Funeral plan provider Golden Charter and Scottish Building Society have announced a new partnership.

Pre-paid funeral plans from Golden Charter will now be available from the Scotish mutual, which has more than 30,000 members.

The plan provider says the trend for paying in advance for funerals is growing steadily, with more than 135,160 plans sold in the UK by Funeral Planning Authority registered providers in 2014.

Golden Charter, which works on behalf of more than 3,300 independent funeral directors throughout the UK, provided 38% of these plans, representing a 22% increase in plan sales on the previous year.

John Lloyd, head of sales at Scottish Building Society, said: “We are delighted to be working with Golden Charter to bring our members a product which provides peace of mind and can help to make things easier for loved ones at a difficult time.”

Michael Corish, managing director (business) of Golden Charter, said: “As an organisation owned by an association of independent funeral directors, we at Golden Charter can identify with many of the values held by Scotland’s only independent building society and its members, making this an ideal partnership.

“We look forward to working with Scottish Building Society for many years to come.”