Schedule of information · funeral insurance in Australia
Burial insurance: a guide to funeral insurance
Funeral insurance, read line by line
Funeral insurance pays an agreed amount when the person it covers dies, in return for premiums that usually continue for life. This guide, published by Dotto, sets the product out the way a policy schedule does, one numbered item at a time, using what ASIC, Moneysmart and AFCA have published.
Not financial or legal advice. This guide does not arrange insurance or give financial advice, and it does not rank or recommend any insurer or policy. The official consumer guide is Moneysmart’s funeral insurance page; for a problem an insurer has not fixed, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).
The schedule
Six items, each a page of its ownNo premiums are quoted on this schedule
Item 1The product
How funeral insurance works
Who owns a policy and who it covers, the benefit, cover that pays a lump sum or only repays expenses, and the early period when many policies pay only for an accidental death.
Item 2Premiums
Premiums over time
Moneysmart says premiums rise after 50 and each year with inflation, so the total paid can pass the benefit. This item shows the shapes a premium can take, without a single invented figure.
Item 3Selling
The ban on unsolicited sales
Since 5 October 2021, with some exceptions, insurance may not be offered during a call or visit unless the person agreed to it first in the way the law sets out, and a policy sold that way can generally be returned for a refund.
Item 4Findings
ASIC’s findings on funeral insurance
ASIC’s 2015 report, what it found for First Nations consumers, the end of the funeral expenses exemption in 2020, and a Federal Court case about cover sold to Aboriginal consumers.
Item 5Cancelling
Cooling-off and cancelling
A 14-day cooling-off right under the Corporations Act, at least 30 days with insurers bound by the Life Code, and what usually happens to premiums after that.
Item 6Complaints
Complaints and AFCA
From the insurer to AFCA, what AFCA can and generally cannot look at, and how a relative can act for someone.
Four endorsements
A schedule carries endorsements: short notes that change how the rest is read. These four come from the official sources, and each is explained in its item.
Insurance, not savings. Moneysmart is plain that funeral insurance does not save money towards a funeral; it buys cover for a future cost. See Item 1.
Stopping can cost what was paid. ASIC found premiums are typically not refunded when someone stops paying or cancels, and Moneysmart says the money paid will probably be lost. See Item 5.
The first years may cover accidents only. ASIC found many policies restrict what they pay in the first 12 to 24 months, usually to accidental death. See Item 1.
A cold call generally may not sell it. Outside a few exceptions, such as an insurer offering to reinstate a policy that lapsed in the last 30 days, an offer made during a call or visit without valid prior consent breaches the hawking prohibition. See Item 3.
Not on this schedule
This guide is about funeral insurance only. Funeral bonds, prepaid funeral plans, savings and superannuation are other ways people pay ahead, each with its own rules, and Moneysmart compares them on its page about paying for your funeral. Help with the cost of a funeral that has already happened is a different subject again; Moneysmart’s paying for funerals page for First Nations families lists some of it.