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Two Together: Save £100!
Save £100 when you purchase two funeral plans together. Call us for more details.
Two Together: Save £100!
Save £100 when you purchase two funeral plans together. Call us for more details.
If you’re a parent, one of your main concerns in end-of-life planning is bound to be how to spare your children from needless hassle. Especially because, after you’re no longer here, they’ll likely be facing a very difficult time. One of the key ways that you can minimise difficulty for those you leave behind is to pay for your funeral in advance with funeral cover for parents. In this article, we are going to talk about different types of funeral cover for parents, from prepaid funeral plans to funeral insurance.
If you’ve found us here, you may now be giving thought to your own future funeral, or perhaps to a funeral which may be needed more imminently by a dying loved one. Whatever your situation, we’d like to be able to help. Aura is the top-rated national provider of ‘Cremation Services’ on Trustpilot, with a score of 4.9/5 stars, and we proudly offer those services to those who need a funeral more immediately, through our direct cremation services, or via our prepaid funeral plans for those looking to the future.
Key Takeaways
There are different forms of funeral cover out there which suit the needs of different people. Some people like to opt for a prepaid funeral plan, whereas others prefer something like funeral insurance or over-50’s life insurance. Each option has its own advantages and disadvantages, and whichever one you opt for will depend on your own funeral preferences and budget.
Whilst funeral plans are available to everyone, parents may find them especially beneficial. Prepaid funeral plans allow the planholder to organise and pay for their funeral in advance. They find a funeral director that suits their needs, share their wishes, and pay them the money they need to cover their funeral (either all in one go or over monthly instalments). Once they die, the plan is activated and the money they’ve paid the director is used for their funeral.
Parents might find them beneficial because they offer both the planholder and their family peace of mind. In purchasing a funeral plan, you will be able to breathe a sigh of relief knowing that all of your end-of-life wishes have been set out. Whereas your family will know that they won’t have to stump up at short notice to pay for your funeral without being able to discuss what you’d like. It’s this particular benefit that appeals to parents.
Sometimes, people may opt instead for a form of insurance, such as over-50s life insurance, to cover their funeral costs. With this model, fixed monthly premiums are paid from the point of sign-up either until death or until a certain birthday is reached, and, upon the death of the policy holder, the beneficiary of the policy will receive a cash lump-sum which can be used to cover funeral costs.
The end goal of a funeral cover, whether or not for parents, is to help us to cost effectively arrange and pay for funerals in advance.
There are a range of different types of funeral cover available, from prepaid funeral plans to insurance policies and family funeral cover.
Prepaid funeral plans are safe and secure financial products which allow you to pay for and plan your funeral in advance. In 2022, the industry became regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), requiring all firms to be licensed before they could sell funeral plans. As part of this, firms have to guarantee the safety of the money of their customers; Aura chooses to do this by holding your money in our secure, independently managed trust. This trust guarantees that the money needed to pay your funeral costs will always be there ready for when it’s needed, even if direct cremation prices continue to rise in the meantime.
Different plans include different things. For instance, with Aura, the price of hand-delivering the ashes back to the family after the cremation is included in the final price, but this isn’t always the case. It should also be borne in mind that, unlike with other forms of funeral cover, a funeral plan cannot be used for any other purpose besides paying for a funeral. In this sense, it’s not as flexible as over-50’s life insurance, the payout from which could theoretically be used for anything the beneficiary wants.
Insurance policies, such as an over-50’s life insurance policy, can payout a lump-sum which can be used towards funeral costs. The policy holder pays the insurance company monthly premiums (which are normally fixed at the point of sign-up for the duration of the policy) until the point at which you die, or reach a certain age (for instance your 90th birthday).
Those relying on life insurance to help their family cover funeral costs should bear a couple of things in mind, however. The first thing is that, depending on when you started paying for the policy, the amount of money you have paid the insurer by the point of payout may be more than the value of the lump-sum. This means it could, in the long run, be more convenient and cost-effective to just keep your money in a bank account. Two other important things to bear in mind are that the policy may be void depending on the cause of death, or if payment(s) were missed.
You should also bear in mind that such insurance is available under ‘fixed term’ or ‘whole of life’ arrangements. With the former, the policy is designed to cover a finite period of the policy holder’s life, i.e., 10 years, whereas the latter is infinite. Once the time of the former example elapses, a new policy will simply need to be started all over again, if you want to remain covered.
It’s possible to take out a joint life-insurance policy, perhaps for you and your spouse. Some couples find this less hassle and more convenient. It will usually payout after the death of the first insured person, perhaps with the second person as a beneficiary. With funeral plans, whilst they can’t work in this way , some providers, like Aura, offer the option to buy two together, often at a reduced cost. This allows you and someone dear to you to put your end-of-life plans in place together, and to save in the process. For instance, our starting price for an unattended direct cremation funeral plan is £1,695, whereas the price for two together is £3,290; a combined saving of £100.
There are different factors that ought to be considered before you decide which funeral cover to opt for. These range from how to pay, and what is included.
