THE rising cost of funerals has led to record sales of pre-paid funeral plans in 2014, figures have found.

Sales of plans rose by nine per cent to be worth more than £500 million last year, according to data from the Funeral Planning Authority (FPA).

The growth took the number of plans sold by registered FPA providers to 147,325 last year, around 12,000 more than in 2013.

Golden Charter, the dominant provider of pre-paid plans, said more people are turning to plans because of increasing concerns about being able to cover the cost of their funeral. Funeral inflation has been steadily rising on the back of increased local authority crematorium fees, and as people increasingly look to make more of a statement with their send off. At the same time the funeral sector has yet to see the benefit of falling energy prices.

Analysing the data Ronnie Wayte, chief executive of Bearsden-based Golden Charter, said: "Funeral plans have shown strong and consistent growth since 2006 and are increasingly a major part of later life planning.

"Pre-paid funeral plans give people comfort that their funeral is paid for and that they can have the funeral they want. While it may not be a subject we like talking about nobody wants to leave a debt burden on their families.

"People expect choice and quality of service in whatever they do and there are few more personal purchases than planning your own funeral. Combine this with a straight forward, good value financial proposition and people are increasingly happy to plan ahead."

Golden Charter, which sells plans on behalf of more than 3,300 independent funeral providers, said its sales grew by nearly 10,000 plans, taking its market share to around 38 per cent.

It said its growth reflects a growing trend for families to use independent funeral directors.

FPA data suggests the total number of plans in force is now around 950,000, with 60,000 paying out last year. It estimates that £3.2 billion is invested in plans across the sector.

The FPA data is understood to account for more than 90 per cent of all pre-paid funeral plans.

The latest figures follow data released in September, which showed that the number of plans sold in the first half of 2014 rose by seven per cent to about 30,000 - equal to the total number sold in 2008.

In 2013 some 57,000 funerals were paid for by plans out of 567,468 deaths.