An important notice for the attention of all Pride Planning Limited funeral plan holders.
I can confirm that Darren Brookes of Milner Boardman & Partners was appointed Administrator of Pride Planning Ltd (“Pride”) (“the Company”) on 25 October 2022. Link to Administrator’s Notice of Appointment.
As detailed in each of our previous communications with you, from 29th July 2022 the provision of funeral plans became an activity regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”). The Company initially intended to become FCA regulated and to continue its business subject to regulation; however, the Company subsequently decided to withdraw from the funeral plan industry and not to pursue FCA regulation. The FCA granted firms in this position until 31 October 2022 to make arrangements for the transfer of their plans to a new provider.
Dignity Funerals Limited (“Dignity”), who are authorised and regulated by the FCA, committed before 31 October 2022 to providing existing customers of the Company that are affected by these circumstances with a funeral plan. Dignity offered you the opportunity to enter into a regulated Dignity Funeral Plan that matched the plan you purchased as closely as possible and at no additional cost to the price you agreed with the Company, provided you ‘opted in’ to the transfer on or before 13 January 2023. Further extensions were permitted to allow for plan holders to transfer to Dignity as this was considered to be in all parties’ best interest, however that agreement has now expired and I can no longer facilitate the transfer of existing plan holders who have not already ‘opted in’ to transfer to Dignity.
If you have already opted into a Dignity plan and you have any queries regarding your plan and transition, please call Dignity direct on 0808 234 1417. Please note that once plan holders have ‘opted in’ to a Dignity Funeral Plan it is not possible for Pride to deal with the cancellation and any cancellation requests must be dealt with by Dignity.
As previously advised, the monies that you have paid into your Pride funeral plan are held on Trust, which is controlled by independent Trustees, and does not form part of the Administration estate and therefore as Administrator of the Company, I am not able to issue any refunds to plan holders. Any plan holders who have not ‘opted in’ to a Dignity plan and who do not receive a full refund from the Trust will not be creditors in the Administration as their entitlements are governed by their contracts with the Company and are limited to their share of the available funds in the Trust.
I understand that the Trustees have obtained an actuarial valuation of the Trust fund’s assets and they are to calculate the relevant amounts to which plan holders are entitled. The Trustees are responsible for distributing the relevant amounts to plan holders in due course and they are to communicate directly with the plan holders in this regard.
This process is taking longer than originally anticipated, due to matters out of my control, and I apologise for any stress and inconvenience caused.
The Pride team will not be able to provide a further update on any refunds at this time, or, process any new transfer requests to Dignity as the deadline has passed but the Trustees and the Pride team can be reached at info@prideplanning.co.uk or by calling 0800 014 9650 to explain the contents of this notice or discuss any other queries you may have.
Should you have any queries specifically relating to the Administration of the Company please contact Milner Boardman & Partners at 187A Ashley Road, Hale, Altrincham WA15 9SQ or by email at office@milnerboardman.co.uk.
Milner Boardman & Partners uses personal information to fulfil the legal obligations of our Insolvency Practitioners under the Insolvency Act and other relevant legislation, and also to fulfil the legitimate interests of keeping creditors and others informed about the insolvency proceedings. You can find more information on how Milner Boardman & Partners uses your personal information on our website at www.milnerboardman.com.
Finally, please note that the affairs, business and property of the Company are being managed by the Administrator, Darren Brookes. The Administrator acts as an agent of the Company and contracts without personal liability