We welcome the Government’s laying of legislation setting out a timetable for bringing the regulation of pre-paid funeral plans within our remit.
We expect to take responsibility for the regulation of the sector in summer 2022, 18 months after the legislation is made.
To help firms in this sector get ready, we’ll be publishing more detailed information on our website in the coming weeks.
We intend to consult in spring 2021 on our plans for regulating this sector, including our proposed rules and approach to authorising firms. We’ll consider all responses to the consultation before we finalise our rules later in 2021.
Our rules will aim to achieve good outcomes for consumers in this sector. For example, that consumers receive the product they’ve paid for, and that customer funds are looked after and used responsibly.
Once we’ve finalised our rules, firms seeking our authorisation will need to submit an application demonstrating how they meet our regulatory standards. We’ll assess all applications and seek additional information from firms where needed, to decide if they can be authorised.
In order to carry out regulated funeral plan activities, firms must be authorised by us at the point at which we take responsibility for regulation. Continuing with regulated activity without authorisation is a criminal offence. Firms that don’t intend to seek our authorisation should start planning now for how to wind down their business in an orderly way before FCA regulation comes into force.