Today, the average cost of a funeral is over four thousand pounds – and prices are set to carry on rising⁴. A funeral plan that guarantees to cover the cost of your chosen funeral services can help reduce the financial pressure on your family when the time comes and before your estate has been sorted. A pay monthly funeral plan can also help if you want to cover funeral costs but don’t have a lump sum to pay in advance. As with any financial decision, there are important things to consider before taking out a funeral plan. Read what is a funeral plan and important information to make sure you understand our plan.

Your monthly payments will be paid into a life insurance policy provided by Phoenix Life Limited. Once you’ve had your plan for at least two years, the cost of your chosen funeral services will be covered whenever you pass away, as long as you fully pay all your premiums when due. You can relax knowing the life insurance policy comes with protection from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) is there to protect your money in the unlikely event that Phoenix Life Limited were to go out of business and were therefore unable to meet their obligations. In this instance, you would be able to claim your money back via the FSCS. Many other companies that offer funeral plans don’t come with this protection. In the unlikely event that Dignity were to go out of business, your life insurance policy would still be protected by the FSCS guarantee. SunLife would arrange for the proceeds to go to your estate after death, or the proceeds could be paid to an alternative provider. The proceeds may not cover the full cost of any alternative funeral arrangements.

Yes – with Traditional and Traditional plus, you can choose a burial instead of a cremation if you wish. In this case, Dignity provide an allowance towards the burial costs instead. The cost of a burial varies widely across the UK. So, while the burial cost allowance from Dignity does increase each year, SunLife cannot guarantee it will cover the full cost.

The funeral services are provided by Dignity. They will allocate a funeral director at the time of need. Then, when you pass away, the life insurance payout goes directly to Dignity and they make the chosen funeral arrangements with your family.

They’re one of the UK’s leading funeral providers, with over 800 funeral directors all over the country and will provide the highest standards of care. When the time comes, Dignity will let your loved ones know where your nearest Dignity funeral director is located. If you choose direct cremation, your funeral will be conducted by Simplicity Cremations, who is part of Dignity, and who were named the ‘Best Direct Cremation Provider’ 2018 (Good Funeral Awards 2018).

This depends on the type of cover you choose, but anything that is not in your plan summary won’t be included. For burials, an additional monetary contribution can be required by the family to cover the higher costs of a burial. As standard, funeral plans will not cover extra services such as flowers, orders of service, death notice, wake venue hire, catering and memorials. Any costs incurred for any additional service (e.g. a church service) is also not included and would need to be paid for at the time. If a medical certificate is required, this would incur an additional cost.

Dignity have 800 funeral directors all over the country, so if you move house just give SunLife a call on 0800 904 7649 to update your address. For Direct Cremation, this must remain within mainland UK.

The average cost of a basic funeral in the UK today is over four thousand pounds⁴. SunLife have carried out comprehensive, annual research over the last 15 years which shows that funeral costs have more than doubled since then and are predicted to be on average over five thousand pounds in the next 5 years. So beat rising funeral costs today. The SunLife Guaranteed Funeral Plan guarantees to cover the cost of a funeral when you pass away – no matter how much you’ve paid in, or how much prices rise.

It’s really straightforward. When you take out a plan, you’ll receive a welcome pack containing contact details for Dignity. Please make sure you let someone know where this is kept. When you pass away, your family just need to call Dignity and they’ll advise what happens next.

If you stop making your monthly payments or cancel, your plan will come to an end, you won’t get anything back and your chosen funeral services will not be provided.

Unfortunately, you can only have one funeral plan, and you cannot have a funeral plan and a Funeral Benefit Option (available with some over 50s life insurance). If you have any questions, please call on 0345 054 2706.