G-03 · Free DownloadEngland & Wales

Funeral Wishes Form

A warm, practical record of what you would want — burial or cremation, the kind of service, the music, the people — so those you leave behind are guided, not guessing. For England and Wales. Free to download.

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A guide, not a legal instruction

Funeral wishes in England and Wales are not legally binding. Your executor or next of kin has the final say on arrangements — not this form.

In practice, most families want to honour what you wanted, and a clear, calm record like this one is almost always followed. Write it as a guide, tell someone where it is, and revisit it as your thinking changes. This is general guidance, not legal advice.

What it is

The hardest funeral to arrange is the one planned in the dark. By people who loved you but were never told what you wanted. This form is the small kindness that prevents it.

Fill in as much or as little as feels right. Even a few firm preferences spare your family the weight of deciding blind on the worst week of their lives.

Leave a field blank and it simply becomes their decision to make freely — there is no wrong answer, and nothing here is binding on you. Write in pencil if you like; revisit it as your thinking changes.

What's inside

Seven sections, each capturing a different kind of preference

Basic wishes — burial or cremation

The single most important decision. Burial, cremation, or (increasingly) natural burial — any legal method in England and Wales. Your funeral director needs this from day one; it shapes every subsequent decision.

The service

What kind of gathering, where, and for whom. A private family committal, a church service, a civil ceremony at a crematorium, a celebration-of-life gathering, or nothing at all. Your choice is your right; stating it prevents the decision by default.

Music, readings, and contributions

The specific requests — what you'd like played, who you'd like to speak, whether you want a eulogy, particular readings, or a period of silence. These details are what make a service feel personal. Leaving them blank makes them decisions someone else carries.

Flowers, donations, and dress

Whether you'd prefer donations to a named charity rather than (or as well as) flowers; whether dress is formal or informal; any specific wishes about the coffin or casket.

Location and reception

Whether you have a preference about place of burial or ash scattering; any wishes about a wake or reception; whether you'd prefer no reception at all. The practical details that follow the service.

Personal messages and keepsakes

Anything you'd want read at the service, or kept and not read aloud; a person you'd like to involve; an object you'd like at the service or subsequently distributed. The small things that matter most.

Practical notes for the family

Your funeral director preference (if any), any pre-paid funeral plan already in place, your death notice preference, whether you've registered as an organ donor. Practical information that spares your family from having to discover it at the worst moment.

III

Tell someone

The most important step — and the one most often skipped

Name who should find it.

The person most likely to arrange your funeral — a spouse, child, sibling, close friend. Tell them specifically that this form exists and exactly where it is. Not 'somewhere in my files'; somewhere specific.

Keep it accessible, not sealed.

A funeral home needs guidance within hours or days of death — not weeks. Sealing your wishes with your will at a solicitor's office is too slow. Keep the form somewhere accessible to the named person.

Revisit it. Life changes.

If your preferences change — you move away from a place you once wanted buried, you find a piece of music that matters more — update the form. The date of completion matters. Photocopies dated ten years ago carry less weight than a form updated recently.

Record it in your household dossier.

The Valoren portal's Funeral Wishes Preferences record stores the same information and surfaces it in the trusted person's briefing pack. The executor brief includes a reference to it — so they know to look, and where.

Know the limits

What this form is — and what it is not

What a funeral wishes form does

Sets out your preferences clearly and calmly
Gives your family a reference on one of the hardest days
Reduces the number of decisions they have to make in grief
Is almost always followed in practice

What a funeral wishes form cannot do

Override your executor's or next of kin's legal right to decide arrangements
Force a specific funeral home, crematorium, or service
Guarantee that every preference is acted on exactly as stated
Replace a pre-paid funeral plan if you want a contractual arrangement

Download

FreeA4England & WalesEdition 2026

Funeral Wishes Form

Institutional Valoren aesthetic. Copper-ruled fillable sections. Seven areas of preference. YMYL notice included. No account required.

Download — Funeral Wishes Form (PDF)

Take it with you

Take the funeral wishes form with you.

We'll email you the funeral wishes form as a PDF — for when you're at a printer, or to pass to the person who'll need it. The download above stays free either way.

Working for a hospice, charity, council or carers' service? You're welcome to link the form, print it, or put it in a bereavement pack — free, no permission needed, nothing expected in return. See everything that's free

Go further

What the form captures — and what the portal keeps current

Funeral Wishes Preferences

The same information as this form, held in the portal and surfaced in the trusted person's briefing pack on day one — no searching in drawers.

The Household Continuity Dossier

Includes your Funeral Wishes Worksheet as part of the household's maintained record, not a one-off document — kept current every year, alongside your accounts and wishes.

Executor brief

The Executor's First Hour (£179) package includes the funeral director step as one of the first-hour tasks — with your Funeral Wishes Preferences pre-loaded, so your wishes are the starting point.

Start your free household dossier See The Household Continuity Dossier

VII

Questions

No — in England and Wales your funeral wishes are not legally enforceable. Your executor or next of kin controls the arrangements.

In practice, most families want above all to honour what you wanted — so a clear, calm record is almost always followed. The closer to the arrangements it is, the more useful it is.

Cost is a real constraint. It's worth noting a range of preferences rather than a single fixed wish — 'I'd prefer cremation; a simple committal followed by a family gathering if possible' gives more to work with than specific instructions that may be unaffordable.

A note about any pre-paid funeral plan already in place, or any preference for a simple, lower-cost service, is genuinely helpful.

You can, but it's generally not advisable — wills are often not read until after the funeral has been arranged.

A separate funeral wishes document, kept somewhere accessible and known to whoever would make arrangements, is more useful. Your will handles the estate; your funeral wishes handle the service.

As specific as feels right. Even a few firm preferences — burial not cremation, no flowers, a particular piece of music — are more useful than a blank page.

Every filled-in line is a decision someone else doesn't have to make on one of the worst days of their life.

With your will, in a place known to the person most likely to arrange your funeral — usually a trusted family member.

Not sealed with your will in a solicitor's office (too slow to access in the immediate days after death). Tell someone where it is; a perfect record no one knows about has helped no one.

The form captures your wishes; the portal makes them findable and connected.

Funeral Wishes Preferences in the portal stores the same information and surfaces it in the trusted person's briefing pack on day one — so your executor doesn't have to find a paper form in a drawer.

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