A funeral plan is an easy way to arrange the funeral you want in advance. A plan allows you to specify your wishes and pay for the funeral director’s services included in your plan. As customers often tell us, that can bring peace of mind to you and your family. A plan from Golden Charter also includes an allowance towards third party costs. These are essential, non-funeral director services such as the cremation or burial fees, plus the minister or officiant’s fee to perform the service.
At G. R. Peachey & Son, we work in partnership with Golden Charter to provide you with a simple way to plan ahead. As one of the UK’s largest funeral plan providers*, Golden Charter has helped 900,000 people make funeral provisions** so we’re completely confident in offering their plans to you.
Everyone has different needs when it comes to funeral planning, so we make sure the plans we offer are as flexible as possible. When you get in touch, we’ll be happy to discuss your funeral requirements and tailor a plan to suit you. Rest assured a plan from Golden Charter is available to all UK residents regardless of age or state of health.
*Based on a Golden Charter analysis and independent research of the funeral plan market size as at January 2023.
**Correct at March 2023.
As an independently owned funeral director, we’ll take the time to understand your wishes and tailor a plan to suit you. We can discuss these at our premises or in your home, at a time that is convenient for you. If you’d prefer to discuss this over the phone or via email, we can assist with this too. You can tell us about any preferences you have in mind – the type of funeral you would like to have, hymns, music or any other personal touches – and we’ll make sure your plan takes these into account.
Our funeral director’s services will be covered in your funeral plan, which means our fees will be fixed at today’s prices. These services typically include:
Although a pre-paid funeral plan can cover all of the services above, there are some additional third party costs to consider. These are the costs for essential, non-funeral director services required to carry out a cremation or burial which need to be paid at the time of the funeral. These costs are outside our control. Depending on the plan type chosen, a Golden Charter funeral plan can include a contribution towards some third party costs. They may include:
Other third party costs that may be associated with a funeral include:
There will only be more to pay at the time of the funeral if the third party costs exceed the allowance when you buy your plan, or if the costs increase by more than the growth of your plan. Even if prices rise in the future, once your plan is paid for, you’ll have the reassurance of knowing there’ll be nothing more to pay for our services included in the plan – guaranteed.
With a Golden Charter funeral plan, you can pay for your plan in several ways. Spread the cost or make a one-off payment – simply choose the one that’s right for you. We will provide you with the information you need to make an informed decision.
The retail price of your funeral plan is representative of the equivalent cost of a funeral today plus an arrangement fee of £285 which is retained by Golden Charter to help cover the costs of setting up your plan.
Your payments are held within the Golden Charter Trust. With £1.2 billion under management1, the Trust is operated by a Board of Trustees, completely independent of Golden Charter. Their role is to hold your payments and ensure that the funeral director services in your plan can be paid for at the time they are required – however far into the future that may be. For more information on how your payments are protected, please visit goldencharter.co.uk/faqs.
As a Golden Charter plan holder, you’ll receive personalised plan documents, which include a summary of your plan, our details, your plan holder certificate and a personal membership card for you to carry in your purse or wallet. You can add a nominated representative to your plan if you wish to do so. Your nominated representative will receive a letter which will provide details of your plan and our details, as your chosen funeral director. They will have no authority to make changes to your plan.
You’ll also receive a statement from Golden Charter every three years which will be sent via your preferred contact method.
As your funeral director, we’ll hold full details of your funeral plan. When the time comes, one phone call is all it takes to activate your plan and get the arrangements underway.
As well as the comfort of having a plan in place, you’ll have the peace of mind that comes with being able to help save your family from worry and expense in the future. So why not take the next step?
G. R. Peachey & Son is an appointed representative of Golden Charter Limited trading as Golden Charter Funeral Plans which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN:965279).
Registered in England No. 02511598 Registered Office: One Fleet Place, London EC4M 7WS.
1 Confirmed by Golden Charter Trust’s audited accounts at 31 March 2022.
At G. R. Peachey & Son, customers are at the heart of our business, and we aim to treat all customers fairly. It is therefore hugely important to us that every funeral plan we sell is fairly priced.
As we offer tailored funeral plans to our customers (Golden Charter’s ‘Independent Way’ plans), we are classed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as a funeral plan ‘co-manufacturer’.
This document outlines our pricing policy as a funeral plan co-manufacturer, explaining the rules and principles we adopt when offering funeral plans to customers.
Our pricing policy works in conjunction with and we conform to all relevant funeral plan processes, policies and procedures contained within:
All of our employees involved in the quotation, selling and administration of Golden Charter funeral plans will be aware of and follow this policy.
This policy is reviewed annually by Gary John Peachey and the outcome of the review is reported to Golden Charter in a formal declaration.
If we change our funeral plan pricing policy outside of our annual review, we will notify Golden Charter within 30 days.
| Version | Document owner (name and title) | Date prepared / reviewed | Next review date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mr. Gary John Peachey (Director) | 5th June 2024 | 5th June 2025 |
In determining a suitable pricing structure for Golden Charter’s Independent Way funeral plans we will take into account the FCA Principles for Business, the customer’s best interest rule and the requirement to provide fair value for customers.
We will carefully consider the pricing structure relating to funeral plan products, particularly whether:
We will:
The following rules will be available and adhered to by all employees involved in the selling and delivery of services contained within funeral plans.
We will hold an annual internal review and approval process for the pricing of funeral plans and the acceptance and adherence of this policy will form part of our employee funeral plan training.