The regulation of the funeral plan market proposes to provide better safeguards for consumers, including a ban on cold calling and commission paid to intermediaries, and high standards on governance and financial resilience. Regulation will also provide a more formal redress scheme through the Financial Ombudsman Service and will be covered by the FSCS if their provider goes out of business.

Emily Shepperd, Executive Director of Authorisations at the FCA, said that regulation would better protect consumers:

“As this sector approaches regulation, we want to provide holders of pre-paid funeral plans with some reassurance, which is why we have published a list of the firms we intend to authorise.”

“Our regulation will lead to higher standards in the market and boost consumer protection. We want to see an improvement in the way customers are treated, with better value products, better sales practices and better controls in place so consumers can be confident they will receive the funeral they expect.”