Last orders
A ‘racy’ funeral used to mean mourners wearing bright colours, but today’s farewell requests are far more imaginative.
From an antiques dealer asking to be buried in an old wardrobe to mourners dressing as Peaky Blinders characters, 15% of funerals now feature ‘unusual’ elements, according to insurance firm SunLife. One person even requested pork pies be arranged in their funeral flowers and handed out to guests.
Good for them, I say.
The sad thing is that while people have plenty of ideas about how they’d like to go, many never actually share their wishes, leaving loved ones to guess. SunLife found that 18% of those who had to plan a funeral had no idea what the deceased wanted. As a result, 64% of funerals remain ‘traditional,’ despite a growing appetite for something more personal.
Often, people don’t realise how much say they actually have - or that they even can put their own stamp on things. Sometimes, they just a reminder of what’s possible - or 'permission'. And not just when it comes to the final send-off.
There are all sorts of areas in life where the default option isn’t the only option. When booking a haircut recently, I noticed a ‘silent cut’ option. Last month, my Uber driver asked which radio station I wanted him to play.
At times, this insistence that you can have things exactly the way you want can feel a bit indulgent - like a toddler demanding the blue cup instead of the red one.
But when it comes to financial planning, this is exactly what ‘personalisation’ is about. And yet, so many people forget that. They get distracted by the headlines, the finfluencers on Instagram, and the TikTok stars.
So when it comes to content, it’s worth reminding people what personalised planning really means - and that there are often many more options for them than the headlines would lead them to believe.
By the way, I want nothing short of the full Friesian horse-drawn procession, mourners wailing in the streets and Elton John on piano.
Shameless plug
I finished writing my 'money story' last month, so what's it like to write a memoir? Here are the 8 things I learnt.
Dr Who
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Laughter medicine
Trials are under way to see if ‘comedy on prescription’ can help people's mental health and reduce NHS costs by being an alternative to antidepressants.
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