It isn’t something you would do daily or even once a year. Setting up a funeral plan, especially if it’s for you, is only done once in your life time (unless you’re doing it for someone else in the family). So, be careful with what you choose because once you’ve set up a plan with a Co. and a year down the line you decided to cancel it for any reasons, you won’t get your money back. That makes it so very important to choose the plan after thorough research and deliberation.
Obviously the first thing that comes to mind when you’re looking to go for one, is the cost of prepaid funeral plans. The average funeral cost is anywhere around £3500 - £5000 depending upon where you are in the country and how elaborate or conservative you want it to be. Going by the statistics, the cost of a funeral has gone up 5 times in the last 2 decades and the market analysis suggests it’s going to triple itself in the next 2 decades.
So the question is whether or not one should set up a funeral plan now. Well, logically if a funeral used to cost a £800 about 20 years ago setting up a funeral plan at that time would have been a lot cheaper as compared to now when the average funeral cost is about £5000. There’s obviously inflation that I haven’t taken into consideration i.e. the value of £800 back then was better than what it’s now but even if we factor that in, 5 times is quite a big leap & to me personally, it’s quite steep.
So the point here is that you could set up a funeral plan today which should cost you on average £3500, which you probably even have now in your bank account. But if you decided to wait another 10 years or let’s say left it to your family to deal with when you’re gone, they ‘d probably end up paying a lot more than £3500. It’s pretty simple, given the current economic scenario & the interest rates, your £3500 wouldn’t grow up to become £10000 in 10 years however the cost of funerals would most probably reach there or even cross that mark bearing in mind the statistics.
Moving on to the question about the cost of prepaid funeral plans, there’re various companies offering prepaid funeral plans these days, though the cost varies depending upon which plan or Co. you choose.
The very basic plan normally includes a coffin, care, preparation and collection of deceased, a hearse, funeral service, funeral procession arrangement, chapel of rest and guidance provided by funeral director & it costs about £2800 - £3600, again depending upon which Co. you choose to go with. The cost however can go up depending upon other services that people usually include in their plans, for e.g. limousines, superior quality coffin, allowance towards disbursements, etc.
The cost of setting up a plan also depends on how you choose to pay it, for e.g. you can either pay it in one go which obviously would be the cheapest option bearing in mind there won’t be much administration cost involved or if you were more comfortable paying it over a period of time, all of these companies offer you payment plans that can run over a term of choice.
It is highly recommended that you discuss your requirements & budget with a broker who is not tied to any one Co. but can go to any Co. and can work on your behalf to find you the most suitable product among the variety of products available out there.
Also Read : To know More Details About Cremation Plan