Both funeral plans and insurance options come with a variety of ways to pay. Typically, funeral plans can be paid for all in one go at the outset; over the shorter term (e.g. 12–24 months) at no extra cost; or on finance over the longer term (e.g. 5–25 years) with interest / admin fees built in. Currently, Aura offers you the option to pay over 12–24 months at no extra cost when compared to paying the full amount in one go. Insurance premiums can be paid in much the same way, with some insurance providers allowing their policy holders to pay up-front (particularly for whole-life terms), or in fixed monthly premiums. Which model you opt for will depend on a variety of things, from your budget to your preferences.
When shopping around for a funeral plan provider, it’s essential to compare funeral plans against one another, allowing you to get a sense of the strengths and weaknesses of each offer, and of each provider generally. This is good advice recommended by the likes of Martin Lewis as a way of arming yourself with objective information and making better decisions. You’ll need to make sure you understand exactly what you’re paying for, and what is included with each offer.
According to SunLife, the average cost of a funeral last year in the UK was £4,285. They also say that, over the last 21 years, funeral prices have increased by 134%, whereas, had they only increased in line with inflation over this period, the increase would only be 75%: there’s no doubt that funeral costs are rising.
Funeral plans are a good way to combat this situation, as they lock in today’s prices for the future. Aura’s prepaid direct cremation plans are available from £1,695, which is less than half of that SunLife average price. This same plan can be available from as little as £70.63, over two years, and £141.25 over one year. The final price you pay is always the same, regardless of whether you want to pay all in one go, or over 12–24 months.
Funeral plans come with their own advantages and drawbacks.
A funeral plan’s main advantage is that it allows you to pay in advance for your own funeral and specify your wishes. This generates further advantages: namely that both you and your family get peace of mind. You get peace of mind knowing you’ve tied up all the loose ends and you can just relax and enjoy life. Whereas your family gets peace of mind knowing that you’ve thought about what you want, specified it, and already covered the cost. This will allow them to focus on dealing with their grief rather than worrying about how they are going to find the money to cover your funeral costs.
The main disadvantage with a funeral plan is that it can only be used to pay for a funeral. The funds given to the funeral director cannot be used for any other purpose, as, when the time comes, the funeral director will use them directly to cover your funeral expenses. With that said, there’s only really one purpose that one would purchase a funeral plan: in order to pay funeral costs. So, whilst it is restrictive, it’s also part of the underlying purpose.
Another drawback with prepaid funeral plans is that, unless you are able to pay upfront or over the shorter term, you may find yourself paying in instalments on finance over a large number of years, which is more expensive in the long run.
There is support and guidance available to parents looking for funeral cover through the medium of a funeral plan. The UK government may offer support, and there are impartial sources of advice too.
There are various sources of impartial advice that you can go to help you make better financial decisions about end-of-life planning matters. Consumer experts, like Martin Lewis, can help you to get good information. And research bodies like Funeral Solutions Expert and Fairer Finance can offer impartial ratings of different offerings from different providers, to help you get a clearer idea of how things stack up against each other.
You can also ask questions of funeral directors in person to get a sense of how good they’d be at realising your wishes. Financial advisors could also help you to make good decisions for your own financial situation.
There are different forms of bereavement support available which could help to bring down funeral costs. Indeed, it may be possible to claim funeral costs back from the government in certain cases. The UK Government provides financial support to eligible families in the shape of the Funeral Expenses Payment and the Bereavement Support Payment.
Aside from the government, there are forms of support from charities. Organisations like Sue Ryder, Cruse Bereavement Support, and Quaker Social Action can possibly look to support directly with finances, or signpost towards other available support.
In order to apply for a funeral plan, you will need to submit certain pieces of personal information along with your application. Information such as your name, address, date of birth, and the kind of funeral that you are looking for. You may need to pass a credit check, and you will also need to select a ‘Nominated Representative’ as part of the process. The purpose of the NR is to make sure, first and foremost, that someone other than you and the Funeral Director knows about the existence of the funeral plan. When the time comes, they will let the funeral director know that you have died, and your plan will be put into action.
When applying for an insurance product such as over-50’s life insurance, all of these things will be needed, and, depending on what insurance you are applying for, you may need to pass a medical. In some cases, if you are over a certain age, you will not be able to apply.
Thank you for reading this article about funeral cover for parents. Whilst funeral plans and insurance such as 0ver-50’s life cover is available also to those who are not parents, their benefits might be particularly useful to parents. That’s because they can unlock mutual peace of mind for you and your children.
Aura’s prepaid funeral plans are highly rated, low-cost, and compassionately delivered. Our Aura Angels are industry-leading arrangers of funerals and they will be there to guide you and your family every step of the way through the process. They can lend a hand in administrative, logistical and emotional matters, ensuring that you get the send off you deserve. What’s more is that we are family run: Paul Jameson set us up in 2019 alongside his son, David (our CEO), and Ben (our COO), a family friend. They set up Aura with one aim and one aim only: to bring compassionate end-of-life planning support to families up and down Great Britain. Our commitment to that mission is as strong as ever, and that’s why we offer the families in our care the level of guidance and support that Paul would want for his own family.
If you’d like to see whether Aura could be the right funeral cover for you, why not download our brochure to find out more?
Our brochure includes all the details you need surrounding our prepaid direct cremation funeral plans.
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