Throughout your lifetime you will have probably given your children everything you possibly could; be it help with money, through funding education, or to purchase their first car; perhaps with wedding costs, or bringing up the grandchildren; not to mention your unconditional love. Let’s face it; the job of ‘Parent’ is full time, never ending, with few holidays and no retirement to relax into!
As we reach retirement though it’s inevitable that we start to think about our ‘older years’, putting plans in place to ensure our affairs are in order. Hopefully we will have paid our mortgage off; made sure an up to date Will is in place and that we have enough money to enjoy our retirement.
A growing number of people are now taking things a stage further by also planning their own funeral; which makes perfect sense when you think about the financial and emotional impact it has on families, having to make arrangements when they have just lost a parent.
In fact, according to the Funeral Planning Authority, there are now over 1 million prepaid funeral plans in place and sales in the first half of 2016 have increased by over 20% compared to the previous year.
Whilst talking about death, particularly our own is never going to be top of our list, if we don’t tell our families what we want to happen when the time comes and if possible make financial provision, all the arrangements will be left for them to deal with, at what will undoubtedly be one of the most upsetting and difficult times of their lives.
A prepaid funeral plan is quite simply a way of putting your wishes and plans in place ahead of time so that when you do die, your family will have nothing to worry about. In fact, research by over 50s specialist Over50choices has found that nearly three quarters of people that had purchased a funeral plan, did so to save their families from the stress and worry of arranging their funeral.
The report also found that nearly 50% also purchased a plan to remove the financial burden, as a prepaid funeral plan will also freeze the cost of your funeral director’s services at today’s prices, therefore avoiding future inflation.
Ashley Shepherd, Managing Director at Over50choices
Ashley Shepherd, Managing Director at Over50choices said, “The survey confirmed that as a nation we are a caring society, after all protecting your family emotionally and financially by putting a plan in place could be one of the kindest things you can do for them”.
Ashley goes on to say, “Another more surprising result from the survey was that 1 in 10 customers purchased a plan for their parents; a statistic that could increase given the fact that people are living longer. As funeral plans are an allowable expense when it comes to sorting out funding for care homes, families are often advised to make arrangements ahead of time.”
So whilst a prepaid funeral plan could be the best gift to give your children, it could also be the best gift that your children give you.
