# Funeral plans



## Guest (Jul 12, 2014)

I seem to be hogging this forum with my pleas for information. I can only hope other people find the answers as helpful we we do. This time it's funeral plans. Can anyone recommend a good Spanish company which does funeral plans?

Sorry, I've accidentally started this thread in the wrong place. Can one of the mods move it as appropriate? Many thanks.


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## DunWorkin (Sep 2, 2010)

Not a Spanish company but we have a plan with Avalon.


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## VFR (Dec 23, 2009)

Mapfre do one & it seems reasonable compared to many I have seen.


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## Madliz (Feb 4, 2011)

If I were to contract one I would want one that could be transferred if I were to move country again. One never knows what the future might bring.


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## DunWorkin (Sep 2, 2010)

We chose Avalon for several reasons

We have no relatives here in Spain. If we die here our relatives in the UK will be contacted by Avalon and can arrange everything in English

We are not forced to have the very quick funeral that is normal here. We have opted for 9 days to allow family and friends to get here

I don't know if other plans do this but we have chosen which crematorium we want and what type of funeral

If we move back to the UK we can transfer our plan to there

I think these funeral plans are an excellent idea. We have had 3 English friends here whose husbands have died and they all said they wished things had been organised beforehand. When dealing with grief you do not want to have to organise a quick funeral within 48 hours.


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## fergie (Oct 4, 2010)

I agree with you Meetloaf and Dunworkin funeral plans are a great idea, and we will be seriously looking at a good plan to be used in Spain or in Uk.
My mum bought a funeral plan in 1984 in the UK, my first thought when I heard about it were, 'how morbid',I really didn't want to listen about planning ones own funeral.
My mum died of terminal cancer last year in October, whilst it was heartbreaking to loose her, it was a relief because we knew she wouldn't have to suffer any more.
We instructed the undertaker she had chosen, and took along the funeral plan papers, all the family were present. Mums wishes on her funeral plan were adhered to, type of service, eulogies etc, the only thing we added which wasn't on there is was a track from an Andre Rieu and his orchestra CD played as we left the crematorium, as I we all knew she loved listening to his music, and he wasn't famous in 1984 when she made the plan. If my mum could have heard this she would be smiling, I know.
At times of sadness and stress for those left behind, mum having a funeral plan,made things so much easier, so we intend to do the same.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

I wouldn't have & haven't got a funeral plan per se

insurance yes

my parents had pre-paid funerals in the UK - & we were very grateful when she died - it made it so much easier for my dad

my dad died here in Spain though, 15 months later - he'd been visiting, got sick & the docs said he mustn't travel

the funeral insurance company wouldn't release a cent, so we had to pay for his funeral.

eventually, many months later - they coughed up - it was the very last thing to be settled on his estate - & we even sold his house in that time too!


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## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

None needed, I have no intention whatsoever of dying


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## Guest (Jul 13, 2014)

Hepa said:


> None needed, I have no intention whatsoever of dying


Are you going to be one of those OAPs behaving badly, but in your case doing so for eternity?


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## extranjero (Nov 16, 2012)

meetloaf said:


> Are you going to be one of those OAPs behaving badly, but in your case doing so for eternity?


Didn't you see Hepa behaving badly on channel 5 the other night? He was the one in the thong !


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## susanspain (Sep 5, 2008)

*Funeral Insurance*

We have an annual insurance that is only Eu200 for 2 of us (one over 65 - which affects premium a lot.)
But we are still happy with the plan.

Basically it is an annual insurance and can be used in Spain or anywhere you might pop off/ need it. All expenses covered up to Eu3,500. (You can pay for higher cover if you want.)

It is with Helvetia.

We can´t afford to buy a package outright, so this suits us best right now.


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## DunWorkin (Sep 2, 2010)

susanspain said:


> We have an annual insurance that is only Eu200 for 2 of us (one over 65 - which affects premium a lot.)
> But we are still happy with the plan.
> 
> Basically it is an annual insurance and can be used in Spain or anywhere you might pop off/ need it. All expenses covered up to Eu3,500. (You can pay for higher cover if you want.)
> ...


Does this give you the option of delaying the funeral?

After seeing the distress of our (English) friend when her husband died on Saturday and the cremation was on Monday and the family could not get here was what decided us.

Also, I am in my late 60s and husband in his late 70s so I don't think an insurance would have worked for us.


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## Guest (Jul 14, 2014)

susanspain said:


> We have an annual insurance that is only Eu200 for 2 of us (one over 65 - which affects premium a lot.)
> But we are still happy with the plan.
> 
> Basically it is an annual insurance and can be used in Spain or anywhere you might pop off/ need it. All expenses covered up to Eu3,500. (You can pay for higher cover if you want.)
> ...


That's very interesting. OH is particularly concerned that a plan includes a designated funeral director and someone who'll deal with all the bureaucracy. Does your insurance plan touch on these areas at all or is it straight insurance covering the basic costs and no more?


