The Safe Hands Funeral Plans Guarantee
To protect against rising Funeral Director’s fees
The overall cost of a funeral comprises two key elements – costs of services that are provided by the funeral director themselves (known as ‘Funeral Director’s Fees and Services’) and costs of services provided by external parties (known as ‘Disbursements’ or 3rd Party Fees’).
Funeral Director’s Fees and services can be broad-ranging but typically they include such items as
Care and preparation of the deceased
Collection of the deceased
Provision of transport and staff
Provision of support, guidance and advice to bereaved families
Our guarantee states that no matter how long a Plan Holder lives, there will never be anything further for their representative to pay toward the funeral director’s fees and services.
Disbursement Allowance
To protect against rising 3rd party fees
Disbursements – items provided by 3rd parties. Typically, they include such items as
Cremation – Crematorium fee
Burial – cost of opening the grave
Doctors fee – certifying the death
Minsters fee – funeral service
Most of our Funeral Plans options include a generous but not unnecessarily excessive, allowance towards the following disbursements specifically:
- Cremation fee/ Interment fee
- Doctors fee
- Ministers fee
Though disbursements costs can vary across location, currently it is rare for these above 3 fees combined, to amount to a sum greater than £1,100 – average is approximately £1,100.
Our Pearl, Sapphire and Ruby plans all include a £1,200 allowance towards them – meaning, that from the very outset, it is highly likely to be adequate to always cover all 3 items’ literal cost.
In the highly unlikely event that the disbursements allowance plus indexed CPI uplift (calculated annually) is insufficient to cover the combined cost of the Cremation fee (or, if burial, the internment fee) the Doctor’s fee and Minister’s fee, at the time of need – then any shortfall would need to be paid before the funeral can take place.
