19th Sep 2016
Funeral Planning
By Ashley Shepherd
An article on the BBC this week highlighted an increasing number of families are checking whether their loved one had a prepaid funeral plan in place following their death.
With over 1 million prepaid funeral plans in place and even more over 50 life insurance plans to help ease the financial burden, it's easy to say how this number will increase and with more suffering long term illness, such as dementia and cancer tracing them could be even more difficult
The Funeral Planning Authority told the BBC that they are getting more requests to trace plans and now have a "trace a funeral plan" service, just click here to go directly to this page.
Talking about your end of life and later life plans with your relatives or friends can help them understand the type of funeral you want and whether you have a funeral plan in place, in addition to any other financial products.
If it's too late then you should check their bank statements for as long a period as possible and go through their paperwork looking for funeral plan or life insurance details; usually there will be a certificate or official documents confirming.
Should you subsequently find your loved ones funeral plan details at a later date, you can ask for a refund of the plan value less of course any cancellation fees, usually between £200 to £400.
Is a prepaid funeral plan worth it?
Prepaid funeral plans are a financial product that allow you to purchase your funeral services in advance.
People buy them to save their family from the stress of arranging their funeral when the time comes and by purchasing one today you are freezing the costs as detailed in the plan, a potential saving if funeral costs rise.
SunLife's latest cost of dying report has found that the average cost of a funeral is now £4,056 an could exceed over £5,000 by 2026. The Alzheimer's Society has said that by 2021 there will be over one million people in the UK living with dementia.
With a growing elderly population it will be even more important to ensure that finances are in order, both our own and our families.
Talking about what you want to happen once you have gone with your family will be an easier discussion than your family not knowing what you wanted to happen and whether you had put any arrangements in place and them guessing what type of funeral wanted and searching for a funeral plan you may or may not have in place.