Cost of living? What about the cost of being dead?

2 Responses to Cost of living? What about the cost of being dead?

1. Ashley Shepherd says:

   January 24, 2014 at 5:01 pm

   Great article Kate!

   Yes, for those genuinely indeed of state support the system needs reforming in order to protect the most vulnerable in society.

   So what about everybody else?

   A game of 2 halves?

   The consumer, whether at the lower end of the income spectrum or middle England, is largely not aware or educated to plan their final event, a result of not wishing to talk about death (a cultural issue?) and a lack of awareness of how they can make financial and emotional decisions ahead of the event?

   And to fulfil this latent planning need, we have funeral directors and prepaid funeral plan providers (sometimes the same beast!), who for years have had little competition and an industry sadly lacking in innovation.

   Both directors and providers need to make a commercial profit, but without any real challenge to their market the larger players will keep on getting larger and the smaller ones will find it difficult to grow.

   Our core focus at Over50choices is funeral planning – a raft of useful information and a choice of payment plans to pay for a funeral, including a range of prepaid and over 50 life insurance plans.

   Hopefully, we are helping to educate the consumer to plan and save money in what is, for the majority, an emotional purchase at the point of need, when the last thing they will want to do is shop around for the best deal.

   So sadly the cost of dying is getting more expensive, as I said recently, funerals are for the living: you should be alive when you plan your funeral so that those alive when you are gone can carry on with their lives and not be financially burdened by your loss.

   I would like to see a wider government review of how funerals are funded and not limited to the vulnerable end of the market, but to put death on the agenda reviewing the whole value chain and educational aspects.

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   • Dr Hannah Rumble says:

     January 27, 2014 at 3:31 pm

     I would like to stress that as the author of this blog I am NOT advocating or supporting Over50choices; but as an academic who feels strongly about having public discussions about death, grief and funerals I felt Ashley’s response should be published in the spirit of that debate. I’m sure Ashley will welcome other’s opinion; as do I.

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