Consumers considering investing in a pre-paid funeral plan now have more financial protection than ever before from a raft of regulations introduced by the funeral industry and beyond.
Leading direct cremation provider Celebration of Life has made moves to underscore the robustness of pre-paid plans through a series of regulations designed to protect the consumer.
It follows a raft of recent negative headlines surrounding plans sold by a single provider before 2022 when the stringent regulations were first introduced.
Since then, over the past four years plans have been regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority which is directly accountable to the Treasury and Parliament.
This means that only providers authorised by the FCA are now legally allowed to sell funeral plans, in contrast to the years before 2022 when the entire market remained unchecked.
Funeral plan purchases today are also protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. This means that, since July 29th 2022, any plan managed by an FCA authorised plan provider which then goes out of business is fully protected.
Peter Shuttleworth, Head of Operations at Celebration of Life, the UK’s only dedicated provider of direct cremation, said consumer protection was more robust than ever, after one of the biggest shake-ups the funeral industry had ever seen.
The overhaul resulted in the collapse of a number of funeral plan providers which saw 70,000 consumers lose millions of pounds.
He said: “Effectively the shake-up sorted the wheat from the chaff, informing pre-paid funeral plan customers where their money was safe and where it was at risk.
“Remarkably, in all the years before, a customer taking out a funeral plan was offered no such protection if their chosen provider went out of business.
“There is no doubt the high-profile fall-out caused damage to the industry at the time but today customers should be reassured that when taking out a plan from an authorised provider they have full protection from both the FCA and the FSCS.”
Peter said customers looking to take out pre-paid plans can carry out their due diligence on the FCA website which lists all authorised providers. Unauthorised providers are also in the public domain on the FCA website.
In addition to being an FCA authorised provider Celebration of Life is a member of the National Association of Funeral Plan Providers whose members collectively serve more than 1.75 million plan holders and their families.
As well as giving a voice to UK pre-paid funeral plan providers the NAFPP strives to hold members to the highest industry standards and push for the best outcomes from changing regulations and legislation affecting plan holders.
Peter Shuttleworth added: “At Celebration of Life we pride ourselves in offering the highest standards of service starting with what is usually the first point of contact with our customers – our website.
“As well as offering complete transparency on our service we also break down exactly what happens with customers’ money – from when plan payments are made into a separate trust right through to the time of need.
“Such transparency is designed to reassure our customers from the moment they take out a plan with us.”
Established in 2019 Celebration of Life offers a fully inclusive pre-paid plan with no extra charges at the competitive rate of £1650.00. The team works with the family to keep them informed of the date and time of the cremation and to arrange the return of the ashes in a biodegradable urn ready to scatter in a special place.
Additionally, for every service carried out Celebration of Life donates to plant a tree in memory and sends a dedication certificate to the family.
