Planning a Funeral

Serre-Hebuterne War Graves Cemetery, France

This is the first of a series of posts about planning our funerals.

A long time ago, Polly and I decided we wanted a minimalist funeral. No service at a church; we’re atheists. No service at the Crematorium. We’re both happy to leave some money for a wake, organised by the survivor. Or, if we’re both dead, family. We want our remains to be cremated at an unknown crematorium and our ashes scattered to the wind, or more probably, disposed of responsibly.

The idea is to keep the funeral director’s costs to a minimum. This means no service for family and friends. No hearse. No funeral cars. No viewing the body.

Today we spoke to Clive from Pearson Funerals about pre-paying ours.

The cost surprised us: £2,500 each.

But you need to use a reputable funeral director. Pearson’s is a family firm based in Marsden. They have a history back to 1920. They are local.

Several internet-based companies will organise the sort of funeral we want for under two grand. The problem is, how safe are they? Are they reputable? There’s often a lot of upselling.

Safety of the money is very important. With Pearson’s, the money is held in an individual life assurance policy. Provided by Ecclesiastical Planning Services Limited, part of a specialist UK-based financial services group. Pearson’s cannot access the money until it is required for a funeral.

One potential issue is a £335 arrangement fee. This seems to be a bit high.

He told us that we didn’t need two pre-paid plans; we can have a joint one.

It can be used by the first of us to die. When the other half dies, the estate will consist of money and a house. It should be more than enough to cover the cost of the second funeral.

It could be used by the second of us to die. If the first to die has sufficient funds for their funeral, the funeral costs could be paid from the deceased’s estate.

This seems to be a good way of doing it, given that we own our house.

One issue we did not discuss is what happens if we move out of the area? It’s unlikely but not out of the question. If we do move, it will almost certainly be to a different part of the country. It would be difficult for Pearson’s to arrange our funeral if we lived in Northumberland.

Another issue not discussed is what if Pearson’s no longer exists when either of us dies.

Questions to be answered in future posts.

Most people close to us understand our funeral wishes, so we don’t expect any problems. But problems can and do occur. We’ll be publishing our funeral wishes, but they are not legal. Family can override them. This is not a problem if one of us survives. It can be a problem when the survivor dies.

This is why we will be making sure our families understand our wishes.