No matter what your partner, Mother, or Father says it’s not grim to be thinking about your funeral.
It’s sensible, and it’s the caring side of you shining through.
Knowing that you want the best for your closest partner, relatives, friends and your kids, without anyone having to dip into personal finances any further to carry out what they think would be your final wishes.
Your funeral is the last chance your loved ones have to do something right by you. Without having the conversation, which is a difficult one to have, it’s hard for anyone to know what you want your send-off to be like.
By preparing in advance, your loved ones don’t have to think about it.
Divine Departures are one of the few forward planning services catering to the under 50s to help put plans in place to safeguard your own wishes, help you express those wishes and financially protect your family, all whilst locking in savings against the rising costs of funerals.
Things can go so much further when you take the time to thoroughly examine your options.
Should the worst happen, you’re not only able to express the funeral you’d want, but you’d also have your Living Will, Final Days document mapped out, and your Funeral Wishes all conveniently packaged, sent off to your executor/solicitor with a copy you can keep at home with your other personal files.
How much of a relief to your partner would that be? Granted, they don’t want to think about losing you now, nor in the near future but the day will come when they need to face reality and deal with the pressing issues.
Even before that, it’s good to know the information you know they’ll need is there for future reference.
Having made the preparations in advance, you’ll save everyone a lot of stress. It won’t alleviate the heartache for others, but with the right provisions in place, you can make not only your funeral arrangements, but also arrangements for care and support for your loved ones during bereavement. Some pre-set plans include bereavement counselling, with others requiring you to take the tailor-made route.
We’re firm believers that every funeral is unique anyway, as there’s never a pre-designed funeral package that will match your every wish. Adaptations to funeral plans are normal to make it unique to what you’d want. That’s to have your family taking care of. Not just financially, but emotionally too.
Bereavement counselling could be the life saviour of those suffering with your loss, whether sudden or not.
The Money Aspect of Under 50s Funeral Plans
The real benefit is locking in savings. Compare the prices of funerals today to those prices a decade ago and there’s a stark difference.
A difference of thousands and that’s what a prepaid funeral plan protects you from. It’s a way to protect your family against the rising cost of funerals, and you do that by taking a funeral plan that’s linked to the Retail Price Index. This way, the lump sum paid out following your passing will rise each year in line with inflation.
That being said, funeral plans linked to the RPI aren’t a complete safeguard. There’s still a shortfall…
“The Royal London National Funeral Cost Index confirms funeral costs continue to increase ahead of overall inflation. In a year of record low inflation for the UK, funeral costs have increased by 3.9%, compared to an annual inflation rate of 1.0%, as measured by the Retail Price Index (RPI).”
Source: The Royal London National Funeral Cost Index Report 2015
Always go over the policy fine print because you need to know exclusions to the funeral plan, as those will be costs incurred to your family.
Our team always go through the fine print with you ensuring that any possible problems are identified and clarified, ensuring our customers are always in the know and in full control.
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It’s best used alongside life insurance
You may think you’re fixed with a life insurance policy, but that’s not the case. Well, at least it’s not the big picture. Unless you’re extremely wealthy with a barrel load to leave your family, they’re going to need all the money possible when you’re gone.
When that day comes, there’s a lost income. The only way to keep that income or at least some of it is to ensure your life insurance policy is enough for at least some money to be topped up by interest, or invested wisely to raise capital to support your family’s lifestyle.
That’s the purpose of life insurance; financial protection for your family. Not to protect against the cost of your funeral.
The problem with many funeral plan providers is that they market widely to the over 50s market, despite the largest funeral plan reporting the average age of people buying prepaid funeral plans is now five years younger.
Divine Departures know that the most savings to be had through these plans are for the younger generation who will live for many years to come, witnessing the rising costs of living, sitting back knowing there’s nothing they can do – you shouldn’t have to wait until you’re fifty years old to take actionable measures to protect your family.
Whatever age you are just now, think about the cost of a funeral just now, and add on up to 6% inflation until you reach 80 years old – The average life expectancy. That’s a huge cost that a prepaid funeral plan protects your family from bearing the brunt of.
That’s why Divine Departures strongly believe that the underserved and therefore, under protected population is the younger age group. Those under the age of fifty are largely excluded from protection against inflation.
