Consumer protection: the facts

Consumer protection

Free industry resources for funeral plan providers have been unveiled by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)

Ahead of 29 July 2022, when the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will start regulating firms and intermediaries that provide and arrange pre-paid funeral plans, the FSCS has published a new webpage of free assets.

FSCS covers business conducted by firms authorised by either of the industry regulators – the FCA, or the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). As a result, customers of funeral plan providers that become FCA authorised from 29 July 2022 will be protected by FSCS should their provider go out of business.

Free industry resources

FSCS has recently published a new web page of free resources that can be used by funeral plan providers and intermediaries: www.fscs.org. uk/industry-resources/funeral- plans/

Included on the web page is a downloadable toolkit, designed to “give you a greater understanding of how FSCS protects customer of FCA authorised funeral plan providers, enabling you to confidently explain and detail FSCS protection to your customers”. The toolkit explores the various customer journeys that may occur should a funeral plan holder have a claim with FSCS.

The page also includes downloadable versions of a customer leaflet titled ‘How FSCS protects your money’, which is a guide to FSCS and the products it protects. The customer leaflet, recently updated to include funeral plans, can be printed and displayed in branch, or downloaded and hosted on your website.

You can also watch a video recording of the FSCS funeral plans industry webinar that took place at the start of July. Presented by FSCS experts including Sarah Marin, Chief Customer Officer, and Tim Furness, Head of Finance, this virtual event explored how FSCS protection of funeral plans will work in practice, and offered an opportunity to ask questions about its service.

About FSCS

FSCS exists to protect customers of financial services firms that have failed. If an authorised firm goes out of business and can’t pay claims against it (or is likely to be unable to), FSCS can step in to pay compensation to customers that incur financial losses.

FSCS is operationally independent from but accountable to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). It is funded by a levy paid by the financial services industry and is free to consumers. The full range of financial products covered by FSCS includes banks and building societies, credit unions, pensions, investments, mortgages, insurance, debt management, PPI – and, from 29 July 2022, funeral plans.

More information

If you have a question about FSCS that isn’t covered within these resources, you can contact FSCS with your queries by email.

Find out more about FSCS on its website. The FSCS funeral plans customer webpage is here.

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