Funeral Plans UK

There was a time when there was no regulation in place for UK funeral plans. This changed in 2002 when The Funeral Planning Authority (FPA) took the responsibility of regulation. This was an important move that has helped to develop consumer trust with the requirement in place for all FPA Registered Providers to carry out professional conduct to a very high standard with there also being great emphasis on how money paid in by customers is safeguarded for the future. The FPA have stated that a large majority of the funeral plans here in the UK are sold via Registered Providers with them. Interestingly though, there is no legal requirement in place to be regulated by The Funeral Planning Authority. I would advise anyone to only buy a funeral plan from any of the FPA Registered Providers.

Golden Leaves is a popular funeral plan provider that have been operating since 1984. Interestingly, Golden Leaves not only focus on the UK market, but have actually been focusing on international markets for expatriates living in Cyprus, France, Portugal, Spain and Turkey. The UK funeral plans split between three such plans being The Simple Funeral Plan (£2485), The Standard Funeral Plan (£2749) and finally The Premium Funeral Plan (£3040); these three plans offered by Golden Leaves are similar in their price range that are quite well priced as to the average cost of a funeral as we enter 2012. The Golden Leaves funeral plans don't request any health questions and no medical is required. Impressively, there are no age restrictions in place (you would expect them to start from 18, but I will contact them regarding this). The instalment terms can run for 12, 36 or 60 months and there doesn't seem to be any note of a deposit being in place. As the usual case, the 12 month instalments come with no additional interest, but the extended terms will come at increased prices.

Most of the leading funeral plan providers in the UK have a minimum age restriction in place of 50 with there being no such upper age restriction. If you are looking to find an under 50 funeral plan then you have few options at this time. One such headliner does fortunately cater wider audiences, being The Co-operative FuneralCare who accept applications from anyone above the age of 18. If you were to choose the fixed payment option with Co-op then there would be an age restriction in place between 50 and 80. This is because the fixed payment option is an over 50 life insurance policy with payments in this instance stopping once the client reaches their 90th birthday. Some may have wanted to go with the fixed payment option since it lowers the monthly payments over that much longer period. Their maximum instalment plan term is three years. I believe their Tailor-Made Funeral Plans can stretch to 5 years, but these are only available through their Funeral Homes.