SAIF Golden Charter

Sheltered housing wardens welcome funeral planning

Wardens of sheltered housing have proven keen to set up events promoting funeral planning, research from Golden Charter has found.

Meeting with wardens face to face had an overwhelmingly high success rate when trialled, according to Lindsay Jackson, Golden Charter’s National Event Sales Manager. More than a dozen events were booked during a single day travelling around sheltered accommodation. Meetings with 14 wardens went ahead, and all but one agreed to set up an event.

Lindsay said: “This is absolutely something I would encourage funeral directors to do, now we have established the best way to go about it. There are 25,000 of these locations in the UK.

“The keys to success were quite simple: we only approached sheltered associations rather than care homes, because we didn’t want to reach vulnerable residents who may not have the capacity to make major decisions, and we ensured we spoke directly to the warden.

“After setting up the event, the goal should be to generate individual meetings with residents and optionally their families. The events also encourage the wardens to raise questions around funeral planning, Wills and other later life planning with new residents.

“This is an important opportunity to develop pre-need connections with families through these kinds of accommodation, and effectively prevents your other local competition from striking up these relationships in your place.

“Wardens have shown they are very open to the idea, so it is a situation where funeral directors, families and the sheltered housing community can all benefit.”

A best practice document collecting this guidance is available from Golden Charter; speak to your local representative for details.