Prior to the July 2022 regulations put into place by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in Great Britain there was little in the form of regulation for Preneed funeral plans in that country.  Preneed can be done a little differently than in the USA in Great Britain, but there is much to be learned by studying each other’s business models.

 

First of all, you can access this short article from Great Britain’s “Money Pages” that deals with the idea of preplanning and prepaying for funeral and/or cremation expenses.  The article also leads to a link where you can pick up a podcast between Money Pages editor Kate Saines and Susan Stevenson who is the CEO of Avalon Funeral Plans.

 

It’s a great little podcast and enables the listener to learn about some of the differences that funeral planning in Great Britain has as compared to preplanning in the United States.

 

Here’s a couple of things that I learned:

 

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in Great Britain brought regulations to the industry in July 2022 to “Benefit Customers”.  Some of those regulations included:

1. Standardizing the plans and offerings
2. Bring about a minimal level of features that all plans must offer

 

I learned that funeral plans in Great Britain can be carried out by the insurance or planning company without a specific funeral home involved in the process.  Then, the planning company can work out arrangements with those funeral homes in its network of operatives.  In the case of Avalon Funeral Plans they have a network of funeral homes that they work with in the United Kingdom which totals approximately 2,500 firms.  In Spain, they have a total of about 600 funeral firms that they work with.

 

I also learned that Avalon Funeral Plans targets customers in their mid-50’s years of age and the options to set up plans can include phone calls, Zoom meetings, and face-to-face interaction.

 

In the podcast you can hear CEO Stevenson relate how a funeral plan can be opened, how they are used, and also other personal services, such as the LifeLocker, that Avalon provides to its clients.

 

Quite frankly, this is a really good podcast for those of us in the United States to see how preneed plans could possibly be improved upon in areas of our own country.

 

To learn more about Avalon Funeral Plans look at their website here.

 

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