Funeral plan

A funeral plan is a funeral paid for in advance, at today's price, so that the family has less to arrange and less to pay when the time comes. The money is held in a trust or an insurance policy until it is needed, and since 2022 funeral plan providers in the UK have been regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

A plan sets out what is included: usually the funeral director's services, the coffin and the cremation or burial fee, sometimes the cars and the minister. Anything not listed is paid for at the time. It is worth reading exactly what a plan covers, because the crematorium or cemetery fee is often only guaranteed up to a stated amount.

A plan can cover a direct cremation as well as a traditional funeral. A plan does not usually cover repatriation, so someone who wants to be taken home to another country after their death should say so and check whether the provider can include it.

When someone dies with a plan in place

A plan pays for what it specifies and nothing beyond it, so read it before you book anything with a funeral director. The crematorium or cemetery fee is one of the disbursements, the third-party fees on a funeral bill, so check what the plan says about them.

A plan and the Funeral Expenses Payment

If the person had a pre-paid plan and you are claiming the Funeral Expenses Payment, the payment only helps with items the plan does not cover, up to £120.

A plan or a note

A plan and a note of wishes are different things. A short note kept with the will, saying burial or cremation, a service or none, and where the ashes should go, spares the family an argument about what they would have chosen.

Read next

Whether a plan is worth taking out is part of putting your affairs in order. What a funeral costs without one is in how much a funeral costs in the UK, and the help available afterwards in how to claim the Funeral Expenses Payment.

Related terms: Funeral costs and Funeral director. Every term in the funeral glossary.