Funeral plans, good idea?

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  • davidmcndavidmcn Posts: 12,086
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    Tellystar wrote: »
    There's no way it would make enough interest to pay for a funeral, whereas a once off payment now will pay for it even though the actual price will have increase in the next few years.

    If there's "no way" that your money will cover the cost of your funeral after you've invested it - what would the funeral directors be planning to do with it? I can't believe they've get exclusive access to lucrative investment funds.
  • TellystarTellystar Posts: 12,253
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    davidmcn wrote: »
    If there's "no way" that your money will cover the cost of your funeral after you've invested it - what would the funeral directors be planning to do with it? I can't believe they've get exclusive access to lucrative investment funds.

    They've got huge amounts of money coming in , so can afford to pay out.I'm sure it is also invested by financial experts to give the best return
    Perhaps someone involved in the the funeral plan business can enlighten us
  • barbelerbarbeler Posts: 23,827
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    Tellystar wrote: »
    They will not want you to have a paupers funeral.
    Make it easier for them by either saving specifically for funeral costs or, if you can afford it, get a funeral plan.
    They'll have to if I leave instructions that it's what I actually want. I have absolutely no intention of getting a funeral plan; they can just take it out of whatever money I have left. Surely few people die without leaving enough money behind for a basic funeral. To be honest, I'd rather be buried in the garden and leave what would have been the funeral money behind the bar for a piss-up in a good pub.
  • getzlsgetzls Posts: 4,007
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    I've just taken one out.
    I'm 57 and I pay £32 pound a month.
    Yes, it is a lot but it will cover my funeral no matter how or when I die.

    And the how bit is crucial.

    A lot of other plans ask you a lot of medical questions.
    For example I've had a long history of alcohol problems.
    If you take a policy out and say you don't drink and then later in life die from drink they will not pay out.

    Or say you have stopped smoking but later die from lung cancer it will not pay.

    All your payments have been for nothing
  • jsmith99jsmith99 Posts: 20,382
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    getzls wrote: »
    I've just taken one out.
    I'm 57 and I pay £32 pound a month.
    Yes, it is a lot but it will cover my funeral no matter how or when I die..............

    And you'll pay that until when? Do you stop paying once the cost of a funeral is covered by your premiums and the proceeds of investing them? I bet you don't.

    Some plans make a great deal of pointing out that you pay only until you're 90, but you're still covered after that. Well, by the time you're 90, you'll have paid in about £12,750. Three times the cost of a funeral at current prices.

    The only cost efficient way is the one-off policy. Pay it and forget it.
  • codebluecodeblue Posts: 14,072
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    Iqoniq wrote: »
    A friend lost a family member last year and the cremation came to about £4000, and it was far from lavish . As his 'core' family are on benefits they're now getting taken to court by the undertaker because the DWP have refused to put anything towards it, they can't afford it, and they can't even pull it out of his estate as there isn't one. On top of having to deal with the guys sudden and unexpected death, they've now got to deal with an aggressive undertakers dragging them through court, which will ultimately end up with bailiffs.

    So what?

    They purchased a funeral from a business and have now not paid for their services

    do you expect them to work for free?
  • barbelerbarbeler Posts: 23,827
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    getzls wrote: »
    I've just taken one out.
    I'm 57 and I pay £32 pound a month.
    Yes, it is a lot but it will cover my funeral no matter how or when I die.
    Sheer madness. Why would anybody cast such a shadow over the such a large part of their life by saving up for their death? Rather than pay money to these legalised vultures I'd rather put it into either an ISA, a fixed-interest account (perhaps not wise until the Brexit vote) or even Premium Bonds. At least with those you're actually gaining money instead of gifting the interest to somebody else. It's even worse than those idiots who buy savings stamps at supermarkets.
  • TellystarTellystar Posts: 12,253
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    barbeler wrote: »
    Sheer madness. Why would anybody cast such a shadow over the such a large part of their life by saving up for their death? Rather than pay money to these legalised vultures I'd rather put it into either an ISA, a fixed-interest account (perhaps not wise until the Brexit vote) or even Premium Bonds. At least with those you're actually gaining money instead of gifting the interest to somebody else. It's even worse than those idiots who buy savings stamps at supermarkets.
    It's not madness to put a plan in place which will make it easier for those you leave behind

    The interest on an ISA would not be much
    Premium bonds don't gain money unless you win- unlikely!
    Surely a prepaid funeral plan,which is a one off payment and guarantees to pay for your funeral, however much it goes up between when you took it out and when you die, is much better?
    I wouldn't recommend funeral insurance, though,
  • Sorcha_27Sorcha_27 Posts: 138,453
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    getzls wrote: »
    I've just taken one out.
    I'm 57 and I pay £32 pound a month.
    Yes, it is a lot but it will cover my funeral no matter how or when I die.

    And the how bit is crucial.

    A lot of other plans ask you a lot of medical questions.
    For example I've had a long history of alcohol problems.
    If you take a policy out and say you don't drink and then later in life die from drink they will not pay out.

    Or say you have stopped smoking but later die from lung cancer it will not pay.

    All your payments have been for nothing

    Yes I work in the industry and clients are warned before during and after the purchase of a policy about their duty of disclosure and the consequences of non disclosure.

    This warning about non disclosure is required to be given to all customers by the Central Bank in Ireland.

