Safe Hands Funeral Plans Reviews 

Reply from Safe Hands Funeral Plans

Aug 20, 2019

Thank you for your kind comments. Though the circumstances are always sad, we are always delighted to hear that the families of our customers receive the level and standard of service that we, working with our funeral director partners, always aim to deliver.

Reply from Safe Hands Funeral Plans

Nov 13, 2018

Dear Pamela,

Firstly, thank you for choosing Safe Hands Funeral Plans to take care of your funeral arrangements. As you know, you purchased your plan via The Planning Crowd who are one of our approved 3rd party consultants. We are delighted that you are so pleased with the service that you received from them during the sales process, and we have passed your kind comments on to them and thanked them for their efforts.

Kind regards,

David Latham
Managing Director.

Reply from Safe Hands Funeral Plans

Oct 16, 2018

Dear Mr Crook,

Thank you for your kind words. We are delighted that you and your family were pleased with the service provided by us and the funeral director, Unique Funerals (we shall be sure to pass your praise on to them).

Wishing you and your family good health and much happiness for the coming months and years.

Regards, David Latham (Managing Director)

Reply from Safe Hands Funeral Plans

Oct 15, 2018

Dear Mr Solomon,

Thanks for providing your review. We are delighted that you were happy with the service you received from us.

Kind regards,

David Latham
Managing Director.

Reply from Safe Hands Funeral Plans

Oct 15, 2018

Dear Corin,

Thank you so much for your kind words. We are delighted that you received services from Safe Hands and from the funeral director, Gore Brothers, that conducted the funeral of your grandad. I have made Will aware of your kind words (which he is very grateful for). I shall also make sure we thank Gore Brothers on your behalf, too.

Wishing you and your family good health and much happiness for the coming months and years.

Regards,

David Latham
Managing Director.

Reply from Safe Hands Funeral Plans

Oct 15, 2018

Dear Charlie,

Thank you so much for your kind words. We are delighted that you received a standard of service from Safe Hands, and the funeral director, CJ Williams, that you were happy with.

Wishing you and your family good health and much happiness for the coming months and years.

Regards,

David Latham
Managing Director.

Reply from Safe Hands Funeral Plans

Oct 15, 2018

Dear Jill,

Thank you for your kind words. We always aim to provide our customers with the very highest standards of service throughout the entire process - starting from the sales process (which we try to ensure is not pushy or overbearing) then throughout the customer's/plan holder's lifetime (say, they should need to modify their plan, or receive further information or guidance), and, of course, especially at the most important time of all... the time of need. Clearly you are not at that stage (and let's hope that continues for a long time yet!), but when that time does come, we shall ensure that in delivering the funeral services you have bought and paid for, we uphold the exceptionally high standards that we have become known for.

Wish you and your family good health and much happiness for the coming months and years.

Regards, David Latham (Managing Director)

Reply from Safe Hands Funeral Plans

Oct 15, 2018

Dear Clare,

Thank you so much for your kind words. We are delighted that you were happy with the standard of service you received from Safe Hands and from the funeral director, L Titcombe & Family, in relation to your friend's mother's funeral.

Wishing you and your family good health and much happiness for the coming months and years.

Regards, David Latham (Managing Director)

Reply from Safe Hands Funeral Plans

Sep 28, 2018

Dear Lisa,
Before I address the matters raised in your review, I would like to offer you my sincere personal condolences for the passing of your grandfather. I appreciate that you will have felt – and probably still do feel – a great deal of distress at his loss.

We cannot be certain of which of our customers your grandfather is, because neither you, nor anybody related to you as far as we are aware, has raised a complaint with us directly. However, we have searched our system and identified a recently deceased customer who we are confident is your late grandfather – therefore it is this case that I refer to in giving some much needed balance to the matters you have, very disappointingly from our point of view, elected to make public rather than raise them with us in the first instance – and in doing so, denied us the opportunity to make certain important facts clear that you were either not aware of, or that you were/are aware of but have decided not to refer to in your review.
Addressing the issues you have raised in sequence...

1). Your description of Safe Hands Funeral Plans (SHFP) as ‘Robbers’: I am not entirely sure why you feel you are justified to use this description. However, you make reference in your review, to “administration”, which to me implies that you may feel aggrieved that SHFP generated revenue through your late grandfather’s purchase of a Safe Hands Funeral Plan. You will, hopefully, appreciate, that as commercial entities (albeit ones with an elevated need for sensitivity, tact and empathy), every funeral plan provider generates, quite rightly and justifiably, a revenue through the sale of its plans. If you are of the impression that, in SHFP’s case at least, this revenue is an ‘administration fee’, then you are completely mistaken. By way of explanation: Here at SHFP, we work with a national network of funeral directors – all of which, through their contracts with us, agree to conduct the funerals of our plan holders for specific sums of money. Effectively this means they provide services to the value of the plan as paid by the customer, but at a reduced rate. They do this because of the huge volume of new business that we generate on their behalf to supplement the business that they secure themselves. According the 2017 Sun Life Cost of Dying Report, the average cost of a funeral akin to the specification of your late grandfather’s ‘Sapphire’ funeral plan, arranged by a customer directly with a funeral director and without the involvement of a funeral plan/funeral plan company, was - in 2017 - £4,500 to £5,000. So the fact your late grandfather paid £3,395 for his plan, means he immediately fixed the cost of his funeral at a price that was £1,000 to £2,000 less than the national average.

