A CHILLING COLD CALL

Cold calling to offer funeral plans seems like particularly grim opportunism during a pandemic.

But that’s what a company called Sovereign Lifecare has been doing, and its call to retired James Swinger from Newark, Notts, was far from welcome.

In 2014, James and his wife Sylvia had taken out a plan with another company, Equitable Lifecare, paying around £7,500.

“We thought we had fully paid up funeral plans until we had this call from Sovereign Lifecare and the man explained that Equitable had gone out of business and he wanted to help us with what seemed to be some insurance plan,” said James.

“My wife and I are 76 and 75. That was a terrible amount of money for us to lose, with no way of taking out new policies.”

Unfortunately what the caller said about Equitable Lifecare is correct.

Although it is still listed at Companies House, the only director Simeon Mellard resigned last December, and the latest accounts are

more than a year overdue for filing.

None of which means that it’s a good idea to take out a new plan with Sovereign Lifecare which, like Equitable Lifecare, is not registered with the regulator, the Funeral Planning Authority.

Its sole director is 57-year-old Wayne Connell from Newcastle.

I’ve asked him how he got the details of Equitable Lifecare customers, why he thinks it acceptable to cold call, and what will happen to customers’ funeral plans if Sovereign Lifecare goes out of business. He has not replied.

This was a terrible amount of money for us to lose

INSENSITIVE Soveriegn Lifecare tried to sell funeral plan to couple who’d lost £7,500 to a rival insurer