An Awareness Model for an Islamic Pre-Need Funeral Plan

Objective –Failure to prearrange one’s funeral may lead to financial hardship on one’s family members. Despite the importance of a funeral plan, little is known regarding the awareness level among Muslims regarding the Islamic Pre-need Funeral Plan (IPFP). Because of the dearth of academic research on the awareness among Muslims regarding IPFP, this paper aims to assess the awareness level of Muslims regarding IPFP and to develop an awareness model that frames factors affecting IPFP awareness level. Methodology/Technique – To achieve this, a questionnaire was used to collect the data and PLS-SEM was used to analyse the data. Results show that the level of awareness regarding IPFP is low and is similar to the result found in the USA Findings – The results further show that marketing communication efforts and social influence are significant factors affecting awareness of IPFP. These results have practical implications for IPFP providers and should help them better market their products and mitigate the potential for financial hardship funeral costs may have on families. Novelty – The scarcity of land for burial plots, soaring funeral costs and an increasingly aging population rate necessitates funeral prearrangements by subscribing to a pre-need funeral plan. This prearrangement is an advanced financial provision that covers funeral and burial expenses by enabling subscribers to make funeral arrangements while they are still alive. Type of Paper: Empirical. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Katan, M.; Nasrijal, N. M. H.; Noor, A. H. M.; Man, N. C. 2019. An Awareness Model for an Islamic Pre-Need Funeral Plan, J. Fin. Bank. Review 4 (2): 47 – 57 https://doi.org/10.35609/jfbr.2019.4.2(1) Keywords: Awareness; Islamic Pre-need Funeral Plan; Marketing Communication Efforts; PLS-SEM, Social Influence. JEL Classification: I22, I30, I39.