SAIFCharter’s voice in Whitehall
SAIFCharter and Golden Charter have put the needs of families and independent funeral directors at the forefront of their Treasury consultation responses.
The Treasury consultation into pre-paid funeral plans closed earlier this month. It sought views on how the pre-paid market currently operates, potential consumer detriment under the current regulatory framework, and the Treasury’s initial proposal to bring in FCA regulation.
As well providing views and evidence, the SAIFCharter response made six key requests:
- For families’ benefit, the regulatory framework must continue to facilitate funeral directors’ essential role at the point of sale.
- A bespoke regulatory framework is required, recognising: a) funeral plans are pre-payments for a future service, not an investment product, and; b) trusts are a mechanism for payment at point-of-need, not a customer investment.
- Well-managed, mature trusts offer a secure mechanism for the management of plan holder funds and should remain an option for consumers.
- Trust-backed funeral plans offer consumers a number of advantages over insurance products, and consumers must remain free to choose between both products without regulatory bias.
- Statutory regulation by the Funeral Planning Authority (FPA), with enhanced rules and sanctions available, is SAIFCharter’s preferred approach.
- The cost of regulation should leave neither consumers nor smaller independent businesses in detriment.
Golden Charter CEO Suzanne Grahame said: “While the pre-need market is the consultation’s subject, it was important for families’ sake that both responses focused on independent funeral directors. The best sale of all is where the person selling the plan is the same person carrying out the funeral, so funeral directors’ views are vital.
“The responses cover important points for Independents, from secure trusts – both from large providers like The Golden Charter Trust and those long established by funeral directors – to the importance of choice.”
Tags: consultation, families, funeral plans, Government, Politics, pre-need, response, SAIFCharter, Treasury