Plan Ahead

Helping Families and Friends honour their loved ones.

A Pre-Planning meeting provides you with the opportunity to consider the wide range of options available in funeral planning today. This meeting can take place in the comfort and privacy of our premises, or alternatively at your home whichever is more convenient for you.

Your preferences for your funeral will be recorded and the costs calculated at the time of the meeting. You can leave this arrangement with our funeral director and be assured that when the time comes, all your personal details and preferences for your funeral will be carried out according to your wishes.

Pre-planning a funeral means that you choose the type and style of funeral service you want and decide how much you want to invest in advance.

Some people feel comfortable about leaving this responsibility to the family, while others prefer to be a little more organised by planning and even paying for their funeral ahead of time.

There are many advantages in planning ahead:

Prepaying towards a funeral means when the time comes loved ones can gather together, support one another, and remember and celebrate a life, without the responsibility of making difficult choices in very emotional circumstances.

The Funeral Trust has been specifically designed to help you set money aside for your final farewell or for your loved one.
Your contributions will be held on trust by the Trustee until they are needed, in accordance with the terms of The Funeral Trust’s Trust Deed. This reduces money worries for families and avoids them having to go through any legal requirements to access money from an estate to pay for the funeral.

As a recognised funeral plan contributions up to $10,000 are currently exempt from asset testing when assessing eligibility for a subsidy for long-term residential care.

Under a Funeral Trust Plan:
You can contribute towards the cost of your own funeral expenses or those of a loved one.

You can contribute via a lump sum or by regular payments.

You won’t pay any account fees. The Trustee deducts the costs, charges and expenses of administration of the Funeral Trust, including taxation, from the earnings on funds held in Trust.

The Trustee will seek to maintain the purchasing power of payments made.

As it is not an investment product no returns are promised.

Any money remaining in the Plan will be paid to the deceased’s estate once the funeral director’s invoice has been paid. If a joint account is held, at the survivor’s election, remaining money can be left in the Plan for the survivor’s funeral or be repaid to the deceased’s estate at the time.
If prepaid funds do not cover the funeral costs the funeral director will make arrangements with the family or estate of the deceased for payment of the balance.

You may not request a withdrawal unless the Trustee, in its sole discretion, has approved the withdrawal in cases of significant financial hardship or permanent immigration of the person for whom payments have been made.

As it is not an insurance policy no health checks are required.

The Funeral Trust is offered by the Funeral Directors Association. The Association covers approximately three quarters of the funeral homes in New Zealand.

Funeral Directors Association members meet strict standards of professionalism and care.

Pre-Planning your farewell is easy, talk to your Bay Cremation Care FDANZ Funeral Director – they will be able to guide you through the simple process and help with the application to The Funeral Trust.

We would love to help.