Apply to become a pre-paid funeral plans firm

If you’re a new funeral plan provider or intermediary, find out when you need to apply to us for authorisation and how to apply.

Before carrying out any business, you must either:

  • be directly authorised by us, which means applying to us for authorisation, or 
  • be an appointed representative (AR) of a principal firm, which means your principal firm must apply to us on your behalf

Other pages in this section explain how to:

When you need to be directly authorised by us

What to read first

Prepare your application

You must submit your application through Connect.

Make sure you include:

  • your regulatory business plan
  • all the required forms and supporting material

The sections below have more information about what we expect to see in your application.

Prudential requirements

Whether you’re applying to be a funeral plan provider or an intermediary (whether directly authorised or as an AR), you must meet our prudential requirements.

You can read about this in our policy statement.

Providers – to help us assess your financials, if your company’s statutory accounts are prepared on a consolidated basis with your trust accounts, you must be able to provide a stripped-out version of the company accounts that outlines the company’s standalone financial position.

Intermediaries – please prepare your business to make sure you have the financial resources to meet these requirements. If you apply for direct authorisation, you must demonstrate in your application how you’ll meet these requirements.

Application fee

You have to pay a fee to submit your application. The fee is non-refundable.

The fee for funeral plan:

  • providers falls into pricing category 5
  • intermediaries falls into pricing category 4

Find out more about our authorisation fees, including our pricing categories and how to pay.

Final check and submit

Before you submit everything on Connect, give it one more check to be sure you’ve included everything.

Our how to apply page has 3 top tips to ensure your application goes smoothly, and explains what happens after you’ve submitted it.

If you need more help

Please contact us on 0300 500 0597. We’re open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 9am to 5pm, and Thursday 9.45am to 5pm.

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