Steve Rowland, a Trustee of the Golden Leaves Trust, was recently appointed Chairman of the The National Association of Funeral Plan Providers which was established earlier this year, following regulation of the funeral plan market by the Financial Conduct Authority in August 2022.

It is the voice for 25 of the 26 UK prepaid funeral plan providers currently authorised by the FCA. Together these organisations serve almost 1.7 million plan holders and their families across the length and breadth of the UK, plus expatriates in several countries.

The NAFPP’s objective is to champion and support its members:  To push for the best outcomes from new and changing regulation and legislation to ensure that prepaid funeral plan providers thrive as an essential part of effective later life planning – serving their plan holders and families plus the wider community.

To do this they engage with, amongst others, the UK Government, the assemblies and parliaments of Scotland. Wales and Northern Ireland as well as regulators, particularly the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) and the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)

They will also speak out on issues that are relevant to pre-paid funeral plan providers and their customers, plus wider issues impacting the future funeral market.

The NAFPP is not a regulator itself, nor is it able to deal with complaints made about providers – these are considered by the Financial Ombudsman Service if they cannot be resolved directly with the provider.

In light of the recent economic and regulatory developments involving the financial markets, the arrival of FCA regulation and in a decisive move to strengthen the board’s existing set of strategic, investment and regulatory focused experts, we are proud to announce the appointment of Amanda Williams to the Golden Leaves board of Trustees.

Amanda has worked in a range of analytical, strategic and investment roles within the public and private sector, including for the Bank of England and the International Monetary Fund for more than thirty years.

Commenting on his new appointment to the board of Trustees, Amanda Williams said…

“I’m delighted to be joining Golden Leaves as a trustee. I was attracted to the company because of its strong corporate ethos of striving for excellence in everything that it does for its customers to ensure a quality service, whilst also maintaining high levels of consumer protection. I hope that my knowledge of investment management and the UK regulatory framework will help to ensure that the monies entrusted to us are managed effectively and conservatively with the best interests of our plan holders always at the forefront of everything that we do.”

Amanda has over three decades of experience gained in financial services and corporate communications. Starting her career at UBS, she worked in several areas of the bank including eurobond syndication, international equity and the gilt edged desk. She then joined Shell Pensions where she was a member of the team that managed the $7bn in house pension fund before joining Dresdner RCM Global Investors as an investment manager with a portfolio of unit trusts and discretionary pension funds.

Amanda left the buy side and moved into a corporate advisory role at an investor relations company advising FTSE100, Mid Cap and Small Cap clients how to effectively manage their communications with their stakeholders. She then set up her own communications consultancy which she ran successfully for a decade before selling to a PR company.

In recent years, Amanda has worked in the public sector, initially at the Cabinet Office in a cross public sector/local authority stakeholder relations and communications role. And most recently, at the Bank Of England, in the financial stability and strategy directorate, before undertaking a secondment at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and then working in the international banking supervisory and regulatory division.

Barry Floyd – Managing Director of Golden Leaves Group commented…

“With the arrival of rigorous statutory regulation to the sector in the shape of the Financial Conduct Authority, Amanda’s incredible experience and depth of knowledge in the field of Investment strategy, Financial analysis and statutory financial regulation – will enable us to further strengthen the depth of expertise across our set of investment focussed Trustees. We are extremely proud to have her join the Golden Leaves Trustee board.”

You can find out more information about the trustees here.

Consumer Protection has always been pivotal to the ethics and high operational standards of Golden Leaves and its board of Trustees. In light of recent industry developments and in a decisive move to significantly strengthen the boards existing set of consumer protection experts, we are proud to announce the appointment of Arnold Pindar to the Golden Leaves board of Trustees.

Arnold Pindar is also currently chairman of the UK’s National Consumer Federation and is president of ANEC, the European Consumer organisation, which represents the interests of European consumers.

Commenting on his new appointment to the board of Trustees, Mr Pindar said…

“As an independent trustee of the Golden Leaves Trust, it is my role to ensure that money paid to Golden Leaves Ltd for pre-paid funeral plans remains safe. As someone very active in the consumer movement across Europe and experienced in standardisation, I can personally fully endorse and contribute to Golden Leaves’ high levels of quality, standards and consumer protection within their operational activities and their work to promote these qualities throughout the Funeral Planning industry”.