Regarding the revenue SHFP generated through your late grandfather’s plan: Unlike with insurance, when someone buys a funeral plan from any provider, they are buying a funeral and paying, one can only assume, a price that they consider to be fair and reasonable. And as is made clear the information sent to your late grandfather after he purchased his plan, there is no monetary ‘pay-out’ to the plan holder’s family when the plan holder dies. Instead, when the plan holder dies and the death certificate is produced, the monies are released from the plan providers trust fund (which in the case of ours, is fully compliant with all legislation) and paid directly to the funeral director.

Depending on how long a plan is in place, the fee that the funeral director receives may be less than the sum of money paid by the customer for the plan. Sadly, your late grandfather passed away relatively very quickly (just under 1 year) after purchasing his plan (decades, usually, pass between a plan being purchased the plan holder dying) – meaning in his case, the sum of monies paid to the funeral director was less than the sum paid for the plan.

2) The delay in your late grandfather’s body being collected from the hospital mortuary: This delay was not any fault of SHFP’s. Your late grandfather’s death was reported to us at 11:56 on 16th January 2018, by a 24/7 professional call handling service that receives all calls to our bereavement line. At 12:04 (and several times after that) we attempted to call you on your mobile and landline, but received no response. Neither we, nor any funeral plan company, would arrange for the funeral directors with which they work to collect a deceased plan holder, without, first, speaking directly to the next of kin/family in order to ascertain such things as where the funeral was to take place, which funeral director the family might like to use, etc. Dealing, as we do, with approximately 6 to 10 plan holder deaths per day – if we cannot make contact after several attempts with a particular family, then reasonably we have to conclude that they are tied up with other bereavement related matters (plus they may even not value us hounding them with calls they cannot take) and that they will get back to us once they are in a position to do so. It was the following day before you returned our calls - but as your late grandfather was, in the interim, in the hospital’s mortuary (where we knew he would be held safely and at no monetary cost to you until such time as we achieved contact with you to arrange collection of his body the funeral director) we were not remotely concerned that his security, care and welfare was in any way threatened or at risk. When you did call us back (on 17th January), due to it being an unusually busy day in terms of the number of plan holders deaths that we were dealing with, our specialist bereavement responders were all engaged on other cases at that particular point. It is perfectly true that you tried several times that morning to speak to a responder before one was finally free to call you back. Regarding this - whilst being very busy is a reasonable explanation for our delay in returning your calls, we do not consider it a reasonable excuse. Therefore, for this delay, I offer you our sincere apologies. I do not, however, consider it reasonable grounds for a public denouncement of our service to you, given the afore-highlighted extenuating circumstances that were entirely outside of our control.

3. The funeral director you instructed yourself to take care of arrangements: It is my understanding that when your late grandfather’s death was first reported to us, despite no ‘Preferred funeral director’ having been detailed by late grandfather when he purchased his plan, you wanted the funeral could be conducted by Turner & Son Funeral Directors (with whom we do not have a contract), in preference to it being conducted by any of several funeral directors locally with which we do have a contract. We duly contacted Turner & Son – and in line with our funeral plan contract between us and your late grandfather, we offered them the benefit of conducting the funeral for the exact same fee that any of our contracted funeral directors would have happily and readily conducted the funeral for. Turner & Son provided us with signed formal confirmation that they were happy to conduct the funeral and that the sum they would receive from us for doing so was “to their complete satisfaction”. If, as you appear to claim in your review, Turner & Son Funeral Directors charged you additional sums for conducting the funeral, then in line with the agreement they signed with us, if those additional charges relate to things covered by the plan specification, then contractually they have no right to charge you for them. If you have indeed received a bill from them for additional fees, then please provide us with a copy so that we can ascertain what it relates to – and whether you have any liability to pay it. It may be that the bill relates to things not covered by the plan, in which case you are liable to pay for them.

