I am pleased to present my statement for The Golden Charter Trust for the year ended 31 March 2025.
Net asset value at 31 March 2025:
The audited net assets of the Trust at the 31 March 2025 totalled £1.214 billion (2024 audited: £1.211 billion). Details on the performance of the Trust’s investment portfolio are given in the Investment Report.
The charts below show how the value of the Trust and the average value of an outstanding funeral plan have grown from 31 March 2021 to 31 March 2025.
Background:
The purposes of the Trust are to ingather, hold, invest and administer the Trust funds. The Golden Charter Trust (“the Trust”) is independent of the funeral plan provider, Golden Charter Limited.
In 2015, The Golden Charter Trust Limited (“Trust Limited”) was incorporated to hold the investments and to carry out the investment activity of the Trust. The 100% shareholder of Trust Limited is the Trust. The Board of Directors of Trust Limited comprises the current serving Trustees of the Trust.
Regulation:
The FCA commenced regulation of the funeral plan market on 29 July 2022. The plan provider, Golden Charter Limited, is directly regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”). The Trust and Trust Limited are not themselves subject to direct FCA regulation. However, the Trust Deed between Golden Charter Limited and the Trust recognises the FCA rules for trusts used by funeral plan providers.
The FCA rules set out a list of permitted payments from funeral plan trusts. One of the permitted payments is the payment of surplus to Golden Charter Limited. The payment of surplus is subject to separate rules on the solvency level of the Trust, as determined by the Solvency Assessment Report (‘’the SAR’’), and must be approved by the independent Actuary appointed by the plan provider.
Golden Charter Limited takes sole responsibility for commissioning an independent actuarial report which estimates the ratio between the Trust’s assets and the costs of the funerals underwritten by it. A copy of the SAR report is available on Golden Charter Limited’s website.
Any request for payment of surplus must not, in the reasonable opinion of the Trustees, be in breach of any other legal or regulatory obligation applicable to the Trust or the Trustees.
Outlook:
Our policy is to diversify across several asset classes and managers. This has been effective in mitigating the impact of volatile markets on the value of our investment portfolio.
This has been a year of personnel changes on the Board. Three Directors retired by rotation: Gordon Brough, David Kidd and Paul Stevenson. We thank them all for their hard work and their wise counsel. We have appointed three new Directors who bring with them a wealth of expertise and industry relevant experience: David Adam, George Locke and Barry Widdows.
This is my final Chairman’s Statement, as I retire by rotation at the end of the current financial year. The Board has appointed Myriam Madden as my successor; she and I will continue to work closely together to ensure a smooth transition.
Gareth Howlett
Chair
30 June 2025