Funeral Costs

Cash advance items are goods and services that are purchased from sources other than the funeral home. Funeral homes cannot mark up nor increase these charges to you without informing you that they are doing so. For your convenience, we will purchase and/or arrange for these items and pay the individual vendors involved. The following is a list of common cash advance items.

Certified Copies of a Death Certificate:
In North Dakota, these copies cost $15.00 for the first copy and $10.00 for each additional copy at the same time of ordering. They are purchased from the North Dakota Department of Health, and are needed for life insurance, title transfers and other financial transactions.

Cemetery/Interment charges:
The cost of purchasing a grave varies among cemeteries. Graves may cost $25.00 up to $600.00 each, depending upon the cemetery and location. The interment fee is the charge to open and close the grave, and sometimes includes a portion for perpetual care of the cemetery. This fee may cost $900.00 up to $1,050.00 or more, depending upon the cemetery, location and the time of day or the time of year. The fee for interment of cremated remains may range from $350.00 to $900.00.

Crematory charge:
Crematory charges at this time are $500.00, but can change without notice. There are also overtime and weekend charges that may apply, or for an expedited return of cremated remains in time for a service. The base charge is included with our fee for a direct cremation service.

Clergy Honorarium:
It is customary to offer an honorarium to the clergy or church that is conducting the funeral service. The amount offered is generally a personal, family decision; currently it is most common to offer around $225.00 or more, depending upon a family's wishes.

Music Honorarium:
The musicians generally receive an honorarium for their services as well. It is common to offer around $125.00 or more, depending upon a family's wishes.

Lunch Honorarium:
It is also customary to offer an honorarium to the church service group for the time of fellowship at the church. The funeral lunch is prepared and served as a courtesy by the church. It is common to offer the serving group $400.00 or more, depending upon a family's wishes.

Flowers:
Flower costs vary among florists. Bouquets usually cost $100.00 or more per arrangement, a casket spray can cost $200.00 or more, depending upon their size, flowers selected or the time of year.

Obituary Notices:
The funeral director can write the notice with you and place it into whichever newspapers you wish. Some of the local weekly newspapers do not have a charge for this. Some weekly newspapers and most daily newspapers have a charge for publishing an obituary in their newspaper. For illustration purposes, the Fargo Forum and the Grand Forks Herald offer a paid obituary that costs $23 per column inch, which also allows the obituary to be placed on their websites.

Grave Marker/Engraving:
The funeral director can assist you with the purchase of a grave marker. Depending upon the size, style and color of granite, they can range in price form $900.00 up to $5,000.00 or more for specialty designs. If a grave marker is already in place, we can assist by having the date of death of the deceased engraved on that marker. Depending upon the number of alphanumeric characters, this cost can range form $200.00 to $390.00.

1. Clergy Vehicle - No charge for the funeral home vehicle which provides transportation for the clergy and leads the procession from the church or funeral home to the cemetery. 
2. Service or Utility Vehicle - No charge for the funeral home vehicle which may pick up items from your home, deliver flowers and equipment to the church or cemetery; and also distributes those items back to your home along with delivering flowers after the funeral at the family's direction. 
3. Tent at cemetery - Included with vault purchase. Many funeral homes will charge this as a cash advance item, or as a setup charge of their own. 
4. Long distance phone calls or faxes - If long distance telephone services are necessary to complete the funeral arrangements by us or the family during the arrangement conference, there is no charge. Some funeral homes may even charge extra for placing an obituary for you. We do not charge these services to the family.
5. Weekend or holiday services - We have no overtime charges. Some funeral homes charge overtime for visitations or funeral services scheduled on weekends or holidays. However, if an outer burial container is selected, the burial vault company does have an overtime charge for Saturday, Sunday or holiday services. This will be treated as a cash advance item.
6. Temporary grave marker - No charge. If there is no permanent cemetery grave marker which identifies the name of the deceased on their particular grave, we will provide one for the family until a permanent marker can be in place.

We have put together an average cost, based upon the most commonly selected services, casket, vault and cash advanced items for a traditional funeral service. These figures are from the year 2023 at our two facilities, the Aaker Funeral Home of Lakota and the Stanley-Iverson Funeral Home of McVille.

To reiterate, these figures are merely averages, based upon the most commonly selected items listed above. The cost of a particular funeral would depend upon the services, merchandise and cash advance items requested. If you wish to have a consultation with a funeral director on our staff, we would be glad to illustrate for you the costs associated with your particular requests and selections.

Direct Cremations

Prices range from $ 4,820.00 to $ 4,995.00

Immediate Burials

Prices start at $3,900.00 plus casket & outer burial container selected