The GFG Blog
2019Mar
On the subject of funeral plans – your thoughts are invited
Fran Hall
Mar
04
2 comments
Like everyone else who responded to the Competition and Markets Authority’s consultation on whether to make a market investigation reference for the funeral market, we received an e-mail last week. The e-mail invited us to share our views on whether the said MIR should also cover the delivery of funeral
2019Feb
One of ours
Fran Hall
Feb
12
3 comments
Poppy Mardall of Poppy’s Funerals We’re a bit late to the party, as this came out last week, but we were prompted by a comment from a regular reader on another blog post (thanks Andrew!!) We were delighted to see one of our Recommended Funeral Directors featured in a documentary
Fact checking required?
Fran Hall
Feb
09
9 comments
Apparently, according to an article in today’s Times, ‘funeral companies have been told to make fees transparent’. No they haven’t. Read the entire piece. It begins with this statement: ‘Funeral directors have been ordered to publish their full fees online after concerns about the soaring cost of services.’ No they
Those pesky funeral plans…
Fran Hall
Feb
05
6 comments
Here’s a salutary tale for anyone who is seduced into buying a funeral plan in order to ‘get on with enjoying life’, or ‘protect your family from future costs and worry’ or to avail themselves of the ‘peace of mind that your funeral costs and arrangements have been taken care
2019Jan
Level playing field?
Fran Hall
Jan
07
1 comment
Here’s a curious thing. The deadline to submit responses to the Competition and Markets Authority’s consultation on their proposal to make a market investigation reference was 5pm on Friday 4th January. This is specified on page 132 of their Interim Report, in bold font: ‘Such comments should be provided no
2018Dec
Time to speak up
Fran Hall
Dec
30
7 comments
Dear Reader Are you connected to funerals in any way? Are you somebody who has an interest in what goes on in funeralworld? Have you had to arrange a funeral, or had to think about funeral arrangements for someone close to you? Or do you work in the funeral sector?
Well said Louise!
Fran Hall
Dec
02
8 comments
The CMA interim report on the funeral industry is taking time to digest across funeralworld. It’s not surprising, it’s a chunky document. And it’s possibly proving quite indigestible for some, particularly the PR teams at Dignity, Co-op and Funeral partners. The essential conclusion is – the funeral sector is
2018Nov
‘Serious concerns in the funeral sector’ identified by CMA
Fran Hall
Nov
29
14 comments
The Competitions and Markets Authority are proposing a major funerals probe after identifying serious concerns in the funeral sector. It’s a long read – 133 pages – find the full interim report on the Funerals Market Study page here (scroll down for ‘Interim report and consultation’. We publish
2018Oct
Funeral Markets Study – research findings
Fran Hall
Oct
22
3 comments
Last week, the Competition and Markets Authority published the findings of the consumer research undertaken as part of their Funeral Markets Study. It makes interesting reading. The research was commissioned from Research Works and Ipsos MORI as part of the attempt to understand the behaviour, experiences and decision-making of people
Funeral prices
Fran Hall
Oct
17
4 comments
Our recent blog post about Simplicity Cremations, the offshoot of Dignity Funerals, elicited this response from a disapproving reader: ‘This rattled me. “Dignity’s prices are too high and they are the cause of funeral poverty. Big bad dignity”. “Dignity lower their prices and offer a low cost cremation option. Big bad
