Item 4 · ASIC’s findings
ASIC’s findings on funeral insurance
ASIC, the corporate regulator, has come back to funeral insurance several times. Its 2015 report found premiums climbing steeply for people over 50 and many policies cancelled in their first years, and it found policies held by First Nations consumers were more often cancelled for unpaid premiums. From 1 April 2020 the law brought funeral expenses cover under financial services licensing, and ASIC took a funeral insurance provider to court over what it told Aboriginal consumers.
Not legal or financial advice. This page reports what ASIC has published; the full documents are linked under each entry and in the sources below. For a person’s own options, Moneysmart’s page on paying for funerals and AFCA are the official starting points.
The 2015 snapshot
For Report 454, published in October 2015, ASIC gathered data from nine insurers selling funeral insurance under some 40 brands. Its deputy chair said at the time that “many consumers do not understand important features of the product until after they have signed up”. The report’s cancellation and age figures are now more than ten years old, so they describe the market as it was then.
What it found for First Nations consumers
Just over half of the people with funeral insurance were aged 50 to 74. Among Indigenous consumers the picture was far younger, with half of the people insured under 20, and a higher share of Indigenous consumers had their policies cancelled because premiums were not paid, losing what they had already paid.
The report described one insurer whose products were marketed to Indigenous consumers. It was the only insurer with large numbers of people under 30 for whom premiums were being paid: half of the people it insured were under 20, and a third were under 15. ASIC’s concern was that, as people live longer, premiums paid from a young age without a cap can over time come to more than the benefit.
Among its recommendations, ASIC asked insurers to do more to make sure people understood a policy’s key features when it was sold, whether by phone, in person or online, and especially when selling to groups such as Indigenous consumers.
In 2015 ASIC also joined the ACCC and state and territory consumer agencies in the Avoid a funeral rip-off campaign, aimed at helping Indigenous consumers understand their choices before buying a funeral savings or insurance plan. Moneysmart produced a Paying for Funerals booklet for it.
From 2018 to now
- 30 August 2018
ASIC releases Report 587 on the sale of direct life insurance. ASIC later summarised it as finding a link between outbound phone sales and pressure selling, with a higher risk of lapsed policies and declined claims.
- 1 April 2020
Funeral expenses policies stop being exempt from the Corporations Act’s definition of a financial product. The Royal Commission had recommended ending the exemption after finding harm to vulnerable consumers, and providers now generally need a financial services licence.
- October 2020
ASIC sues ACBF Funeral Plans Pty Ltd and its parent, Youpla Group, over the Aboriginal Community Funeral Plan, a funeral expenses policy sold mainly to Aboriginal consumers.
- 5 October 2021
The new hawking prohibition starts (Item 3).
- March 2022
ASIC writes to the directors of the Youpla Group about the financial viability of its funeral funds. On 11 March 2022 the remaining funds go into liquidation, and their members are no longer covered.
- 2023
ASIC publishes its Indigenous Financial Services Framework, setting out long-term aims that include reducing the harm misconduct does to people and communities.
- September 2023
The Federal Court orders a $1.2 million penalty against ACBF Funeral Plans. It found plan holders were told they would get a lump sum of their chosen benefit, when in fact they would only be reimbursed funeral costs up to that amount, on proof the costs had been paid.
- 29 February 2024
On ASIC’s appeal, the Full Federal Court finds ACBF also falsely told Aboriginal consumers that Aboriginal people owned or managed it.
- 1 July 2024
The Australian Government’s Youpla Support Program begins, for people who paid for Youpla policies on or after 1 August 2015.
- 10 July 2025
The Federal Court orders a further $3.5 million penalty, bringing the total ordered against ACBF to $4.7 million. ASIC reported that the judge agreed the false claim of Aboriginal ownership or management was “deliberate and callous”. Because ACBF is in liquidation, ASIC may not enforce either penalty without the court’s leave.
Separately, in August 2023 ASIC began civil penalty proceedings against five former directors and officers of ACBF Funeral Plans and the Youpla Group; its July 2025 release described that case as ongoing.
Why the case matters to anyone reading a policy
Two points from the case are things a policy’s own papers can answer. The first is the difference between cover that pays a set sum and cover that repays expenses with receipts, explained in Item 1. The second is who actually stands behind a product. ASIC noted that no Youpla Group entity was ever licensed by it, and that the funeral funds were regulated by NSW Fair Trading under the state’s Funeral Funds Act 1979. Today a business offering a funeral expenses facility that is a financial product generally needs an Australian financial services licence, which can be checked on ASIC’s Professional Registers Search.
Support for people affected
Services Australia runs the Youpla Support Program, with eligibility assessed by the National Indigenous Australians Agency. Its page, last updated in April 2026, said that most eligible people had been paid and that anyone who thought they had been missed needed to apply before 30 June 2026. That date has now passed, and ASIC’s own page on the matter says the program closes completely on 1 December 2026. For questions about the program, Services Australia’s Youpla Support Program page is the place to start; it says to call the Centrelink Indigenous call centre, on 1800 136 380, with them.
Moneysmart’s page on paying for funerals, updated 18 September 2026, warns readers to beware of scams about the program. Its advice to anyone worried that a caller is only pretending to be from it: hang up and call Services Australia on 1800 136 380.
AFCA reported in its 2024–25 review that ACBF complaints had been paused while the Youpla Support Program was put in place, and that those complaints are now closed.
Mob Strong Debt Help describes itself as a free service, available nationally to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, that offers legal advice and financial counselling on matters including funeral insurance.
ASIC acknowledges that the ACBF and Youpla conduct may have caused significant distress. 13YARN, on 13 92 76, is a 24-hour crisis support line where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can talk with an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander crisis supporter.