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## VFR (Dec 23, 2009)

meetloaf said:


> That's very interesting. OH is particularly concerned that a plan includes a designated funeral director and someone who'll deal with all the bureaucracy. Does your insurance plan touch on these areas at all or is it straight insurance covering the basic costs and no more?


Mapfre covers the bulk of that & in our case it was a little more to select a niche (sic) instead of cremation.

Mapfre are local to the vast bulk of us.


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## Dunpleecin (Dec 20, 2012)

Just on this. If you had a plan in the UK before moving out, can your surviving family still claim on the UK one when you shuffle off this mortal coil? And would it cover repatriation? Or if not would it cover funeral expenses in Spain?


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## DunWorkin (Sep 2, 2010)

Dunpleecin said:


> Just on this. If you had a plan in the UK before moving out, can your surviving family still claim on the UK one when you shuffle off this mortal coil? And would it cover repatriation? Or if not would it cover funeral expenses in Spain?


It is impossible to generalise on this. You would need to check with your particular plan.


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## Guest (Jul 16, 2014)

It's not a nice think to think or talk about but it makes sense to do some forward planning here. It's amazing how many questions it throws up when you try and analyse what it is you and your family want (and that isn't always the same thing!). I'm still wading through the suggestions made above - many thanks for these. The whole topic arose when we met an elderly woman in Spain who was agonising about what to do when her much older husband died. She spoke almost no Spanish, and he'd clearly dealt with the practical side of their lives. It made us realise that for us the lack of Spanish - at least in the short term - would be the problem and we'd be sensible to arrange a safety net of some kind. Hence - funeral plans.


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## GallineraGirl (Aug 13, 2011)

We live in a rural area in Alicante Province and have 2 English lady friends who live in nearby villages who lost their husbands. One lady was able to deal with a local funeral director herself with a friend to help with the Spanish. The second lady was too distressed. Her village took care of absolutely everything for her. She just paid the bill. The funeral costs were very modest. We used a local funeral director too when my husband's mother died. She was terminally ill and so we were able to arrange everything in advance. The funeral director found a relative who spoke English to help us with the arrangements and they took care of everything from the flowers through to the service and cemetery arrangements and all the documentation. There were no problems with delaying the ceremony to give time to allow relatives to fly out from England. Again the costs were very modest. In fact, the cost of the funeral was half that quoted by a funeral company on the coast who dealt with expats!

Perhaps it may be an idea to find a Spanish funeral director, recommended by local people, and take a translator to discuss possible funeral requirements. They may be able to give you a written quotation, the price increasing by a rate to cover inflation each year. Then the company would just have to be contacted to put all requirements in place. Three different funeral directors were used in the examples I have given and they were all highly professional people who belong to professional associations so they could be trusted. You could use the money you would have paid for insurance to start a savings account to cover the costs.

It's just an idea. I suggest it because there are people who prey on expat fears by making things seem far more complicated than they actually are in order to make money for themselves.


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## Guest (Jul 16, 2014)

Thank you for this, GG. It is in fact my preferred option but OH has had a bit of a panic over this. He's just had an even bigger one when he saw how much some of these funeral plans cost. You've given me some ammunition and I shall tell him what you said. Some form of advance planning is a very good idea but I really don't like the idea of parting with 4000 euros EACH for something which can be done for a small proportion of that amount. We too plan to be more in a rural area than in a town and I'm sure there will be people we can turn to. In fact… and I don't know why I didn't think of this before …. I might do some googling to see if any local funeral directors have websites.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

meetloaf said:


> Thank you for this, GG. It is in fact my preferred option but OH has had a bit of a panic over this. He's just had an even bigger one when he saw how much some of these funeral plans cost. You've given me some ammunition and I shall tell him what you said. Some form of advance planning is a very good idea but I really don't like the idea of parting with 4000 euros EACH for something which can be done for a small proportion of that amount. We too plan to be more in a rural area than in a town and I'm sure there will be people we can turn to. In fact… and I don't know why I didn't think of this before …. I might do some googling to see if any local funeral directors have websites.


show him my post #7 on this thread too

I didn't write then, that a few months after my dad died, so did my husband... he was resident in Spain but managed to die in the UK - he was supposed to have been passing through........ 

he didn't have a 'paid for' funeral plan - but we did have money put aside 'just in case'

now that it's just me & my girls, as I said, I have life insurance - part of that provides access to funeral expenses immediately as required


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## larryzx (Jul 2, 2014)

Some years ago my brother was murdered in UK. He had no assets so it fell to me to pay for the funeral.

I was advised by the Coroner’s Officer at the Coroners Court (whom I knew) to ‘shop around’ as of course a funeral is a service just like any other.

The third quote I got was 50% less than the first (i.e. half price) for exactly the same funeral, number of cars, plot, minister etc.


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