I am a Funeral Arranger at a major funeral director and often get asked about holding a Memorial Service or Ashes Scattering Event at the deceased’s favourite football club or other sporting site which played a key part in their lives. Is this possible and what are the approximate costs?

Almost all UK Football Clubs and other Sporting Arenas will not permit ashes scattering on the pitch or elsewhere as the remains are potentially damaging to the playing surface. But most clubs do appreciate and respect the loyalty shown by their fans and provide alternative means of remembrance including books of remembrance, plaques on memorial walls and in many cases memorial gardens where ashes can be scattered buried and in some cases a grave marker may be erected.

When there is a bigger budget, almost all sporting stadiums have hospitality suites available for rental, will actively welcome memorial events and will often offer an enhanced service for such occasions, including access to former players, boardroom, changing room and pitch-side tours for the deceased supporter’s relatives. Costs vary widely and generally depend on the size of the club.

When the sporting arena is larger, such as for a racecourse or golf course, there tends to be a more tolerant attitude from officials to permitting ashes-spreading in restricted adjacent areas — and some provide areas for the formal burial of ashes and the planting of memorial trees as well as hospitality facilities for guests.

Within the next month we will be compiling a list of sporting, theatrical and other venues detailing what memorial facilities are available at each, but until that time you will need to contact the individual venues as the enquiries occur.

We trust this free advice is useful to you. Should you need any further free advice or assistance on any funeral matter our helpdesk and concierge teams will be happy to help.

Please rate and review our service, and we very much appreciate you telling others about our us, either personally or by sharing a recommendation for Memorialise on social media.

I am beneficiary with my sister of my recently deceased mother’s estate, but while my sister is comfortably off, I am not. I believe I stand to inherit £65,000 and access to this will resolve a number of problems. How long will it take the estate to settle and (aside from paying funeral costs) can I get access to my future inheritance or borrow against it?

The average time from death to receiving an inheritance in the UK is around a year, and an estate of the size and complexity that you indicate may take longer particularly if there is property to sell.

No banks that we are aware of will lend against a future inheritance but if you have more immediate needs for money for house improvements, either to support a business, pay off debts or just day-to-day living expenses, we may well be able to arrange an advance against your future settlement.

A Probate Advance gives beneficiaries access to up to 60% of their future inheritance. The loan is against the estate rather than the individual so unlike other loans the advance is not dependent on a credit check on the recipient. Approval in principle can normally be granted within 48 hours.

• Fees comprise a 1.5% arrangement fee of the advanced amount, plus interest of 1.5% per month on the Advance and the fee. This equates to a 19.9% APR
• No monthly payments are charged until the estate is liquidated and the cash is distributed.
• Once all capital and applicable interest is repaid out of the estate, all residual cash is paid to the beneficiary.
• In the event that your actual inheritance exceeds the total balance owed, any surplus will be paid to you
• Where your inheritance is less than the total balance owed, the lender will absorb that loss, with no further recourse to you or the estate.

If you wish to receive further information about Probate advances please do not hesitate to contact us.

We trust this free advice is useful to you. Should you need any further free advice or assistance on any funeral matter our helpdesk and concierge teams will be happy to help.

Please rate and review our service, and we very much appreciate you telling others about our us, either personally or by sharing a recommendation for Memorialise on social media.

My mother was recently cremated at our local crematorium and her ashes have now been returned to me. We are a Roman Catholic family and I would prefer to have her ashes buried in the Crematorium garden and mark the grave with a headstone. The intention is she will eventually be joined by my father (who is in senior care) and possibly at a future date by others in the family. We very much like the location of the Crematorium which is a tranquil and peaceful location, but on making enquiries I was told that if we are to bury the cremated remains and have a headstone to mark the grave we will have to choose from their range of memorials, which are frankly very limited and quite expensive. I would if possible like Mum to buried there but I have seen a headstone I much prefer in a range I was shown by my funeral director but this is not approved by the Crematorium. Is it right that they can profit in this way?

The Crematorium where your mother was cremated is privately owned and they set strict rules as to what headstones they deem acceptable in order to present a consistent look to their burial areas. Their terms are clear and they will only accept headstones that meet their approval. You might try and appeal this to the Crematorium manager or failing that, to more senior management at the Crematorium Company (for which we can provide you contact details) but past experience suggests they will not move on this.

Hence you need to make a choice between the location—and choosing the grave from their available range—and choosing the gravestone you want but at a different location.

Several dedicated cemeteries near your location will accept cremated remains for burial and will accept your own choice of memorial. The NAMM and BRAMM registered Monumental Mason for your chosen memorial should be familiar with the procedure for securing a permit which will involve providing a drawing and adhering to somewhat less rigid rules and will be able to assist you. We have asked him to contact you to advise you on the process and to give you a timeline and cost for the memorial’s completion and erection.

My family all wish to be buried close to each other and I am looking to purchase a plot (grave in reserve) for future use which is close to my mother and father. However we are in London and the costs are prohibitively expensive even as a resident of the borough where the cemetery is located and must be paid straight away. Do you have any suggestions as to how we might fund the purchase (£3358) and on what grounds is it held. And if our circumstances were to change would I be able to sell it? If so, what is the process for doing so?

A GRAVE  IN RESERVE is a purchase of a burial plot for future use where the set location you choose is the one you get. The plot will remain reserved for you and/or to be used by you for the term, which is normally 75 years. As new graves come to be taken the grave allocated to others yours will remain unused so if the location close to your parents is important it is an important purchase.

