CERTIFICATION FEES
Fees and Policies
Every fee INBGC charges is published here, and none of it varies with where you trained or what you paid. Certification is $3,750 for every candidate. The Access Award reduces that fee for coaches serving communities with limited access to grief support, never the standard behind it.
Overview
What does board certification cost?
The certification fee is $3,750. The Specialty Path is $5,000, which adds specialty education and a second proctored examination for a second credential. Annual renewal is $495. The full fee schedule is below.
| Fee | Amount | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Certification Path | $3,750 | Yes, on the route to the BCGC credential. |
| Specialty Path | $5,000 | No. The BCGC plus a specialty endorsement. |
| Adding a specialty later | $1,250 | No. For certificants who already hold an active BCGC. |
| Payment plan, Certification Path | $3,900 | No. $975 down, then three monthly payments of $975. |
| Payment plan, Specialty Path | $5,200 | No. $1,300 down, then three monthly payments of $1,300. |
| Additional Practice Exam attempts | $125 | No. One attempt is included in the fee. |
| Board Examination retake | $375 | Only if you do not pass. |
| Annual renewal | $495 | Yes. Required to maintain active certification. |
The credential
What does the certification fee cover?
The full credentialing process, from application through your first year as a Board Certified Grief Coach. The certification fee is not course tuition. It is a fee for credentialing and examination, and it buys the independent verification a certificate cannot provide.
- Application and eligibility review
- Education review against the six topic areas
- One Practice Exam attempt with a topic-area breakdown
- The proctored Board Examination
- Verified practice hours review
- Credential issuance, including your credential number, digital credential, and printed certificate
- Your first year of certification
Training teaches. A certificate documents that training was completed. Independent board certification verifies that published standards were met. The fee pays for that verification, not for instruction. INBGC does not provide foundational grief coach training at any price. Every candidate brings grief-specific education from an outside provider and sits the Board Examination on that preparation. See the eligibility requirements.
The fee pays for measuring one person against a published standard, and that work is the same whether a candidate trained through a well-known program, several providers, or a university department. A board whose price moved with the program on a candidate's transcript would be pricing the school rather than the standard.
Where cost is a genuine barrier, the Access Award covers part of the fee for coaches serving communities with limited access to grief support. A board can reduce what a coach pays. It cannot reduce what a coach must know.
Specialty endorsements
What does the Specialty Path cost?
$5,000. That covers everything in the Certification Path, plus specialty education in the area you choose and a separate proctored Endorsement Examination for the specialty credential. A certificant who already holds an active BCGC adds a specialty for $1,250, reaching the same total.
A specialty endorsement is a second examined credential that sits on top of the BCGC. You do not need to hold the BCGC before purchasing the Specialty Path. You earn it inside the path, then sit the Endorsement Examination.
The designations are BCGC-AC for ambiguous loss and caregiving, BCGC-RL for divorce and relationship dissolution, BCGC-CL for workplace and career loss, BCGC-AG for illness and anticipatory grief, and BCGC-PL for pet loss. The BCGC stands alone and is the complete credential. A suffix never appears without an active base credential behind it, and a certificant holding more than one writes each in full.
- Everything in the Certification Path, including the BCGC credential
- Specialty education in the area you choose
- The proctored Endorsement Examination and the specialty credential
The Endorsement Examination draws from its own item bank, and equivalent specialty education is accepted from any provider, so a coach who prepared elsewhere sits the identical examination. Specialty content never appears on the Board Examination. Paying INBGC for preparation buys preparation, and it buys no advantage on anything INBGC scores.
Examination
What do Practice Exams and retakes cost?
One Practice Exam attempt is included. Additional attempts are $125 each. Board Examination retakes are $375 per attempt, with a minimum 30-day wait between attempts and a maximum of three attempts in any 12-month period.
Practice Exam
Every candidate receives one attempt, included in the fee. It is a non-scoring readiness check that mirrors the Board Examination in format and topic areas.
It returns a topic-area breakdown, so you can see where to focus before sitting the proctored examination. Additional attempts are $125 each.
The Practice Exam draws from a separate item bank, so practicing never previews the live examination. That test security requirement is the reason additional attempts carry a cost.
Board Examination retakes
- $375 per retake attempt
- A minimum 30-day waiting period between attempts
- A maximum of three attempts within any 12-month period
- Candidates who do not pass within three attempts reapply
Every attempt returns a topic-area score report, so a candidate knows exactly where to focus before the next one. Strengthen weak areas through any qualified provider before retesting. The retake fee covers re-examination only, and a candidate who does not pass is directed to their score report rather than to anything for sale.
The Board Examination presents standardized scenario-based items that ask you to apply judgment rather than recall definitions, testing scope, referral decisions, ethical reasoning, and applied grief knowledge across the six topic areas. It requires 80 percent across the six equally weighted topic areas. See the passing standard.
Maintaining the credential
What does annual renewal cost?
$495 per year. Your first year of certification is included in the fee, so your first renewal falls more than twelve months after you are certified.
