Frequently Asked Questions

If you’ve lost your plan documents, all you need to do is get back in touch with us and we can arrange for replacements to be sent out to you.

For plans payable over 5 or 10 years we incur additional administration expenses for collecting the monthly instalments and for the purchase and administration of a “whole of life” policy from Scottish Friendly - an authorised and regulated insurance provider. If you die after 12 months of the start of your funeral plan, but before you have paid all your instalments, there is nothing more to pay.

With Distinct Cremations, it will take approximately 2-4 weeks to arrange the funeral. This includes the completion of the necessary paperwork and the cremation itself. Once the cremation has taken place, the ashes can be scattered in the crematorium garden of remembrance or personally returned by our team within 14 days.

There are lots of things you can do with the ashes. Many people scatter ashes in a place that was special to the deceased, some keep them in an urn as a keepsake and others have recently started to have ashes turned into jewellery or glass.

When taking out one of our [location] funeral plans, it's completely understandable to want the security that your money is being looked after and the assurance that your funeral will go ahead. Distinct Funeral Plans Limited (DFPL) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). See our Keeping Your Money Safe page for full information about how we keep our funeral plans safe.

Our direct cremations are unattended cremations which take place without mourners present. However, we do offer a Funeral Service with a choice of a 30 or 60 minute service. You can also choose to have the service led by the family or a professional celebrant.

The Westerleigh Group are the parent company of Distinct Cremations. Together, we are one of the UK’s largest cremation providers. The Westerleigh Group have owned and managed a network of private crematoria within the UK for over 30 years.

Last year, 22% of all funerals were unattended funerals without mourners present. 2% of funerals were direct burials and 20% of funerals were direct cremations. Direct cremations especially have risen in popularity in recent years as in 2019 they accounted for just 3% of funerals.^[1]

^[1] In 2024, 20% of funerals were direct cremations and 2% of funerals were direct burials. In 2019, 3% of funerals were direct cremations. (SunLife Cost of Dying Report 2025, sunlife.co.uk/funeral-costs)