4. Your claim that the plan was sold as a result of a “cold call” visit by Safe Hands Funeral Plans: This is not true. By way of explanation: Your late grandfather purchased his plan from a company called Ellemar Estate Planning (registered on Companies House under No. 10995068), who are an independent approved consultant (No. 2117) of Safe Hands Funeral Plans. Far from the plan having been sold as a result of a cold call, instead, Ellemar Estate Planning conducted a leaflet drop (on their own initiative, and not on the instruction of SHFP) at the residential estate where your late grandfather lived. There was no knocking any doors (not your grandfather’s, or anyone else’s). Instead, your grandfather came out of his bungalow, I believe, and asked the director of Ellemar Estate Planning for information about Safe Hands Funeral Plans. It was off the back of that enquiry they he purchased his funeral plan. It is also worth noting that some months later, your late grandfather contacted Ellemar Estate Planning again, this time with respect to arranging Lasting Power of Attorney (in the presence of and with the consent of 2 family members, one of whom I believe was your brother, and the other your cousin). Though the LPA and any other services that your late grandfather may have purchased from Ellemar Estate Planning is/are entirely unrelated to Safe Hands Funeral Plans, the very fact he (with the consent or knowledge of the aforementioned 2 other family members) re-engaged with Ellemar Estate Planning after he purchased his funeral plan from them, is evidence he was happy that [in selling the funeral plan] they conducted themselves well and in a professional manner.

In conclusion, I am, of course, most understanding of, and sympathetic towards, the fact you will be feeling particularly distressed by the loss of your grandfather. However, with respect, I do not consider it reasonable or fair of you to publicise such a negative review about SHFP without, first, reporting your grievances to directly to us – and in doing so give us opportunity to resolve the matter in the kind of professional, courteous, mutually beneficial manner by which we would always seek to resolve any customer complaint. Had you done that, then I’m quite certain we could have given you clarity and balance in the form of the key points I have highlighted above, that may have helped you arrive at a more holistic judgement – one that perhaps might have served to alleviate the anger that you say you have been harbouring since January.

In the interests of establishing civil direct discourse with you that might, hopefully, result in both you and us feeling better about the entire situation that has led to your unfortunate public denouncement of SHFP, I politely request that you contact me directly, on 0800 917 7099, at your very earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

David Latham
Managing Director.

Reply from Safe Hands Funeral Plans

Mar 6, 2018

Dear Mr Bulmer,

Firstly, I would like to begin by offering you my sincere personal condolences for the passing your late wife (whose name I cannot mention, for reasons of data protection).

It is clear from the comments you have made, that there is a significant misunderstanding on your part regarding the way funeral plans work - and that this misunderstanding has, in turn, led to you feeling that the plan you purchased from Safe Hands did not represent value for money. Had you raised your concerns with us directly in the first instance (rather than raise them publicly), then I'm quite certain that the context we would have been able to apply to the matter, would have given you much comfort.

Addressing your comments point by point:

- Your wife purchased a 'Pearl' funeral plan from an independent Agent of Safe Hands Funeral Plans - a company called The Beneficial Will & Trust Company, for £3070. Had she purchased her plan from SHFP directly, she would have paid £2945. However the Beneficial Will & Trust Company charged an increased sum on the basis that they provided extra estate planning services as part of the plan purchase (We advise you contact the Beneficial Will & Trust Company for details)

- When you wife passed away, you requested we approach Ian Hazel Funeral Directors (with whom we do not have a contract), on the basis you preferred them to conduct your late wife's funeral rather than it be conducted by one of the several funeral directors with which we (SHFP) have a contract in place. As per our customer contract, we contacted Ian Hazel Funeral Directors and offered them the benefit of your late wife's funeral for the same sum of monies that we would have paid to any of the funeral directors in the area with which we do have a contract. We have an email from Ian Hazel FD, confirming to us that they were happy to conduct the funeral (delivering all the items covered by your wife's plan) for the sum of monies available from us (the same sum of monies that we would have paid to any of the several funeral directors with which we have contracts in place).

- You say that you had to pay a further £1500 pounds to Ian Hazel Funeral Directors. Without the benefit of knowing what this £1500 relates to, I cannot say for certain whether, or not, I feel Ian Hazel, having agreed to undertake the funeral for a specific figure, were within their contractual rights to charge you this additional sum. If you could contact us directly and provide a copy of any bill that Ian Hazel FD has presented you with, itemising what this additional fee relates to, we will be able to advise you on whether, or not, you are contractually obliged to pay it.

We are, of course, most understanding of, and sympathetic to, the fact you will be feeling particularly distressed by the loss of your late wife and that that will, almost certainly, have been a contributing factor in your decision to raise your complaint publicly in the first instance. However, I sincerely hope that you will appreciate that there are factors arising in this case of your late wife's plan/funeral that you must give consideration to, and that for our mutual benefit, ought to have been raised with us directly initially (thus allowing us the opportunity to explain them to you, and, hopefully, make you feel much better about them).

I politely request that you contact me on 0800 917 7099, so that we can address the issues you have raised, in a courteous and professional manner.

Yours sincerely,

David Latham
Managing Director.

Reply from Safe Hands Funeral Plans

Jan 17, 2018

Dear Paula,

Thank you for your feedback, albeit negative. In your message you state that is was your mother who purchased the plan (not yourself). We have searched your surname in our systems in the hope doing so would reveal the name (of the plan holder) that your message is in reference to, but nothing has come up.

In order for us to gain an understanding of the exact reasons for your dissatisfaction, and, hopefully, address it, could I please request that you contact us on 0800 917 7099. Thank you.