    Not sure if it's the same in Britain but if you fail to disclose and it's discovered then the contract is null and void.
  • getzlsgetzls Posts: 4,007
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    barbeler wrote: »
    Sheer madness. Why would anybody cast such a shadow over the such a large part of their life by saving up for their death? Rather than pay money to these legalised vultures I'd rather put it into either an ISA, a fixed-interest account

    I did consider that also.
    The problem with that is you can cash those in and spend it.

    Then you keel over.
    Who's going to pay for your funeral then?
  • barbelerbarbeler Posts: 23,827
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    getzls wrote: »
    I did consider that also.
    The problem with that is you can cash those in and spend it.
    Which is a good thing.
    getzls wrote: »
    Then you keel over.
    Who's going to pay for your funeral then?
    Nobody worried about this at all until somebody in the insurance industry dreamed up this novel money-making scheme and started flooding the day-time TV with shameful ads aimed at a captive audience of people in care homes.
  • getzlsgetzls Posts: 4,007
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    barbeler wrote: »
    Which is a good thing.

    Nobody worried about this at all until somebody in the insurance industry dreamed up this novel money-making scheme and started flooding the day-time TV with shameful ads aimed at a captive audience of people in care homes.
    Well I'm not in a care home

    Of course the best way is to pay it up front.
    But a lot of us don't have £3500 products what it is up front.

    There was a bit on BBC a few weeks back about a woman whose husband had died at it took her 10 months to raise the money for his funeral.

    Not what my family to face.
  • getzlsgetzls Posts: 4,007
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    barbeler wrote: »

    Nobody worried about this at all until somebody in the insurance industry dreamed up this novel money-making scheme and started flooding the day-time TV with shameful ads
    Well I'm old enough to remember when my Grandparents used to pay a guy every Friday something like a shilling for a policy.

    Granny used to say, that's to bury me.
  • milo1milo1 Posts: 6,079
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    A funeral plan purchased from Age UK is cheaper than going direct to a funeral director.

    Many funeral directors charge the Dignity funeral plan price which is higher than Age UK for the same thing.

    When buying your plan, you can nominate any funeral director you wish to take care of the funeral arrangements.

    There are three plans: Bronze, silver and gold depending on quality of coffin, how many cars included etc

    You can pay upfront or over 5 or 10 years.

    Once paid, the costs of funeral are fully covered.

    I think Age UK might cheaper than the Co Op. A plan costing £4000 would be the "Gold plan", which includes superior coffin, hearse and two cars, embalming and you can choose cremation or burial. Cremation is fully covered, a payment is made towards burial costs.

    A basic plan would just cover a budget coffin and hearse, cremation.

    Cancellation fee is £95 with Age UK and £250 with Co op

    A one off payment of £4225 cover a "premium" funeral. The price will never rise.

    With insurance plans, you can end up getting back far less than the premiums you have paid in, in the meantime funeral costs will also have risen substantially.

    Some here are confusing Funeral Plans with Insurance Plans.
  • IqoniqIqoniq Posts: 6,299
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    Soomacdoo wrote: »
    To be fair, those 'aggressive undertakers' are running a business and they have provided a service so why should they end up out of pocket. Why should the DWP be expected to put towards the cost of a funeral? I don't understand why someone would arrange a £4K funeral if they did not have the means or the intention of paying for it.
    I appreciate they're running a business, but if they could pay they would do.

    The DWP (or whoever it is that deals with it) apparently give a kind of funeral grant. If someone dies and you can't afford the funeral, they pay for it or so much towards it or something. I don't know how it works as I've never had any direct experience with it, but they got told to sort it out, get the bill, and then claim it from the whoever it is they're meant to claim from. Oddly enough, while they won't pay out for the funeral, they're happy to claw back the three days overpayment he had due to dying.

    The price was about as cheap as they could've done it as well, and apart from one car behind the hearse, all the others were people they knew with black cars (I actually drove someone in mine). He was cremated and had the ashes interred in a pre-paid family plot and definitely wasn't lavish.

    The whole situation was compounded by people saying they'd put towards it and then either having their pay "messed up" or making themselves scarce. They have offered to make token repayments of £5 a week, but the undertakers refused it as it wouldn't cover the interest apparently (which to be fair it wouldn't). It does show willing though on their part, and they can't really afford much more than that.

    It does go to show the stress of not having something set up if your family can't afford to bury you.
  • milo1milo1 Posts: 6,079
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    Soomacdoo wrote: »
    Why should the DWP be expected to put towards the cost of a funeral? I don't understand why someone would arrange a £4K funeral if they did not have the means or the intention of paying for it.

    They may have arranged a funeral up to the limit of what the funeral directors said the DWP would cover.

    Those on a low income or who receive JSA, Income Support, Housing Benefit, Pension Credit & who are responsible for arranging a funeral are able to claim towards funeral costs if they meet certain criteria.

    https://www.gov.uk/funeral-payments/overview
  • milo1milo1 Posts: 6,079
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    Iqoniq wrote: »

    The whole situation was compounded by people saying they'd put towards it and then either having their pay "messed up" or making themselves scarce. They have offered to make token repayments of £5 a week, but the undertakers refused it as it wouldn't cover the interest apparently (which to be fair it wouldn't). It does show willing though on their part, and they can't really afford much more than that.

    It does go to show the stress of not having something set up if your family can't afford to bury you.

    Maybe the person who arranged the funeral wasn't claiming benefits at the time, or had savings, or their income is above the qualifying income?

    If not, maybe they should seek advice from citizens advice or they may qualify for a budgeting loan to pay the undertakers.
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