"I am absolutely gutted and feel as if I…"

I am absolutely gutted and feel as if I have been scammed by this shitshow. I have paid in for four years and my plan ended March 2023. I hope we can be transferred to another company as it doesn't look as if we will be getting any of our money back. What has happened to all our money?

"Dr Hilary backed it…"

Paid in full 6 years ago for my Mother's funeral plan now it looks like all is lost, the creditors are looking into all the dealings but offer not much hope of recovering the money, it was endorsed by Dr Hilary who is the Ambassador of the National Federation of Funeral Directors, with him saying he believes families can help themselves by planning ahead for life's only inevitable expense. Hope he puts some money back into it.

"Paid my last payment of a 2 year…"

Paid my last payment of a 2 year funeral plan on 1st March to then find out a few days ago that the company have folded and are now in administration. Like many others, I was assured that the money was protected and that we were “guaranteed” a new funeral provider if they folded. Feel like I’ve been scammed now but praying for a positive outcome for all of us who are out of pocket and currently left dangling. Such a disappointment…..

"Gone bust. Waste of money?"

Had a letter today saying they have gone bust. Paid in thousands and looks like going to get nothing back. Waste of money!

"Where has our money gone?"

The service is wonderful when they are selling you a plan and taking your money. Now they are in administration, the indications are that they have scammed us all. The chances of getting our money back are slim to nothing. Our money was not secured safely as advertised (FRAUD) and is now all but lost. We can only hope that another company will take SH over and honour our funeral plans, but why would they when SH appear to have minimal assets? I sincerely hope that if this is proven to be a case of fraud & mismanagement of funds, the company directors are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

"Absolutely disgusting company scammed…"

Absolutely disgusting company scammed my parents of £8000 well Larry Bergin did by cold calling on her.
on there documents when my mum first took policy it says there protected with FCA but now when there going into administration there saying there not..
clearly miss sold by Larry. scamming company knew what they was doing all along.

"I feel sick"

My wife and I both took out plans in 2020. I've just received the administrator's letter which, reading between the lines, says we have lost all our money.

I feel sick.

"Awful Management to leave so many…"

Awful Management to leave so many people in the lurch when the funds were meant to be ring fenced which was advertised and sold stating this. How disgusting to leave people who will be mourning loved ones with unnecessary worry during their time of grief. Totally unacceptable and beyond words....

"Don't Trust"

We took a plan out 5 years ago and on hearing about the changes coming we decided to cancel the policy and get our money back minus the handling fees??? Although we had a joint plan when we cancelled it we were then told we would have to pay two fees. When we cancelled it on the 23rd February we were told we would receive the money by 23rd March we rang up last week and the week before they reassured us that it would be in by the 23rd. Then rang yesterday and everything changed. We were told that they were waiting for some financial person has to tell them how to pay it???? And no they don't know when it will be paid or even if we are going to get all our money back minus their fees.

"Buyer beware - hidden fees!!!!"

Sadly lost my mother in law last year and we knew she had signed up to this funeral plan and paid £3795 fully in advance. Unfortunately she died very suddenly and we got in touch with our locally trusted funeral home to take care of her. They were (as always) exceptional. However the next day when we found the plan and made the call to Safe Hands, this was where it began to get more difficult.
1st issue was SH stated immediately we should have rung them first and passed mom on to one of their panel. Clearly when faced with the trauma we had, the last thing on our mind was to go and find some paperwork with instructions. However, they agreed to get in touch with our choice of funeral home to start the process.
We went to meet our funeral directors and was told from the start that during previous dealings with SH, we were warned there was no way they would cover the same amount mom had paid for what the funeral was likely to be. We had the most basic of coffin (moms choice), only 1 car for family, church service and a few other small add ons. Mom didn’t want a big fuss and we respected her wishes.
SH got our funeral director to sign to an agreement and to be fair to SH, payment was made direct once the funeral was over. This was when it got really murky and hence the BUYER BEWARE warning here…
Remember when I said she paid £3,795? Well SH made a payment of only £2,830.
We agree we had a couple of bits they wouldn’t pay for - orders of service, flowers and a vicar, but these were no way £965.
We had to pay the shortfall to the funeral home, so mom ended up paying an extra £1045 over and above the £3795 she had already paid to SH. Essentially SH have kept back a significant amount more compared to what mom paid for.
We then entered into questions with SH and despite numerous emails back and forth, never once was an explanation given as to the breakdown of the shortfall that ultimately SH have kept it or what their commission charges are - the average funeral plan being approx £250. They refuse to accept these are “commission” and blind you with standard scripted responses which mean nothing. If you complain, you get a reply about the average cost based on Sun Life survey blah blah blah. They couldn’t give a straight answer to a very simple question.
Whilst considering a complaint to the funeral “ombudsman”, we now read the press reports that SH won’t be signing up to new regulations and won’t be trading past July, so seems little point in trying to complain further. I think this says it all about this company. Similar reviews have been posted before so please understand this plan won’t pay out anywhere near what your nearest and dearest think they are paying for when they sign up, hence buyer beware…..