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 for it. Payment plans and employer funding are available, and the Access Award reduces the fee for candidates serving communities with limited access to grief support, never the standard behind it.
Overview
What does board certification cost?
The Independent National Board for Grief Certification certifies the people who provide non-clinical grief support, whatever their title or setting. The certification fee is $1,295, paid in full or in three payments of $450 totaling $1,350. It includes the first year of certification. Annual credential renewal is $125. The Access Award reduces the certification fee for candidates serving communities with limited access to grief support, and employers may fund certification and are invoiced directly. The full fee schedule is below.
| Fee | Amount | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Certification fee | $1,295 | Yes, on the route to the BCGC credential. Includes the first year of certification. |
| Payment plan | $1,350 | No. Three payments of $450. |
| Additional Practice Exam attempts | $125 | No. One attempt is included in the fee. |
| Board Examination retake | $295 | Only if you do not pass. |
| Annual credential renewal | $125 | Yes. Required to maintain active certification, beginning one year after issue. |
| Reinstatement | $75 | Only if a credential becomes Expired. Paid with the $125 renewal fee. |
| Certification seats for organizations | $895 to $1,095 per seat | No. Published rates for organizations that purchase 5 to 24 seats. |
| Advanced Resource Center | $99 per month | No. Optional, month to month, and not included in certification or renewal. |
The INBGC Access Award
Serving a community with limited access to grief support?
The Access Award reduces the certification fee for candidates doing grief work where support is scarce: rural areas, under-resourced communities, and places without hospice programs, funded counseling, or clinicians nearby. It is granted by application, on published criteria, every month.
One award each month. The largest reduction.
Two awards each month.
Two awards each month.
No financial documentation is required. The remaining balance may be paid in full or placed on the INBGC payment plan. The award reduces what you pay and nothing about what you must meet, and the credential carries no notation of any kind.
The credential
What does the certification fee cover?
The full credentialing process, from application through your first year of certification. 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
- Registry listing
- 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 support 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 candidates serving communities with limited access to grief support. A board can reduce what a candidate pays. It cannot reduce what a candidate must know.
Examination
What do Practice Exams and retakes cost?
One Practice Exam attempt is included. Additional attempts are $125 each. Board Examination retakes are $295 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
- $295 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, recognizing warning signs of acute risk, ethical reasoning, and applied grief knowledge across the six topic areas. It is held to an 80 percent passing standard. See the passing standard.
Maintaining the credential
What does annual credential renewal cost?
$125 per year, beginning one year after your credential is issued. Your first year of certification is included in the fee, so your first renewal is due on the first anniversary. There is no grace period, and reinstating an Expired credential is $75 plus the renewal fee.
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
- Your annual ethics attestation and confirmation of good standing
- The continuing education review, completed at the third annual renewal with no separate recertification fee
If a credential is not renewed
There is no grace period. A credential not renewed by its renewal date is Expired the following day, and the BCGC designation may not be used while it is Expired. The registry shows the current status of every credential number: Active, Expired, or Revoked.
1 to 90 days after the renewal date: the $125 renewal fee, a $75 reinstatement fee, and all annual attestations.
More than 90 days: the same, plus all outstanding attestations and evidence of current continuing education compliance.
More than 24 months: formal reapplication, a current eligibility review, and the Board Examination.
Missed years are never back-billed. Reinstatement recovers administrative cost and confirms current standing. See the reinstatement requirements.
Continuing education
What continuing education is required?
30 hours across a rolling three-year cycle, 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 that begins on your credential issue date. The annual renewal fee maintains the credential year to year, and the hours are completed across the full three years. Renewals do not restart the cycle, and the third annual renewal includes the review of your continuing education.
| Requirement | Hours |
|---|---|
| Ethics, scope of practice, and risk and referral | Minimum 6 |
| Diverse and disenfranchised grief | Minimum 4 |
| Any grief-related topic area | Remaining 20 |
| Total per three-year cycle | 30 |
You attest to continuing education progress at each annual renewal and submit a categorized activity log at the third. Keep your records in case you are selected for audit. Program Administration conducts random and targeted audits.
Qualified providers include professional associations, universities, hospice and palliative care organizations, and grief training programs. The full requirements, documentation rules, and Recognized Continuing Education are set out at renewal and continuing education.
Organizations
What do organizations pay?
Organizations that buy certification for staff pay a published per-seat rate. Education providers pay for the review of a defined program or offering. Organizations that refer to the standard, cite it, or verify a credential are never charged.