What renewal maintains
- Active BCGC certification status
- Your place in the Find a Grief Coach matching pool
- Your credential showing as active in the INBGC registry, and written verification provided to institutions on request
- Group rates on professional liability coverage through INBGC's insurance partners
- Annual ethics attestation and confirmation of good standing
Lapsed certification
A credential that is not renewed by the renewal date becomes inactive. An inactive coach may not use the BCGC designation until the credential is reinstated, and an inactive credential does not carry a specialty endorsement.
Reinstatement requirements are available at [email protected].
Continuing education
What continuing education is required?
30 hours every three years, completed through any qualified provider. INBGC does not require certificants to buy continuing education from the board.
Continuing education runs on a rolling three-year cycle. The annual renewal fee maintains the credential year to year, and the hours are completed across the full three years.
| Requirement | Hours |
|---|---|
| Ethics, scope of practice, and risk and referral | Minimum 6 |
| Grief across diverse and disenfranchised populations | Minimum 4 |
| Any grief-related topic area | Remaining 20 |
| Total per three-year cycle | 30 |
Qualified providers include professional associations, universities, hospice and palliative care organizations, and grief training programs.
Fee policy
Are fees refundable?
No. All fees paid to INBGC are non-refundable. Every requirement and every fee is published in advance, and Program Administration will answer any eligibility question at no cost before you pay.
All fees are non-refundable
This applies to the fee on both paths, additional Practice Exam attempts, Board Examination retakes, and annual renewal, including amounts paid under a payment plan and fees paid by an employer.
The fee pays for a process rather than an outcome. Eligibility review, education review, examination administration, and credentialing are carried out when a candidate engages them, and that work is complete whether or not the credential is awarded.
Review the eligibility requirements and the fee schedule above in full before you submit payment.
If a requirement is not met
No candidate who has paid is left without a path to the credential.
An unsuccessful examination attempt is not a refund event. The Board Examination has been administered and the attempt is complete. Candidates who do not pass receive a topic-area score report and may retake under the published policy above.
Documentation that does not meet the published requirements does not end your candidacy. The fee you have already paid stands. Program Administration identifies what is outstanding, and you may complete it through any qualified provider.
Program Administration will answer any question about eligibility, the certification process, or fees before you submit payment. Write to [email protected] and INBGC will respond within one business day.
Payment
How can certification be paid for?
Pay in full at registration, spread the fee across an INBGC payment plan billed directly with no third-party financing and no credit application, or have your employer fund it. Some employers fund professional credentials from a development or credentialing budget.
Pay in full
Pay at registration through secure checkout. Standard payment methods are accepted.
INBGC payment plan
Billed directly by INBGC, with no third-party financing and no credit application.
Certification Path: $975 down, then three monthly payments of $975, totaling $3,900.
Specialty Path: $1,300 down, then three monthly payments of $1,300, totaling $5,200.
Employer funding
Your employer pays INBGC directly by itemized invoice, or reimburses you. Payment may also be split across two fiscal years, half at registration and the balance within six months, with an invoice for each.
The payment plan carries a premium of roughly four percent over paying in full, which is the cost of financing. The credential is issued once the balance is paid in full, and a candidate on a plan may complete every step of the process, including the Board Examination, while the plan is running. If a payment is missed, candidacy is suspended until the balance is brought current, which pauses progress rather than canceling the application. Review the full funding options.
Fee assistance
Is financial assistance available?
Yes. The INBGC Access Award reduces the certification fee for coaches serving communities with limited access to grief support. Awards are $1,875, $1,250, or $750, applied to the certification fee only. A fixed number is available each month and an application is required.
Grief support is not evenly distributed. Some communities have hospice programs, employer resources, funded counseling, and clinicians within driving distance. Others have almost none of that, and the people doing grief work there are frequently doing it alone, without institutional backing, and often without charging much, because the people they serve cannot pay much.
The Access Award has an application, published criteria, and a fixed number available each month. It is awarded rather than offered.
| Award | Remaining balance |
|---|---|
| $1,875 | $1,875 |
| $1,250 | $2,500 |
| $750 | $3,000 |
The remaining balance may be paid in full or placed on an INBGC payment plan, billed directly with no third-party financing and no credit application.
What an award covers
- The certification fee, in one of three amounts
- Everything a certified coach receives, with no distinction of any kind
What it does not cover
- The specialty portion of the Specialty Path. A recipient adding a specialty pays that $1,250 separately
- Board Examination retakes, additional Practice Exam attempts, and annual renewal
An Access Award recipient completes the same process as every other candidate: the same eligibility review, the same education review against the six topic areas, the same 50 verified practice hours verified the same way, the same agreement to the Code of Ethics and Scope of Practice, the same proctored Board Examination at the same 80 percent passing standard, and the same annual renewal and continuing education requirements. The credential is identical, with no notation and no separate designation.
Awards are evaluated on mission first and need second. Apply by the fifteenth to be included in that month's decision, issued on the first. Read the full award criteria and schedule.
Common questions
Next step
Get board certified
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