If you are prepared to wait, we have checked and there is sufficient capacity within your chosen cemetery at the current rate of occupation for you almost certain to be permitted to be buried there in future, but of course there can be no guarantees and without a Grave in Reserve purchase you will not be allocated a set position. However the purchase of a Grave in Reserve comes at a premium of more than £1500.

The terms of the purchase mean a grave is reserved for a period of up to 75 years from the purchase for which you get the Exclusive Right of Burial which is governed by a legal document (similar to a lease) called a Deed of Grant.

Should your circumstances change the plot can be sold, although a small charge will be incurred with the local authority for the transfer (currently less than £200).

In terms of funding, our credit provider Funeral Safe will lend money for plot purchase (subject to status) and at this level of loan over 60 months, repayments at current interest rates would be £79.59 a month. We would strongly suggest you get a decision in principal before committing to purchase by completing the Funeral Safe application so you are effectively in the position of a cash buyer when the purchase is made.

We trust this free advice is useful to you. Should you need any further free advice or assistance on any funeral matter our helpdesk and concierge teams will be happy to help.

Please rate and review our service, and we very much appreciate you telling others about our us, either personally or by sharing a recommendation for Memorialise on social media.

My husband was a keen sea angler and we have been looking at options for the disposal of his ashes by organising a small ceremony on a boat and then organising a scattering at sea. My daughter says we can just do this from one of the cross channel ferries but I have been told that burial at sea is illegal unless you use special areas and get a license from the government. Do you have any guidance or advice?

BURIAL at sea (ie the disposal of a whole uncremated body) is legal and while it does need a licence from the Marine Maritime Authority and certain rules must be followed, it is surprisingly easy to organise. The rules vary depending on whether you are in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland but we have specialist firms that would be able to assist were a “burial at sea” what you were seeking to achieve.

However your proposal for an ashes scattering of cremated remains has few restrictions within inshore waters and the advantage is that —with a little pre-planning which we have now agreed with you— your husband’s last journey might be similar to the enjoyable trips he undertook on inshore boats many times. This will hence be a safer and more appropriate experience to disposal from a ferry, when the ferry speed and winds may result in your husband’s remains being blown back over the people taking part in the ceremony as well as possibly being against the rules of carriage.

For a far more respectful and comfortable alternative our service provider Scattering Ashes has connections with many professional skippers and boat owners around the Great Britain and Ireland.

These seamen are experienced in hosting scattering ceremonies and can host a dedicated ceremony on a properly organised sailing at your convenience with you, your family and perhaps a priest or other celebrant present.

Ceremonies for Hindu and Sikhs can be carried out in estuaries on flowing water and we can provide both a Hindu Ceremony Set and a Sikh Ceremony Set to meet your needs. For others we have more that 20 water urns and ceremony sets available which will prevent ashes blowing around in the wind.

Your husband’s last journey will be on a boat specifically chartered for the occasion meaning the ceremony can take any form, religious, spiritual or secular, that you wish.

We trust this free advice is useful to you. Should you need any further free advice or assistance on any funeral matter our helpdesk and concierge teams will be happy to help.

Please rate and review our service, and we very much appreciate you telling others about our us, either personally or by sharing a recommendation for Memorialise on social media.

My mother recently died. My father (who long predeceased her) always said there was a Funeral Plan in place and generally dealt with her financial affairs, but my mother has been in care for some years and more recently suffered from dementia and we have now idea who it was with or how to trace any plan. We are now attempting to arrange her funeral and would like to use the plan (if there is one) to pay the costs. Are you able to help?

FINDING a Funeral Plan can be difficult as until now (Jan 2022) the the Funeral Plan sector has been largely unregulated by any government body. This is changing from July 2022 when the Financial Conduct Authority will become the regulator and will oversee the sector.

Until now however almost anyone has been able to set up to sell Funeral Plans and any controls relied on self-regulation by a voluntary trade body, the Funeral Planning Authority (FPA), where membership was voluntary and controls limited.

The bad news is that even if the plan provider can be located on the scant details you have, the original Funeral Plan provider in not an FPA member may have ceased to exist and any money paid into the plan could have disappeared with little/no chance of recovery.

Hopefully your father entrusted your mother’s funeral to a more reputable concern as reputable plan providers were usually members of The Funeral Planning Authority.

The FPA does have a process for tracing plans, but it is restricted to its own membership and by no means comprehensive. Furthermore financial products the public often refer to as “Funeral Plans” are often not Plans at all, but are various types of savings schemes which need to be fully paid before any money is available.

Memorialise’s Concierge Service offers a free Funeral Plan Tracing Service which will contact the FPA with your mother’s details, and through them their members in an attempt to trace the plan. This is at-best a long shot and neither the FPA nor Memorialise can provide any guarantee that this service will result in the identification of any active plan. Even if we are to locate an active plan, any restrictive terms the plan might require — such as using a particular funeral director — may need to be met for the plan to pay out. Even if the plan can be traced, for you to comply with any terms may require you to considerably delay the funeral

Had you any information on the Plan Provider we would have a better chance. It may have been possible to trace the history of the company through changes of names and takeovers and endeavour to gain value on the plan through the current owner, but without at least a name for the company this is almost impossible.

Given the time that has already passed since your mother’s death you are probably best advised to make the funeral arrangements and not rely on any plan to meet the costs of the funeral and should any plan emerge over time, regard any funds it might provide as an unexpected bonus.

We trust this free advice is useful to you. Should you need any further free advice or assistance on any funeral matter our helpdesk and concierge teams will be happy to help.

Please rate and review our service, and we very much appreciate you telling others about our us, either personally or by sharing a recommendation for Memorialise on social media.