Do you have a plan for your funeral? Most of us know whether we want to be buried or cremated, and possibly what songs we would like to have played, but apart from that there is a sense for many that we won’t be there, so there is no need for a fuss.
However, while you may think you are doing your loved ones a kindness by not being prescriptive with what you want once you’re gone, funerals often cost more and cause more heartache when there isn’t a clear plan in place.
Spending just 20 minutes writing a funeral plan can prevent stress and additional costs
That was the experience of Rebecca Peach, Co-CEO and founder of Legacy of Lives, a funeral planning tool that enables you to create a funeral plan to save and share with loved ones.
When her aunt passed away without a clear plan for a funeral the issue became contentious, piling on additional stress when the family was already in mourning.
‘If my auntie would have seen what was going on, the heated discussions over a cremation or burial, which financially is a very big difference, and all the documents they tried to locate, it would have just been so sad for her to see.
‘That could have been prevented if I had sat down and done a 20-minute plan to get her wishes noted down,’ Peach told This is Money.
Research shows that 83 per cent of grieving families only source one quote for a funeral, leaving them paying more than they need to.
This is important as the cost of a standard funeral can vary by up to 130 per cent based on the location and type of the funeral director, and the cost of a cremation can vary up to 143 per cent.
And the sums involved in the event are significant. The average cost of a basic funeral in the UK is £3,953.
The overall cost of dying, including third party fees, is estimated at around £9,200 according to SunLife, up 3.8 per cent in a year.
Peach says she is seeing more and more people take out credit in order to pay for funeral costs, a problem that is exacerbated by the lack of financial education around funerals.
Over 40 per cent of people don’t put aside enough money to pay for the cost of their own funeral, SunLife says. Furthermore, in 2022 a fifth of families experienced notable financial concerns when paying for a funeral, having to find £1,870 on average to cover the overall costs.
And of this group 23 per cent borrowed from a friend or relative, 15 per cent sold belongings and 14 per cent borrowed money from a loan provider.
In 2021 the Competition and Markets Authority recognised the issue and ordered funeral directors and crematoriums to make prices clearer for customers.
The order requires providers to display a standardised price list on their premises and website including the headline price for a funeral, price of individual items comprising the funeral and the price of certain additional products and services.
Furthermore, Peach says that as homeownership decreases it will become increasingly difficult for people to meet the cost of funeral without guaranteed money from a property sale.
Why you need to put a funeral plan in place
While Peach welcomes the order from the CMA she says there is still an issue as people don’t have a benchmark for average prices or a way of comparing them.
And planning can help prevent practical issues when putting together a funeral. You can often only compare prices at the time by ringing around and, once a body is taken away to a funeral directors, people are, understandably, unwilling to have it released to go elsewhere.
‘We don’t really like the terms of shopping around and all of those sorts of things because it’s not a race to the bottom on price at all. It’s about helping you find the right, most appropriate partner, of which price is one element,’ says Legacy of Lives co-founder Venetia Leigh.
‘The reason we started Legacy of Lives is because consumers need support and comparison of the funeral industry as a whole. All of the co-founders of the business have been through a similar issue of just being left alone to guide through the unknown of funeral planning,’ adds Peach.
Legacy of Lives online tool allows you to plan your funeral and compare costs and providers
For example, she says, people assume you need an expensive hearse to transport a coffin – but there are range of options available.
‘My mum, she’s done it [made a plan]. She changes her funeral song about once a month and updates her plan on Legacy of Lives. It’s just kind of better to get it down.
Currently the company is working with 30 hospices across the country, partnering with Hospice UK and Marie Curie, and hopes to form a partnership with the NHS.
Both Peach and her co-founder Venetia Leigh feel there has been a change in the way we approach and discuss grief and death. Podcasts discussing the subject such as ‘Griefcast’ have risen in popularity in recent years.
‘I don’t think Legacy of Lives could have existed five years ago, ten years ago,’ says Leigh. ‘I think it’s the right time now because everyone’s so used to social media. as we always say, you would never spend £5000 on something, anything else, without at least checking a TripAdvisor or something.
‘[A funeral] is the one thing that you spend huge amounts of money on, which you don’t check. The social media generation, the younger people planning it, because they’re much more comfortable talking about themselves and having it online,’ says Leigh.
Venetia Leigh (left) and Rebecca Peach (right) founded Legacy of Lives as a result of their personal experiences
And institutions such as hospitals and hospices that regularly deal with death are becoming better equipped to allow people to have a say in how they would like to be remembered.
‘They’re becoming much more about getting the patients a voice, not necessarily being very religious or talking about lights at the end of the tunnel,’ she says.
‘I think for us, this is what we want, is to be able to save people money, get them the best partner, and give the person that’s gone the best send off.’
What can you do to plan for your funeral?
Sit down and spend some time thinking about what you want for your funeral, how you would like to be remembered, and a realistic budget.
Some elements to think about include where you would like the funeral to take place, who would you like to do readings or give speeches, and whether you would like guests to bring flowers or donate to a charity instead.
You can write your wishes into a document called an advanced care plan, or include them within your will – although it’s worth noting that including instructions in your will does not make them binding.
It is also worth considering payment options, such as paying in advance with a pre-paid plan or insurance. And if you have life insurance, check whether the costs of a funeral are included in the plan.
The Government also offers a Funeral Expenses Payment for those on certain benefits to help cover the costs of elements including burial or cremation fees.
