Golden Charter, the UK’s leading funeral plan provider, has appointed MediaCom Edinburgh to handle its multi million pound media planning and buying account, following a competitive pitch.
After a long period of significant growth, the Glasgow based funeral plan provider is aiming to continue to increase its industry leading market share through innovative expansion.
As Golden Charter expands and diversifies further into the later life planning market, the company is aiming to make its legal services offering as successful as its primary funeral plan product has been.
Head of Marketing for Consumer Sales at Golden Charter, Linzi Clingan, said: “As we continue to grow and diversify, we need partners who can support us to deliver a more integrated approach across a wider range of media channels. MediaCom’s experience and expertise will help us achieve that.”
David Shearer, Managing Director of MediaCom Edinburgh, said: “We are delighted that Golden Charter decided to work with us. It is always satisfying to bring a successful piece of local business back to Scotland and we are excited about the prospect of taking their business on to the next level.”
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
Disgusting firm preying on the vulnerable. No doubt the money will go to call more people suffering with cancer day and night asking them to take out a funeral plan that doesn’t even cover third party costs fully.
Ever since I turned 60 I get them phoning me all the time. They seem incapable of taking no, for an answer and I said that it would be even more upsetting if you had just been diagnosed with a terminal illness or had just lost someone.
What kind of third party costs do you think it should cover and doesn’t? Our understanding is that it is a kind of pre-payment on your funeral costs?
Phyllis Stephen – When my son requested information they only provide: “An allowance of £1,100 towards essential third party costs” and this allowance, according to their T&Cs does not go up i.e. with RPI, etc. So if you’re 65 and live another 20 years it will still only pay out £1,100 towards these essential third party costs.
Furthermore, they say that these third party costs are for: “These are the costs for cremation or burial, doctors’ and officiant fees which are beyond the control of the funeral director.” But the thing is now, in Scotland, Doctor’s Fees are FREE and the other ones go up yearly at a very high level! So my son and I decided I would have ended up out of pocket with this funeral plan.
It’s all on their website, but also on Scotland governments website, and Axa SunLife do a great piece of research yearly about the Cost of Dying. This plan is a bad idea and it’s a shame they don’t make it clearer about what they do and don’t offer – instead of burying it all in their small print. Shady in my opinion.
Hello Darren,
The allowance that is included in our plans for third party costs does indeed grow. For all our plans, the funeral director’s fees are guaranteed and your estate will never be asked for a penny more for this, no matter how much these costs may rise in the future. Only if the third party costs incurred by the funeral director are more than the initial allowance and any growth that has been applied to it, might there be an additional amount to pay.
We do mention doctors’ fees as one potential third party cost that can be incurred, which as you quite rightly say, is not the case any longer in Scotland. We however don’t allocate specific amounts of the allowance to individual third party costs but rather the entire allowance and its growth is used to pay for any and all such costs, be they crematorium fees or otherwise. We’re sorry that this was not made clear to you.
You also mentioned that you keep getting phoned all the time. If you would like us to investigate this matter further for you, please call on 0800 171 2955 and we would be happy to help.
Golden Charter
Comments are closed.