How to Find Prepaid Funeral Plans

Once we begin to think about the end of our lives, and about getting some kind of a plan together, we might find ourselves wondering how to find prepaid funeral plans in the first place, or, at least, how to find the right one for us. To the uninitiated, it can be a daunting subject, with lots of layers of detail, and lots of different things to consider. In this article, we will explain how to find prepaid funeral plans, information about them, and how to understand what is the right choice.

What are prepaid funeral plans?

Prepaid funeral plans are essentially a form of agreement between you and a funeral plan provider; in exchange for a fee, they agree to arrange your funeral when the time comes exactly as you’ve specified it. They are a great way for families to secure peace of mind: when you make a funeral plan, you can relax knowing everything is tied up (and paid for), and your family will know that, when the time comes, they can focus on grieving your loss rather than on worrying about how to pay for your funeral, or whether they are making decisions that you would have agreed with.

Funeral prices in the UK have risen year on year for the last 20 years; SunLife puts the average cost of a traditional funeral in the UK at £4,141, and also suggests that, over a 20 year period, funeral prices have risen by 126%. When you buy an Aura funeral plan, you become immune to these price rises. Your money is placed into our secure, independently managed trust, kept safe from potential inflation until the day it is needed. Our plans are all protected by the FSCS, and we are fully regulated by the FCA.

Our funeral plans cost as little as £1,595, and you can even pay over 12-to-24 months from £66.46 at no extra cost, as you prefer.

Where to start when looking for prepaid funeral plans

There are a number of different ways to get good information about prepaid funeral plans, which can help you to see the truth of any provider’s offer more clearly. From researching providers online, to checking their accreditation and level of regulation, to comparing different plans and packages, there’s a pathway towards making an informed decision.

Researching providers online

It might be a good idea to start a funeral checklist, onto which you can put all of your consumer research. Visit the websites of the main national providers and get a sense of what is included in their offers, and what isn’t. You can also head to reputable, impartial websites offering consumer advice, such as Martin Lewis’s Money Saving Expert. 

You may also wish to assess the customer reviews of each company, as the prior experiences of other people in your position can be useful for giving you a sense of how your own experience would likely be. Aura is the UK’s top-rated provider of ‘Cremation Services’ on Trustpilot, with a score of 4.9/5 stars. The families who have previously entrusted themselves to our care have appreciated our compassionate, people-focused approach to service, and we hope that their trust in us will reassure you too. Getting yourself well informed is the first step towards seeing the right offer for you more clearly. 

Checking accreditation and regulation

Every provider of funeral plans in the UK requires to be fully regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, which helps to guarantee certain minimum standards of conduct and transparency. It also establishes rules about what such providers must set up as safeguards for the protection of your money. For example, a funeral plan provider can put the money of their customers within a trust (as Aura does) or they can choose to protect it with insurance. You can use the FCA website to check whether the provider you are interested in is listed and regulated.

You can also check to see whether a provider has any awards and accreditations. Aura was recently received the ‘SME Compliance Team of the Year’ award from the ICA at their 2024 International Compliance Awards, highlighting our exceptional standards and processes towards protecting our planholders’ money. We are also the only UK prepaid direct cremation plan provider with two 5-star-rated plans from independent consumer experts, Fairer Finance. Checking for these objective votes of confidence in the offerings of a given provider can help to reassure you that you are trusting the right people with your money, and your family’s peace of mind.

Comparing plans and packages

You’ll need to compare the key metrics of the plan you’re interested in against the other offerings on the market to help you get a truer sense of value for money. You can compare Aura funeral plans with other leading providers by taking a look at the table below. As you can see, price is not the only important factor; balancing whether or not there is free cancellation and amendment; whether you can pay monthly at no extra cost; whether it’s all inclusive; and what the customer reputation is will help you to complete the picture.

Types of prepaid funeral plans available

There are different types of funeral plans available, from cremation-only plans which focus specifically on the cremation process, to fully attended plans allowing for more embellishment and customisation. You will also need to weigh up cremation vs burial, as a cremation or burial plan will lead to a significantly different type of funeral. 

This decision will likely pivot around what level of funeral costs the purchaser is prepared to pay, as burials are significantly more expensive than cremations, and upon the different beliefs on death and funerals in religion that they may have. While it’s a popular cremation myth to say that most religions forbid cremation, in general burials are more closely associated with the traditional, religious option.

Different plans may offer different levels of customisation, such as on what kind of coffin the person who has died is buried or cremated within, whether guests can attend, and options afterwards for ash hand-delivery.