The sooner the savings are locked in and tied to a policy with a fixed pay out linked to the Retail Price Index, the more your family is going to save. And if you’re super prepared, they’ll get to keep more of the money paid out by your life insurance.
“Often called an “over-50s plan”, this is the type that asks for “no health checks” and is commonly promoted by celebrities in advertisements in magazines and on television on the basis of “peace of mind”. ~ Saga.co.uk
Safety Concerns
At Divine Departures, many of the questions we receive relates to the safety and security of the funeral plans provided. It is true that the funeral plan sector isn’t regulated, at least in the way you’d expect it to be, overseen by the Financial Conduct Authority.
That doesn’t mean it’s not a safe plan though. The way the majority of funeral plan providers work is they appoint someone who is regulated by the FCA, (meaning they are authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000).
This ensures your money is invested wisely so that it is there when your family needs it most. It’s held in trust and managed by someone who knows what they’re doing. Any funeral plan provider you consider, always find out how they secure your money.
Another way to address concerns about the safety of funeral plans is to use your credit card. Under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, all purchases made using your card costing between £100 and £30,000 will be protected by the card issuing firm. Therefore, even if you only pay the first £100 as an upfront deposit using a credit card, you get the Section 75 level of protection. If the FCA can’t assist in refunds if it’s needed, your credit card provider will.
What else can or should you forward plan for in addition to your funeral?
Pretty much everything those closest to you are going to need to know, you should include the information as part of your information pack. Divine Departures issue you with a pack with all your pertinent information documented that you’ve discussed with your personal advisor. Above and beyond that though, planning ahead for things like telling your partner what company provides your gas and electricity, the name and telephone number of your accountant, a list of dates for Direct Debits coming out of the bank, how much needs to be left in etc.
One of the most important things to consider is to provide a list of debts, your most important first like the mortgage, credit cards and overdrafts. Also, it might not be a bad idea to include an information brochure explaining how to go about releasing equity. Or even better, the name and contact details of your financial advisor.
Certain things, like the plans provided through Divine Departures take care of what you want to happen if the time comes when you can’t express things on your own. Your Living Will and Final Days documents will cover those, but asides from personal things you want to happen, it’s handy to also include a personal note of things that need paid, when, debtors, creditors and the names and contact details of people your partner may need to contact.
Divine Departures Under 50s Funeral Plans are ideal for laying out your specific wishes for others to know exactly what you want to happen, but your information pack is yours. With that, you can include further unique information your closest relatives and partner are likely to need to know.
For the under 50s, Divine Departures can help make plans to take care of the things that won’t change, however, it’s advisable that when you receive your information pack with all your documents, you also add to that any further information your partner is likely to need. The reason being that by the time your partner gets around to using your plan, your circumstances will have changed. There will be new payments being made, older debts cleared and possibly one or more savings accounts for a younger one to add to your list of “things you need to know”.
When you think about how active you are in your family just now, you may soon realise that what you do, isn’t always shared with the person closest to you, like how to do what you do such as logging into accounts, transferring payments, monitoring direct debits, moving insurance providers, switching credit cards etc. Naturally, don’t write down your passwords. Instead, write the contact details of the customer services to have the account name changed over.
Money moves fast but responsibilities don’t. Those under 50 know that more than anyone. You’ll have an active lifestyle, perhaps a family reliant on you (and your income) and a roof to keep over their heads.
A funeral plan is a lot more than setting out what type of funeral service you’d like to have for a final send off. It’s a way for you to lay the foundations for your partner to make the best start following the loss of you from their life. They will go through the usual bereavement process, and if you feel he or she will struggle with that, bereavement counselling may be beneficial to include, or any other information you feel they’d benefit from. That could even include a personal note from you being left in the information pack.
Ensure your estate goes where you want
For couples living together, who aren’t married or in a civil partnership, you will need to make additional arrangements because unless your married or in a Civil Partnership, your partner isn’t guaranteed to receive anything. You need to make the arrangements, express your wishes in legal documents and leave instructions using a Will to express your desires to the executor of your estate.
Without forward planning, there’s no guarantee that what you think will happen, will indeed happen. By being proactive now, when you’re in good health, able to think straight and know who needs to get what following your demise… now’s the time to make the preparations for those around you to know.
Divine Departures will walk through the planning preparations with you. Our advisors work with people of many ages, including those under 50 to put funeral plan arrangements in place.
