Customers of Unique Funeral Plans are increasingly unlikely to get their cash back after the firm collapsed with huge debts.
Unique sold deals that let people pay off the cost of their funeral in advance.
Last month Unique ran out of money and stopped trading, but has now formally gone into liquidation.
Documents filed by Unique to Companies House this week show the firm has £168,000 in cash, but owes £680,000.
This leaves a shortfall of £512,001.
The documents say Unique owes £650,000 to 650 customers who paid upfront - £1,000 each on average.
Are you a Unique Funeral Plans customer? Contact mirror.money.saving@mirror.co.uk
However, even the cheapest funeral plan sold by Unique cost £1,195, with the most expensive being £3,750.
It also owes £30,000 to HM Revenue & Customs in unpaid corporation tax.
Grant Thornton is handling the liquidation and would not comment on the chance of customers getting any of their money back.
A Grant Thornton spokesperson said: "I can confirm that insolvency practitioners from Grant Thornton UK LLP have been appointed as liquidators of Fox Milton & Co Ltd (trading as Unique Funeral Plans), as the business has ceased trading and is now insolvent.
“The liquidators will continue to work with the director, clients and other stakeholders over the coming days and weeks to ensure an orderly wind-down of the business. Further information will be made available in due course.”
Unique founder and sole director Sean O'Driscoll has been approached for comment.
From July 29, 2022, funeral plans have been regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulator.
Unique had not applied to be authorised, and so was not able to sell any funeral plans after July 28.
The firm's official address was a shared office in London's Covent Garden.
Unique was due to be struck off the official list of companies, but that was dropped in May 2022.
The FCA rapped the firm on the knuckles in the same month, May 2022, and "strongly" advised customers not to buy a funeral plan from Unique.
At the time, the FCA said Unique had not answered its questions about what would happen to existing customers after July 29.
The FCA also said Unique was claiming customers' cash was held in a safe trust - but this turned out to be false.
Unique's terms and conditions said money was held in "the secure Unique Funeral Plans Trust which is independently managed by The Sterling Trust Corporation Ltd".
However, Sterling said the statements "were not true" and that it had never held any money from Unique.
In May 2022, The Mirror reported customers who lost money to failed funeral firm Safe Hands were told they will lose up to 90% of their cash.
Safe Hands collapsed into administration in March - leaving 45,000 customers in the lurch.
