Funerals are hard, not only are they significant as the end of the life of a friend or loved one, but they can also be very financially stressful.
There are so many different parts to a funeral that you need to think of and unfortunately, none of them is very cheap.
According to Sunlife’s cost of dying report 2022, the basic cost of a funeral in 2021 was £4,056. However, this is dependent on whether you opt for a burial or a cremation. On average a burial is a more expensive option at around £4,927 compared to £3,765 for cremation.
There are so many more basic funeral costs that also come with funeral arrangements that you may not initially think about. It’s important to consider these disbursement costs and ensure they do not catch you off guard at a vulnerable time.
In this article, we will provide a detailed breakdown of funeral costs put together by our team of in house experts
Coffin
To the family of the deceased coffins are very important, at the end of the day they are the last memory you will have of your loved one so you want them to be beautiful and perfectly represent them.
Coffins can be as cheap or as expensive as you wish, you can completely customise them with different materials, sizes, shapes, designs and colours. The options truly are endless.
The cost of a standard wood veneer coffin is around £424, but the cost of a customised coffin made with luxury materials can fetch a total cost upwards of £25,000.
Cremation Or Burial Costs
A decision that needs to be made is whether you want to go with a cremation funeral or a burial funeral. As you can imagine these both endure different costs with burial being much more expensive than cremation.
As time has progressed, cremations have been hugely growing in popularity. In 2020 72% of funerals opted for cremations as their chosen send-offs. This is mainly down to the fact that it is a much cheaper option. For cremation costs, you need to think about things like crematorium venue hire, cremation certificates, transport to the crematorium and other optional extras or minor costs that could occur. On average cremation fees will set you back around £830.
If however you opt to go down the route of burial you will most likely be paying a whole lot more, with the average burial fees coming to around £5,000. For a burial, you need to think about the costs of a headstone, type of coffin, grave digger fees, officiant fees and the exclusive right of burial which is simply the burial plot (interment fee).
Another interesting order of service that is becoming increasingly popular is that of a direct cremation. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, these have become more and more favoured over the traditional service due to their much lower total cost. A direct cremation is where the body is taken straight to the crematorium without a funeral service. As you can imagine, this cuts out huge costs that normally come with the life celebrations of a funeral service. The average cost of a direct cremation is around £800, far cheaper than your traditional funeral.
Tombstone
Much like a coffin, the tombstone is hugely important as it’s a lasting memory of your lost loved one. The average cost of a tombstone is a whopping £1,187.
Tombstones can be as discreet or as extravagant as you want. Whether you are after a small headstone with a short obituary inscribed or a huge statue-like structure to commemorate your loved one.
Not only does the physical tombstone cost a pretty penny but most of the time you have to pay for a burial plot at the cemetery. There truly are so many hidden costs to funerals that you would never think to anticipate.
Flowers
Flowers are a huge part of a funeral service. They are used at funerals as a visual representation of sympathy, grief, love and respect for the deceased. In the past, people placed fragrant flowers around the coffin to ward off the grotesque smell of the decaying body.
Much like everything with the funeral, the flowers can be cheap, or they can be expensive. It’s all about the supplier you choose, the amount that you want and also the type of flowers that you choose.
On average, flowers for funeral services cost around £140, but as we previously discussed can be a lot more depending on what you want.
Transport
How both the body and the relatives get to the funeral is another expense that you need to take into consideration. Traditionally, the body is to be transported from the funeral home to the ceremony in a hearse followed closely by one or more limousines shouldering the family behind.
A traditional style hearse starts at around £300 but again can differ depending on circumstances or requirements. The limousines then can cost a further £150-£200 per vehicle. The overall cost will depend on how many people you want to be transported.
Other Costs To Take Into Account
While the aforementioned are the main funeral expenses that almost all funerals will have to cater for. There are also smaller costs that are less essential but are more about the type of funeral you wish to conduct, therefore these are definitely worth taking into account.
Food and drink – Catering a funeral is by no means a must. However, some people like to. The cost of catering ranges from around £40-£150 per head.
Photography and videography – The cost of a photographer/videographer for a funeral is between £50-£200 an hour depending on who you go with.
Funeral director fees – A funeral director is the person that helps piece together all of the different elements of a funeral to create a beautiful send off for your loved one. But this comes at a cost, in fact, the funeral director fee normally makes up 50%-60% of the overall cost of the funeral. On average this will be around £2,500.
Embalming fees – Embalming is the process of preserving human remains, they do this by delaying the natural effects of death. The process involves introducing a special embalming solution into the body that helps to give it a more peaceful appearance. On average, the cost of embalming is around £200.
Death certificate – While this is a small cost, it is a hugely important one. In England and Wales, a death certificate costs £11, in Scotland, it will cost you £10 and in Northern Ireland, it will cost £8.
Repatriation For Diaspora Community
Death in the diaspora community can be particularly tricky. Repatriation of a deceased family member is when a dead body is transported from a foreign country back to the home country of the deceased. Repatriation is an extremely expensive process and is also something that a lot of funeral insurance policies will not tend to account for.
Depending on the location of the repatriation, prices typically range from around £2,000-£4,000 but can at times fetch upwards of £10,000.
Here at Diaspora Insurance, we are one of the only firms in the industry that completely cover both repatriation and reverse repatriation. 2022 marks 10 years in the industry, so you can rest assured that you will receive the best service possible when dealing with us.
We are also one of the leading life insurance providers for the diaspora community. Our amazing prepaid funeral plans help to cover all costs and smaller third party costs that may occur when planning a funeral. You can pay our funeral insurance in monthly instalments and we assure you that today’s prices are fixed, so worry not about increased premiums.
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