Funeral Plans SMCR Templates
FCA to Regulated Funeral Plan Providers
From 29th July 2022, the FCA will take over regulation of the pre-paid funeral plan sector. Governance prior to that date has been provided by The Funeral Planning Authority (FPA), who have been regulating providers of prepaid funeral plans across the UK since 2002. The FCA’s main aims when they take over regulation of funeral plan providers and intermediary, is to ensure that consumer needs are being met and that all products and services offer fair value.
Who Will Be Regulated
- Providers: firms that enter into and administer funeral plan contracts (including those sold before FCA regulation)
- Intermediaries: firms that sell funeral plans to customers on behalf of providers (e.g. funeral directors, will writers and lead generators)
Timeline of Funeral Plan Authorisation
July 2022 may seem like a long way off at this point. However, the FCA have already opened their authorisation application process for the funeral plan sector and have offered discounted fees during the first 2 months of application (1 Sept – 1 Nov 2021). It is suggested that firms apply for authorisation as soon as possible to allow time for applications to be assessed and processed.
All providers & intermediaries must be authorised by 29th July 2022 to continue funeral plan activities.
Delays in applying for FCA authorisation could result in some funeral plan providers having to suspend their products and services until approved. The regulator has also advised that any firm waiting until after February 2022 to submit their application are unlikely to be authorised by the new rules enforcement date at the end of July 2022.
SMCR Policy Templates
With over 5500 organisations already using our policies and templates, why reinvent the wheel and spend valuable resources writing compliant SMCR policy templates. Our unique SMCR Template Policy Pack helps funeral plan providers and intermediaries comply with the FCA’s handbook rules for the Senior Manager & Certification Regime, including SUP10, COCON, SYSC24-27 & FIT.
The pack includes: –
- SMCR Policy Document
- SMF & PR Register Template
- Firm Type Assessment Guide
- Certification Functions Certificate Template
- SMF Handover Policy Template
- Conduct Rules Policy Template
- Management Responsibilities Map Template
- SMF/CR Due Diligence Questionnaire
- SMF/CR Checklist
- Induction to SMF Role(s) Checklist
- Fitness & Propriety Assessment Template
- SMCR Conduct Rules Training Guidance
- Statement of Responsibilities Template (included at no extra cost as already available from the FCA)
- Training & Development Policy
- Training Evaluation Template
- Training Log Template
- Whistleblowing Policy
- Induction Policy & Checklist (new)
- Recruitment & Selection Policy (new)
- Job Description Template (new)
- Sample Interview Questions (new)