A: Today, the average cost of a funeral is over four thousand pounds⁴. 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.

A: When you take out a SunLife Guaranteed Funeral Plan, you can relax knowing it comes with protection from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)².

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.

A: Dignity Funerals Ltd are one of the UK’s leading funeral providers. With over 800 funeral directors all over the country, they offer the highest standards of care. We’ve teamed up with them to provide the funeral services covered in your plan. So, when the time comes, we will pay the money from your Guaranteed Funeral Plan directly to Dignity. They will let your loved ones know where your nearest funeral director is located and will carry out your chosen funeral services.

If you choose direct cremation, your funeral will be carried out by Simplicity Cremations, who are part of Dignity, and were named the ‘Best Direct Cremation Provider’ 2018 (Good Funeral Awards 2018).

A: 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, our 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 (eg. A church service) is also not included and would need to be paid for at the time.To get an idea of funeral costs with the additional extras, you can use our funeral cost calculator.

If a medical certificate is required, this would incur an additional cost.

A: The average cost of a basic funeral in the UK today is over four thousand pounds (based on the average of the cost of a burial and the cost of a cremation in the UK)⁴. SunLife have carried out comprehensive, annual research over the last 16 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. You can find the average cost of burials and cremations in your area by downloading our Cost of Dying report.

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.