are asked about pre-paid funeral plans often, and we understand that people commonly want to have everything sorted before their death for peace of mind and to help their families. However, we have decided not to offer further pre-paid funeral plans as in our experience, finding repeatedly they failed both families and us.

We have tried a few different companies over our years and sadly have been unable to find a company offering the support we feel is needed. Our experience is that the management fees are high, the investment gains low, transparency lacking and the benefits fall mainly to the pre-paid companies themselves. We felt ourselves censored by the rules around such plans, unable to speak freely as to what we would consider best for people.

For anyone wanting to pay for their funeral in advance we strongly recommend they simply save or invest the money themselves in the same way they would choose to for any other funds, and rest assured a bank will honour a funeral director’s invoice at the time of need. In addition record your funeral wishes so that family know your hopes and intentions, which will give them both clarity and funds to carry out your funeral.

If you tie up your money in a pre-paid plan you lose money to the management fee, and you lose flexibility as they are normally tied to one funeral director. Should you move or they change, or your wishes change, your new plan may not be accepted on the same terms.

The rules around pre-paid plans have tightened up in recent years which is definitely a step in the right direction, but historically plans were guilty of using funds for reasons not disclosed to plan-holders, or of offering value only if no details were changed at all since the original intentions were set out. Life doesn’t always go to plan, and it is true that often neither does death, and we believe your funds should allow for that.

We are always happy to meet and talk through funeral wishes with anyone wanting to plan their funeral in advance, and can then keep your wishes on record. We make no charge for this, and there is no obligation to carry out your funeral with us. Or you are welcome to simply download our funeral wishes document and use that yourself.

If you already have a pre-paid funeral plan with us, rest assured we will of course fulfil your wishes to the best value possible following all the terms of your plan that we will absolutely still uphold.