I get a lot of emails like this from Rosemary: “Can you advise on the best funeral plans? There are quite a few on the market and I am confused by the different promises. We don’t have the money put by, so I’d like to pay by instalments.”
Like many mums, Rosemary, 70, wants to save her daughters the worry of paying for her funeral. But why? The average funeral costs around £3,700 – though in parts of the UK it can be a lot more. If you have at least that much to leave your heirs, then let them pay from your estate.
The advantage of a plan is that it guarantees the price of the funeral itself – but not a lot of the subsidiary costs – at today’s rates and avoids your heirs having to pay what will inevitably be a higher cost when you die.
But if you do not leave enough money in your estate for a funeral, can you really afford to find the money out of your income now? Most children would prefer you to use your money while you are alive and let them deal with the costs when you go. If you can afford to pay for a funeral plan, you could also consider just putting that money into a savings account.
At 70, Rosemary can expect to live 19 years, so saving even £30 a month would add up to well over £7,000 by the time she died.
If you do want to go for a plan, then choose one covered by the Funeral Planning Authority. If the firm goes bust, other members will try to provide the funeral you paid for. Typical plans cost £2,800 to £4,500 (depending on the coffin). Make sure you know exactly what is covered – many things such as flowers, cars, headstone and burial may not be. You can pay monthly, but that costs more.
The National Federation of Funeral Directors (nffd.co.uk) has a fair price charter and tells me the average cost across its 400 smaller and family-run businesses is £2,600. It will be opening a low-cost chain branded Gone Too Soon in the next few months.
Finally, do write down what sort of funeral you want. That will be the most help to your family when you die.
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