Funeral funding option

Preparing for your funeral now will give your family less to worry about when you're no longer here. The death of a loved one is stressful enough for family members without them having to worry about the costs associated with a funeral.

Engage Mutual have teamed up with The Co-operative Funeralcare, to allow you to arrange for a payment direct from your policy towards your funeral expenses. It costs nothing and will give you and your family that extra piece of mind.

This is called a ‘Legal Charge’. Although this option isn’t a funeral plan and won’t necessarily meet the full cost of your funeral, it can help towards it.

If you choose the funeral funding option, The Co-operative will make a £250 Contribution towards your funeral costs. This will go towards the cost of your funeral provided the funeral is arranged with The Co-operative Funeralcare, another participating Co-operative or an affiliated Funeral Director. If you wish to take this option you can do so when you apply for Benenden Over 50s Life Cover.

If the sum assured is more than the cost of your funeral, your nominated beneficiary or administrator of your estate will need to claim the excess from Engage Mutual. However, if your funeral costs total more than your cover, your representative will be responsible for settling the balance with the Funeral Director at the time of arranging the funeral.

If you die within the first 2 years of taking out your policy, the funeral funding option will not apply and the payout will be made under the conditions of your plan. However, the £250 Contribution towards the cost of your funeral will still be available if it is carried out by The Co-operative Funeralcare.

Please remember that you can only apply one funeral funding option to one plan. If you have multiple plans with Engage Mutual please choose the plan that you’d like to apply it to carefully. If you already have a plan with another provider that has been charged in favour of The Co-operative Funeralcare, you cannot apply the funeral funding option to a policy from Engage Mutual. A funeral funding option will take precedence over any nominations made against a policy. Once a funeral funding option has been removed, no future funding options to The Co-operative Funeralcare can be applied.

Important things to remember

The Contribution:

• is only valid when your Benenden Over 50s Life Cover from Engage Mutual is 'legally charged' to The Co-operative Funeralcare
• is only valid for the funeral of the Policyholder, only one Contribution can be used towards the cost of the funeral
• can be used towards the cost of any funeral services
• has no cash value at any time
• cannot be applied if your Benenden Over 50s Life Cover has lapsed
• cannot be applied retrospectively once the funeral has been arranged
• can only be used towards the cost of a funeral for the Policyholder and only if the funeral is arranged through The Co-operative Funeralcare, other participating Co-operative Society Funeral Homes or an affiliated Funeral Director nominated by the Co-operative Funeralcare

Where The Co-operative Funeralcare Contribution is applied against the funeral costs, no additional discounts can be used against the cost of the funeral.

The Certificate of Entitlement should be presented to the Funeral Director at the time of making the funeral arrangements to validate your entitlement to the Contribution.