Why Choose a Prepaid Funeral Plan?

A funeral plan is an easy way to arrange the funeral you want in advance. A plan allows you to specify your wishes and pay for the funeral director’s services included in your plan. As customers often tell us, that can bring peace of mind to you and your family.

Buy a Funeral Plan

Make Your Wishes Clear

Take control of the details that matter to you. From the type of service to your preferred music or readings, your wishes are recorded and respected—removing uncertainty for those left behind.

Reduce Stress on Your Family

Losing a loved one is hard enough. By planning ahead, you ease the emotional and financial burden on your family at a time when clear guidance and support mean the most.

Lock In Today’s Prices

Funeral costs continue to rise. A prepaid plan lets you fix our funeral director services at today’s prices—so you’re protected from future price increases, no matter when the plan is needed.

A plan from Golden Charter also includes an allowance towards third party costs. These are essential, non-funeral director services such as the cremation or burial fees, plus the minister or officiant’s fee to perform the service. 

At George Ball & Son, we work in partnership with Golden Charter to provide you with a simple way to plan ahead. As one of the UK’s largest funeral plan providers1, Golden Charter has helped nearly 1 million people to plan ahead2, so we’re completely confident in offering their plans to you.

Everyone has different needs when it comes to funeral planning, so we make sure the plans we offer are as flexible as possible. When you get in touch, we’ll be happy to discuss your funeral requirements and tailor a plan to suit you. Rest assured a plan from Golden Charter is available to all UK residents regardless of age or state of health.

As an independently owned funeral director, we’ll take the time to understand your wishes and tailor a plan to suit you. We can discuss these at our premises or in your home, at a time that is convenient for you. If you’d prefer to discuss this over the phone or via email, we can assist with this too. You can tell us about any preferences you have in mind – the type of funeral you would like to have, hymns, music or any other personal touches – and we’ll make sure your plan takes these into account.

With a Golden Charter funeral plan, you can pay for your plan in several ways. Spread the cost or make a one-off payment – simply choose the one that’s right for you. We will provide you with the information you need to make an informed decision. 

The retail price of your funeral plan is representative of the equivalent cost of a funeral today plus an arrangement fee of £325 which is retained by Golden Charter to help cover the costs of setting up your plan.

Your payments are held within the Golden Charter Trust. With almost £1.21 billion under management3, the Trust is operated by a Board of Trustees, completely independent of Golden Charter. Their role is to hold your payments and ensure that the funeral director services in your plan can be paid for at the time they are required – however far into the future that may be. For more information on how your payments are protected, please visit goldencharter.co.uk/faqs

As a Golden Charter plan holder, you’ll receive personalised plan documents, which include a summary of your plan, our details, your plan holder certificate and a personal membership card for you to carry in your purse or wallet. You can add a nominated representative to your plan if you wish to do so. Your nominated representative will receive a letter which will provide details of your plan and our details, as your chosen funeral director. They will have no authority to make changes to your plan.

You’ll also receive a statement from Golden Charter every three years which will be sent via post.

As your funeral director, we’ll hold full details of your funeral plan. When the time comes, one phone call is all it takes to activate your plan and get the arrangements underway.

Prepaid Funeral Plans

Planning ahead can bring peace of mind—for you and for those you care about. We offer prepaid funeral plans through Golden Charter, one of the UK’s leading providers, so you can arrange and pay for your funeral in advance.

A prepaid plan lets you:

  • Fix your funeral director’s costs at today’s prices
  • Choose the type of funeral you want, in your own time
  • Relieve your family of the emotional and financial burden later on

We’ll walk you through the options, so you can choose a plan that reflects your wishes.

Our funeral director’s services will be covered in your funeral plan, which means our fees will be fixed at today’s prices and protected against rising costs. These services typically include:

  • Professional services and making arrangements for the funeral
  • Transportation of the deceased from the place of death to our premises, chapel of rest or other suitable location
  • Care of the deceased and preparations for family viewing if requested
  • Advice on the certification and registration of death and related documentation
  • Provision of funeral vehicles
  • Advice on bereavement counselling
  • Coffin or casket requested

Although a pre-paid funeral plan can cover all of the services above, there are some additional third party costs to consider. These are the costs for essential, non-funeral director services required to carry out a cremation or burial which need to be paid at the time of the funeral. These costs are outside our control. Depending on the plan type chosen, a Golden Charter funeral plan can include a contribution towards some third party costs.

They may include:

  • Crematorium fee
  • Minister or officiant’s fee
  • Cemetery fee: the opening of a new or existing grave for burial or interment of cremated remains

Other third party costs that may be associated with a funeral include:

  • Purchase of grave or lair
  • Hire of church or other venue
  • Fees for organist or soloist
  • Memorial, such as a headstone, entry in a book of remembrance, or the planting of a tree
  • Catering, floral tributes and newspaper announcements

There will only be more to pay at the time of the funeral if the third party costs exceed the allowance when you buy your plan, or if the costs increase by more than the growth of your plan.

However, even if prices rise in the future, you’ll have the reassurance of knowing there’ll be nothing more to pay for our funeral director’s services included in the plan once your plan is fully paid for – guaranteed.

Why Choose a Golden Charter Plan?

We’ve partnered with Golden Charter because they’re trusted, secure, and have helped over 900,000 people in the UK make funeral plans.

Your money is held safely in a regulated trust or life assurance policy until it’s needed. You can be confident your arrangements will be honoured, just as you intended.

Our most popular plans include:

  • Simple Funeral Plan
  • Traditional Funeral Plan
  • Fully Bespoke Options (tailored to your needs)
Compare Our Funeral Plans

Frequently asked questions

Still have questions?
Please contact our friendly team.

Contact us

Yes, Golden Charter offers a range of payment options to suit your budget.

Your plan is transferable to another funeral director in Golden Charter’s UK-wide network.

Absolutely. You can specify readings, music, coffin type and more—we’ll help make it your own.

You can cancel your plan within a set cooling-off period and receive a full refund. After that, cancellation terms apply.

1Based on a Golden Charter analysis and independent research of the funeral plan market size as at December 2024.

2Correct at September 2024.

3Confirmed by Golden Charter Trust’s audited accounts at 31 March 2024. 

George Ball & Son is an appointed representative of Golden Charter Limited trading as Golden Charter Funeral Plans which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN:965279).

Should a Funeral Director have a Legal Entity name which is different from their trading name, the Legal Entity name must be mentioned in the disclosure as follows:

M Arnison, D Arnison & R Arnison T/As G Ball & Son trading as George Ball & Son is an appointed representative of Golden Charter Limited trading as Golden Charter Funeral Plans which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN:965279).

  • I cannot express enough gratitude for the exceptional service we received from George Ball & Son during one of the most challenging times in our lives. When my father passed away, I felt overwhelmed and uncertain about how to proceed. However, the team at George Ball & Son was nothing short of excellent.
    Kathy Q
    Google Review
  • We had really good support from George Ball and Son from the minute my dad died; their care and compassion was excellent.
    All the funeral arrangements were made with minimal fuss, our wishes were easily accommodated and on the day of the funeral everything went smoothly.
    Thank you !
    Anne Brice
    Google Review
  • Margaret, Daniel & Rachel, Are so caring. They go that extra mile to help their customer. From our first meeting, to making my beloved husband look so lovely and peaceful, to the photograph, flowers and order of service and their attention to detail. Nothing was too much trouble. Everything they did was to perfection! I can't thank them enough.
    Carole
    Google Review