A funeral plan lets you specify your funeral wishes and pay in advance for the funeral director’s services included, potentially saving your family from worry and expense.
We offer five set plans here at Golden Charter, and what’s included will vary depending on the plan you choose. This article outlines which documents you can expect to receive.
Plan documents
As a plan holder you’ll receive personalised plan documents. These include a summary of your plan, your funeral director’s details, your plan holder certificate and a personal membership card for you to carry in your purse or wallet.
Every three years, we’ll send you a customer statement with a summary of your plan, including an overview of payments, your nominated funeral director, and details of what’s included in your plan.
Nominated representatives
When you take out your funeral plan, you can appoint a nominated representative. They have no authority to make changes to your plan, but will be made aware that you have put a funeral plan in place.
If you opt to have a nominated representative for your plan, we’ll send them a letter and let them know you have a funeral plan in place.
Your funeral director
Your plan documents will include contact details for your funeral director. When the time comes, your family should contact the appointed funeral director. The funeral director will then take care of your funeral arrangements as outlined in your plan.
We can appoint a funeral director near you from our network of 2,900 funeral directors1. Or, if you would prefer to use a specific funeral director, you can let us know while you are arranging your funeral plan. Even if they're not part of our network, we can ask them to accept your plan and we'll confirm to you either way if this is possible or not.
If for any reason the appointed funeral director is unable to perform your funeral, we will select another funeral director to carry out funeral arrangements as detailed in your plan.
Making changes
If you’d like to make changes to your plan, please get in touch so we can update our records. You can record any special wishes you might have for your funeral when you apply for your funeral plan. Special wishes such as music choices, hymns or the dress code for the day can all be added free of charge. Other special wishes may involve additional costs and you may be able to add them to the total cost of your plan, or these would be paid for at the time of the funeral.
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1Based on the number of funeral director branches in the UK accepting Golden Charter plans as at March 2023.