Questions to ask before choosing a plan

In order to evaluate whether you are getting a good deal for your money, you should ask yourself the following questions of the plan you have in front of you:

• Are instalment payments interest-free? Aura is one of a very few companies on the market who will not charge you a gratuitous admin or payment fee for making monthly instalments. If you select to pay over 1-to-2 years, your final price will be identical to the price you would have paid if you’d paid all in one go at the point of purchase.

• Do I have to pay a cancellation or amendment admin fee? With Aura, you can be sure that the only thing we are locking into our funeral plans is today’s prices; you, on the other hand, are free to cancel whenever you like! Unlike other providers, we don’t want you to feel trapped once you’ve made this incredibly important decision. Instead, we want to enable you to respond flexibly to life’s changes, allowing you to expand or reduce your plan without paying a penalty, and to receive a full refund when cancelling, at any time, for any reason.
  
• What would happen to my money if my provider were to go out of business? It’s fair to wonder “are funeral plans safe?” After all, we are fully putting our trust in the company we choose, and we won’t be around to make sure that they got it right! Rest assured, in the highly unlikely event that Aura were to go out of business, or were otherwise unable to act on your plan, in accordance with our FCA regulation, we must either give you a full refund, or transfer your plan to another provider. The fact that your money is held in an independently managed trust means that your funds will always be separate from our business, and in a position to be refunded.

In asking yourself these questions (and in receiving a satisfactory answer) you can allay any fears you might have about security or longevity, and you can also see what costs there might be hiding behind the surface-level price you are quoted by the funeral director you are considering.

Common questions about prepaid funeral plans

Other than how to find prepaid funeral plans, there are plenty of commonly asked questions associated with them.

How do I find a reputable prepaid funeral plan?

There are a whole host of funeral-plan providers out there, with the task often being to understand where the real value for money is. Stick to these points to in order to find reputable, good value funeral plan providers:

• Check that they are FCA registered and that their plans are protected by the FSCS, like Aura’s are.

• Check that they have high customer-satisfaction ratings on reputable consumer-review websites, such as Trustpilot.

• Check to make sure that everything you need is covered in the quoted price, and that there are no hidden fees. Aura’s plans are all-inclusive.

What should I look for in a funeral plan?

Of course, the answer to this question will depend on your budget, as well as your preferences and cultural wishes. If you’d like to have an attended ceremony with your direct cremation, look for a provider which allows you to add that to your plan. Finding a company that has a deeper purpose can help to reassure you that they have a higher reason beyond making money for providing funeral plans.

Aura is a family-run company which was established by Paul Jameson in 2019 after he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. He wanted to create a company that would pass on the wisdom he had learned about end-of-life planning to every family in Great Britain in need of support. Today, he runs the company alongside his son, David (our CEO) and a family friend called Ben (our COO). Our mission is to provide industry-leading, compassionate support to all families finding themselves confronting funeral planning, whether in the here and now or for the future. 

We also want to help people to feel more comfortable in talking about death and dying, breaking the taboo around mortality, helping us all to get more out of life. You can rest assured that, through our wonderful Aura Angel team, we will never settle for less than the level of service that Paul would want for his own family, and so we offer you our services from our family to yours.

Are comparison websites helpful?

Comparison websites certainly can be helpful, as they can lay out the key data for you in a simple format, such as a list or a table. It can quickly allow you to understand what the key differences are between providers, and where each one excels.

Can I get a refund on a prepaid funeral plan?

Most funeral plan providers, unlike Aura, may charge you a fee for cancelling your plan, meaning that you will not receive a full refund. If you are thinking about other options of financially securing your funeral, such as with over-50s life insurance, it’s very important to bear in mind that you cannot receive a refund in this case. If you want to cancel or move to a different insurance provider, all the money you have paid up until that point is lost, and you will not be able to get it back.

Aura’s prepaid funeral plans

Thank you for reading this article about how to find prepaid funeral plans; we hope you have found it useful and instructive. If you have any questions whatsoever about the benefits of funeral planning, to what our plans include, we’d be very pleased to take your call. Our wonderful, friendly team will be able to answer any question that you might have, and to set your mind at rest.

Aura has three main prepaid direct cremation plans to choose from, from our simple unattended option, starting at £1,595; to our intimate option for a handful of close friends and family, starting at £2,195, to our fully attended option, starting at £2,695. Our plans focus on taking care of the practical matters at a reasonable price, with the option of an attended service for those who’d prefer it. Families can, as they prefer, organise a celebration of life after the funeral to gather and reminisce as they see fit, and Aura can offer support with planning such an event too.

If you’d like to learn more about our funeral plans, why not download our brochure today?