Certification seats
An organization purchasing certification for staff or community practitioners pays a published per-seat rate under one organizational agreement.
| Seats | Per seat |
|---|---|
| 5 to 9 | $1,095 |
| 10 to 24 | $895 |
For 25 or more seats, write to Program Administration at [email protected]. The agreement includes one invoice for all seats, purchase orders, a W-9 on file, vendor onboarding paperwork, named seats that may be transferred before review begins and not after, a cohort start date, and a named administrative contact. See how employers work with INBGC.
Seat pricing varies with the number of seats an organization purchases. It never varies with, and never affects, any examination result or credentialing decision. Rates are published and never negotiated. The passing standard applies identically regardless of who paid, and INBGC does not discuss an individual's examination result with the organization.
Education program review
| Fee | Amount | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Recognized Education Provider review | $750 | Each program reviewed. |
| Recognized Education Provider annual renewal | $350 | Each recognized program. |
| Recognized Continuing Education application | $250 | Each offering reviewed. |
| Recognized Continuing Education annual renewal | $125 | Each recognized offering. |
The fee purchases the review, not the outcome. A program that does not meet the published criteria is not recognized, and the fee is not refunded. Recognition is never required for a candidate to certify, and no fee varies with the number of candidates a program sends. Recognized Continuing Education applies to a specific offering, not to the organization that provides it. See provider review.
What INBGC does not charge for
Hospices, funeral professionals, clergy networks, employee assistance and human resources teams, therapist networks, senior living operators, and healthcare systems are never charged to cite the standard, build referral criteria, or verify a credential. The published professional standard and the Public Resource Center are free and open to everyone.
Grief Support in Practice accepts sponsorship at $500 per episode or $4,000 for a ten-episode season. The fee is flat, sponsorship never influences guests, topics, or content, and it is disclosed at the top of each episode and in the show notes. INBGC does not accept payment for guest appearances in either direction.
Resource Centers
Do the Resource Centers cost anything?
The Public Resource Center is free to everyone. The Advanced Resource Center is $99 per month, month to month, and is not included in certification or renewal. Certification and renewal never require a subscription.
Public Resource Center
The public knowledge center for responsible non-clinical grief support and its place in the wider grief support system. Scope, ethics, referral, and verification material always stays here, so anyone can read it without a subscription.
Advanced Resource Center
Professional templates, tools, and advanced recorded training. Month to month only, with no annual option, contract, or prepayment. Active certificants pay the same rate as every other subscriber.
Subscribing never affects eligibility, examination results, or disciplinary decisions. Access ends at the close of the paid billing period, and a partially used month is not refunded.
The Advanced Resource Center does not include consultation, supervision, guaranteed referrals, or individualized review. Its training is never foundational grief support instruction, never counts as qualifying education for certification, and never counts toward continuing education hours for the credential.
Fee policy
Are fees refundable?
No. All fees paid to INBGC are non-refundable, with a limited exception for withdrawal before review begins. 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 certification fee, additional Practice Exam attempts, Board Examination retakes, annual credential renewal, reinstatement, and every review fee for organizations, including amounts paid under a payment plan and fees paid by an employer. The one limited exception is withdrawal before review begins.
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 the INBGC payment plan billed directly with no third-party financing and no credit application, or have your employer fund it. Many hospices, health systems, and employers fund professional credentials from a development or credentialing budget.
Pay in full
Pay the $1,295 certification fee 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.
Three payments of $450, totaling $1,350.
Employer funding
Your employer pays INBGC directly by invoice, or reimburses you. INBGC accepts purchase orders, keeps a W-9 on file, and provides vendor onboarding paperwork on request. How employers work with INBGC.
The credential is issued once the balance is paid in full and every requirement is complete, and a candidate on the 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 at three tiers for candidates serving communities with limited access to grief support. It applies to the certification fee only. Five awards are made 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: five awards across three tiers, with one at the largest reduction and two each at the second and third tiers. It is awarded rather than offered.
The remaining balance may be paid in full or placed on the INBGC payment plan, billed directly with no third-party financing and no credit application.
What an award covers
- The certification fee, at one of three tiers
- Everything the credential includes, with no distinction of any kind
What it does not cover
- Board Examination retakes, additional Practice Exam attempts, annual credential renewal, and reinstatement
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 attestation 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. The Access Award is the only mechanism that reduces an individual candidate's fee.
Awards are evaluated on mission first and need second. Applications are open on an ongoing basis. Apply by the fifteenth to be included in that month's decision, issued on the first of the following month, and a candidate who is not approved may reapply. Read the full award criteria and schedule.
Common questions
Next step
Become board certified
Creating your account takes about a minute and does not enroll or charge you. You choose how you pay in the next step. Every candidate may choose the payment plan, and any candidate who qualifies may apply for the Access Award.