Mr Pindar also joins consumer protection expert Jim Humble OBE amongst other experts on the Golden Leaves Trustee board. Jim is a Vice President of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute and previously served as Assistant Director of Consumer Affairs at the Office of Fair Trading.

Jim Humble OBE added …

“I agreed to become a trustee of Golden Leaves because I found excellent transparency and an absolute determination to protect consumers. The company’s terms of fairness and value are exemplary. The trustees are also able to secure the very best financial advice to ensure every customer is fully protected.”

As Golden Leaves continue to forge ahead with an active programme to deliver even higher quality standards and operational excellence across their business and networks, more important announcements are expected during the coming months.

Barry Floyd – Managing Director of the Golden Leaves Group commented…

“We believe that consumer protection and elevated consumer outcomes are delivered by a consumer centric approach coupled by high quality operational standards. We have always adopted this approach to conducting business and the appointment of Arnold to our board of Trustees clearly illustrates, that our determination to continue in this fashion has not waivered.”

Steve Rowland – Chairman of Golden Leaves praised his new arrival …

“I am absolutely delighted to welcome Mr Pindar into the Golden Leaves family at such a vital time; not only in terms of our brands evolution but also in light of the current regulatory and political change impacting the industry as a whole. We are already twelve months into a three year development programme and as we push on into phase two, his help, advice and guidance will be immeasurable, especially as it directly aligns with our complete determination to deliver best of class products, the highest level of quality and operational standards coupled with superior levels of consumer protection.”

Golden Leaves Funeral Plans has applied for FCA authorisation

We are very aware of the recent media coverage covering pre-paid funeral plans and the imminent arrival of statutory regulation by the FCA. It is understandable that customers will be wanting to be informed about where Golden Leaves are in our journey to date and of course, what is to be expected after regulation arrives.

From the 29th of July 2022 the pre-paid plan market will be directly regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and any company selling plans must be directly authorised by the FCA or be an Appointed Representative of that authorised company.

Here at Golden Leaves Funeral Plans, we submitted our application for authorisation by the FCA on the 21st of October 2021 and we are working directly with the FCA to progress it. We are confident that we will be authorised by the deadline of the 29th of July 2022.

The new regulations will ensure industry wide adherence to a comprehensive set of compulsory statutory rules that a will demand a superior quality of service and financial resilience from all companies. As Golden Leaves is the only independent company in the market to be BSI 9001 AND Customer Service Kitemark accredited, this level of professional excellence will be a further extension of the quality service that all Golden Leaves customers have already come to expect.

Golden Leaves Funeral Plans began its regulatory journey over 20 years ago, driving best practice and customer facing principles of conduct by being a founding member of the FPA (the voluntary regulatory body that currently oversees the market). Becoming directly regulated by the FCA, we view as being just another phase in our journey.

We welcome the arrival of FCA regulation as it will ensure better outcomes for clients, ensure that all products are sold correctly and deliver value for money.

It will ensure that all plans are distributed by companies that will have to adhere to the same level of high-quality standards, for the benefit of consumers.

If you do require any further information do email barry.floyd@goldenleaves.com or alternatively if you wish to know the status of funeral panning companies’ applications, please visit  https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/funeral-plans/

The Trustees very much welcome the government’s announcement on 2nd June, 2019 that it plans to introduce statutory regulation of the pre-paid funeral plan market and that the sector will be directly regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

This announcement followed a consultation last summer which detected high pressure sales tactics used by plan providers and their intermediaries. Cold calling was found to be of a “particular concern” in the funeral planning industry, which is currently voluntarily regulated by the Funeral Planning Authority.

Golden Leaves Limited already operate at the highest professional standards within this sector and recently acquired the BSI ISO:9001 which is a standard that sets out the requirements to help organisations ensure that they meet the needs of their customers.

Golden Leaves are justifiably proud that they are the only independent funeral planning company operating in the sector to hold such a quality standard, adding this to their ever growing list of quality credentials clearly demonstrates their desire to deliver business operational excellence as standard.