Our Service

Funeral Plans

How do you want to be remembered?

We understand how families tick. If you’re the head of your family then you’ve probably spent your entire life trying to make all those difficult decisions so the rest of your loved ones didn’t have to. And we know most mums make it their life’s work to do everything for everyone. That’s why we’d like to talk to you about planning your funeral with us. Together we can make sure you’ve done all the hard work and made all the difficult decisions for them, just as you always have. First of all you need to decide if you’d like to talk to us about pre-planned or pre-paid funerals. Either one will allow you to plan (right down to the tiniest detail) exactly how you’d like to be remembered.

Pre-Paid Funeral Plans

Thinking about your own funeral is never an easy thing to do but planning ahead can bring real peace of mind and financial security. An A.Milne pre-payment funeral plan is a practical, financially sensible and thoughtful step to take and offers you several benefits:

Peace Of Mind

By taking care of things now, your family will not have the difficulty of having to second guess your wishes at a particularly emotional time.

Financial Guarantees

An A.Milne pre-payment funeral plan can help to ease the financial burden for you and your loved ones. Paying for your funeral plan in advance enables you to fix the funeral director’s costs at today’s prices. Once you have purchased your plan, all of the funeral director’s costs are guaranteed to be paid.

Flexibility

Our flexible plans enable you to arrange your funeral to be as simple or as comprehensive as you wish. You can also add to or amend the plan at any time should your wishes change.

Quality assured

A.Milne pre-payment funeral plans are provided by us and promise to give you total security.

Guaranteed acceptance

Anyone can take out an A.Milne pre-paid funeral plan. There is no upper age limit and no medical questions or examinations required. Everyone will be accepted for this plan.

Pre-Planned Funerals

A pre-planned funeral allows you to plan a funeral in advance, without having to pay for it until the funeral takes place. Many people find this is an option that allows them to have the peace of mind that they’ll get their exact wishes without incurring the expense of a funeral at this time.

Want to start planning?

If what you’ve read has made you want to plan your funeral, we’re pleased to answer every question that you may have; personalise a plan to your exact wishes and put your mind completely at rest that you’re making the right decision.

With a pre-planned funeral, we can discuss as much or as little as you wish. You may want to discuss which crematorium you would like to use, or which cemetery you wish to be buried in. You may want to discuss which minister to use, what a newspaper notice is to say and what flowers are to be ordered.

Alternatively, you may just want to give us some basic details and let your family or friends take care of the other arrangements at the time. Whatever you feel comfortable with, we would be pleased to discuss arrangements for a pre-planned funeral with you. Simply arrange to meet with one of our funeral directors either at one of our offices or in your own home.

A Plan Application Form

Pre- arrangement form

You can download our pre-arrangement form to complete. Filling out this form is simply a record of your funeral wishes. You should contact us if you wish to pre-arrange and pre-pay your funeral at todays prices.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you move, Funeral Planning Services can transfer your plan to a Funeral Director in that area. Funeral costs vary from one area to another and you will be advised of any difference in cost at that stage.

Yes. Please mention this on your application – we will need the name, address and year of birth of the person to be covered but we will send all correspondence to you.

If you change your mind within the first month of receiving your plan documents you can return them for a full refund, with no questions asked. If you cancel your plan at a later date, your refund will be subject to an administration charge (please refer to the terms of sale).

No – you can purchase a plan at any age and in any state of health, but please see the note on instalments.

All payments are made directly into Funeral Planning Trust, a national fund established in 1995 for the secure deposit of funeral prepayments. The accounts of Funeral Planning Trust are monitored annually by independent actuaries and checked by independent auditors. The payment for the funeral can only be withdrawn from Funeral Planning Trust when the service has been provided or if the plan is cancelled.

No. A guaranteed funeral plan is not a savings account; it is simply a way of paying in advance for the funeral service. As the value of the Funeral Planning Trust fund increases over the years, so the money available to pay the funeral director will increase to compensate for rising costs.

Yes, there are a range of options – please ask for details. Payment by instalments usually costs more than a single payment because of the extra administration involved, and if you die before completing all of the instalments the funeral will only be part-paid.

Funerals, like everything else, are affected by inflation and the cost of a funeral will almost certainly increase before you need one. However once you have purchased a prepayment plan the funeral specified will be provided for you when it is needed without any further charge to you or your family (but please refer to the note on “disbursements”). This is one of the most important benefits and why it has become so popular with our clients in recent years.

We recommend that you take out travel insurance when you go on holiday, especially if you travel abroad, which usually covers bringing you back home if necessary. Alternatively we can quote for the extra cost involved.

Each plan usually includes a contribution towards other expenses, such as crematorium or cemetery fees, doctors’ fees for a cremation certificate and minister’s or church fees – these fees are known as “disbursements”. This is intended to cover most of the usual disbursements, but please note that they are outside of our control and cannot be guaranteed.

The amount included for disbursements will be stated on your funeral plan certificate and will be increased annually in line with the Retail Prices Index.

You can include a larger, or smaller, contribution towards disbursements if you wish – please ask if you need advice on this point.

Contact us