Important Notice
The Funeral pre-payment plan sector is now under regulations set by the FCA.
Alot of plan providers have not been accepted for authorisation to sell funeral plans.
At jackson family funeral directors we care about the security of your money. As such we have waited until post-regulation to decide which provider we will work with. The process to become an authorised agent will take time and we can not sell plans until we have acceptance.
you will find funeral plans available to buy online but we decided not to roll the dice on our selected supplier until we have confidence in their authorisation.
At Jackson Family Funeral Directors we like to take you through your wishes step by step, as we would if we are arranging a funeral for the present. This involves a meeting with one of our funeral directors who will advise you on the funeral plan itself, the funeral provider we work with, the financial securities of your funeral plan money and, of course, discussing your wishes.
We like to provide a verbal estimate at the time and post a written estimate to you, this way you can take your time to decide whether you wish to make changes, keep the documents as a record of wishes or purchase the funeral plan.
Is a funeral plan an insurance or investment?
At Jackson Family Funeral Directors we will only sell funeral plans as a trust based investment, through a compliant funeral plan provider with an FCA regulated and ring-fenced trust fund.
We do not provide life assurance policies as it we feel it can carry a great risk of overpayment and very strict guidelines of set payments.
Why buy from a funeral director when I can buy online?
Online funeral plan sales are generally just a sales company. They then find a funeral director to accept the plan for a lesser amount of money thus gaining themselves large commission payments. The funeral director then approached the family for more money at the time because there was not enough money invested at the start to cover the risen costs.
- Funeral directors are great at arranging and conducting funerals.
- Online funeral plan companies are great at finding a product to sell and make large commissions (disguised as administration fees).
You may get a cheaper price online but likely to pay the price dearly with the service provider at the end.
The simple answer is that you either get:
- A reputable funeral directors who will request more from you to fill the gap between the money paid and the actual cost of the funeral.
- A reputable funeral director who will work with you to reduce the services you were promised by the online plan sales company.
- An inexperienced funeral director who accepts the money offered but cuts out services they think you will not notice.
Whichever you receive please remember that the funeral directors can only work with the money paid to them and a genuine funeral director will care more about you than the money but must still recognise they are a business themselves.
The most simple way is to go to your desired funeral director or at the very least ask them to look at both the company and funeral plan offered before you purchase.
At first it was a minor thing, around £100 commission. Funeral directors and the funeral plan companies had a great relationship and both understood that the ultimate aim was the service a family receives.
Some of the newer funeral plan companies started to partner with will writers, financial advisors etc to increase the size and reach of their sales team. As such, the new affiliates wanted their efforts rewarded inline with other products they sold.
Soon enough it was realised that the bigger the commission payment, the more plans were sold. The issue was that the funeral plan prices needed to remain competitively priced. Gradually more and more money was taken from the funeral plan before the investment was made.
End result, it is 2021 and commission is, in some cases, upto £1000.
This is a very grey area and it is all concerned with the terms and conditions you sign, the agreement with the funeral director and whether the funeral director’s has been aquired by someone else.
Looking at the figures (hypothetically):
You pay £3500 for the funeral plan.
£500 is paid to the plan provider for their administration fees.
Around £1500 is set for the third party/disbursements.
Only £1500 remains for the funeral director’s fees. The funeral director must provide a coffin, a hearse, funeral bearers, provide 2 weeks of support, guidance and advice, provide the correct care for your loved one, plus all the normal expenditure of a business.
Our current recommendation
Our current recommendation (until authorisation is settled), would be to speak to us about your wishes and allow us to make a record of wishes.
This will give your family a guide to what you want. We can also give you an estimate of costs at today’s prices. Once we have carefully selected the right plan provider and completed authorisation we can then look at whether a paid funeral plan is the right thing for you and your family.
