Funeral Plans..Sorry To Be Morbid..

We had a phone call the other evening from my eldest sister informing me that another of our older brothers had suddenly passed away.Evidently he had had a chest infection over Christmas so had been on antibiotics my sister thinks but not sure yet about details of what had actullay happened but by the time his house was broken into by the Police it looks like he had passed away when sitting in his chair which ironically is exactly the same way as our mum went

My sister phoned today just to let us know a few details about where the funeral is going to be held as our brother actually lived 1 1/2 hours away from most of us.

Now my sister was saying that our brother had done one of those funeral plans so that side of it is sorted.

It started me thinking about one of these funeral plans as I have heard of a few people we know have got these but we don’t know how they work apart from you paying in a certain amount of money and then when you pop your clogs your funeral is paid so your relatives don’t have the worry of it all.

Does anyone on here have any idea as to how they actually work because if it is a simple procedure I might start one up for myself because if I ended up the last survivor of our life (Hopefully I shall go first then and don’t have the worry of it all) I want to make sure that I get my green burial but don’t want others to have to pay for it as I know that these things can be very expensive.

I know that it is a bit of a morbid subject but sometimes these things need to be talked about...Thanks

 

The most important thing is to sort out a will and power of attorney.
Both my wife and I have made wills leaving everything to each other. Then to our kids in equal shares.
We also hold each others power of attorney. Those named as alternates are our two kids.
This means that in the event of the death of either of us the other will have access to any money we have and "the other half of the house," as it's in joint names.
When the last of us pops our clogs, the first named child has the power of attorney. The other is "the back-up attorney" There'll be enough money to pay for the funeral and the estate will be shared by them.

Failure to have done that if one of us becomes incapacitated, particularly me (as it's me with the money!) would cause a lot of problems for my wife. Not so much me, as all she's got is lots of clothes, jewellery, a hell of a lot of toiletries and cosmetics and a lot of hobby stuff
The kids are aware off the situation, so we don't have to give it another thought.(just keep taking the tablets).

 

Sorry Kandy I can't really help you but you do need to be aware that a lot of companies that do do these plans you pay in for the rest of your life and only get a fixed amount back at the end of it, even if you've paid in more.

Sorry if i've taken this the wrong way but......

I thought Kandys original post was about Funeral Plans yet no-one has actually mentioned these in their replies !

 

I'm suspicious of these sort of funeral plans.

There's a lot of funeral companies out there all competing for business. If you buy a "plan" from any, it's likely that they aren't going to give you the best deal, they just tie you in to them.

It's a difficult time for the bereaved arranging a funeral and these companies know it. It might seem in poor taste to go ringing round different companies to get a quote, but it's common sense to do so.
The usual ploy is to give you a quote, but then when the bill comes, you could find it loaded with extras, like gratuities for all and sundry. So I'd go through it line by line when it came.

We're fortunate that our kids are reasonably well off and could afford to pay the funeral bill before the granting of probate, when they'll be able to get at our cash (or what's left of it, but it will be enough).
Funeral companies will be aware that the cash might not be readily available, but they know they're going to get it, even if the relatives can't get at the money straight away.

 

With respect, I don`t really see that your post was especially helpful either KFF. Sometimes the answers can be found in simple conversation and friendliness.

 

When my dad died all we had to do was take any bills/onvoices to his bank and they issued cheques for us to send to the relevant people.
This included things such as the electric/gas etc when we closed his accounts down and re-opened them for my mum, as well as all the funeral expenses.

 

Having just dealt with the not completely unexpected death of my father Ive been thinking about this too ; Doghouse is spot on & having a will is the most important thing to arrange; doesn't have to be complicated & will make everything so much simpler for the executors.

If you have a preference for type of service be sure to make it known too - arranging a funeral is fairly straightforward but its surprising how difficult questions like "what sort of coffin would you like" are to answer at the time & we still don't know what to do with the ashes. My Dad left us a 5 page letter with some details of his life / music to play / breakdown of bank accounts etc which was hugely useful - he also left us with 20 years of assorted statements & paperwork which was less useful as we have to read it before shredding :-)

Funeral came in around £3.5k for a fairly basic service @ the crem ; there are cheaper options & most definitely more expensive ones too! Dad had no funeral insurance that we know about so that should eventually come out of his estate once the probate is sorted, at the moment its come out of my savings.

 

My late O.H. and I took out 2 of these plans in 2004, just the basic plan 1 each, when he died 2012 it paid out twice what he had paid in and under half the funeral costs, you are gambling on how long you live, as I was 5 years younger I will get more, pay out/cost is related to age at time of purchase. I have since, after paying his bill, topped them with 2 more, this should cover any funeral with some leeway yet, I have stipulated on my paper work suppplied, cheap as you can chuck my ashes on the garden.
They offer incentives, free pen , etc, if you take a low pay one say £12 a month that will pay around £2000+, you have to have paid in 2 years to receive full pay out, you will have paid in £288 after 2 years so about 14 years to achieve more in than out. They also offer shopping voucher incentives which can cover about 6 months of payments, as I do not own my property all I will leave is my possessions and any money in my accounts, hopefully enough to cover my funeral costs anyway, but circumstances change and I do not want my children burdened with expenses

 

Hi @OxfordNick , you need to go and speak to his bank. As @shiney and myself have said you get all expenses etc straight from his estate. They have the invoices off you then give you cheques to give/send to the relevant companies/businesses/people.
(We even received a cheque for our local pub to put on some free drinks.)