Funeral Services and Pricing – An Overview
The following guide should assist any person who will make funeral arrangements or preplan a funeral. It clearly identifies the choices that are available and corresponding costs. Pierson’s Funeral Service makes every attempt to keep our prices low while maintaining the best quality products and services. We are a family owned funeral home in Calgary that has succeeded by hard work and building an excellent reputation. We are proud of our no pressure policy as well as our knowledgeable, professional and outstanding staff.
There are three groups of charges that any family can expect to pay for a funeral: Professional Services, Disbursements and Merchandise.
Professional Services
A portion of the cost of any funeral, regardless of how simple or elaborate, is the basic service fee. This fee goes to pay for the many fixed overhead costs associated with running the funeral home. Our overhead includes our physical costs, but more importantly our experienced staff and the time they spend with you.
The following is a summary of the most common services we offer.
- Basic Services and Arrangements
- Embalming and Sanitation
- Preparations for Viewing (Dressing, Cosmetics)
- Family Viewing/ Public Visitation/Prayers
- Use of Chapel for Funeral Service
- Staff and Equipment for Service Elsewhere
- Reception Facilities and Host
- Graveside Services
- Funeral Stationery (Register Book, Memorial Folders, Maps, Thank You Cards)
- Funeral Sedan (Lead/Clergy Vehicle)
- Funeral Coach (Hearse)
- Funeral Limousine (Family)
- Funeral Limousine (Casket bearers)
Disbursements – Pricing
As mentioned in the overview, disbursements are funeral costs that are not associated with the funeral home. We have highlighted a few of these items for your information. As the funeral home has no control over these costs, we encourage you to discuss these items with your funeral director who has valuable information specific to your needs.
Click on the tabs below for more information on these disbursements.
The following cemeteries offer burial and/or cremation space in the Calgary Area:
Cemeteries owned and operated by the City of Calgary
Burnsland Cemetery
27 Avenue and Spiller Road SE, Calgary AB (next to Union Cemetery)
Chinese Cemetery
Erlton and Macleod Trail SW Calgary
Queen’s Park Cemetery
Main office for all City of Calgary Cemeteries 403-221-3660
32 Avenue and 4 Street NW, Calgary AB
Queen’s Park Mausoleum
Located in Queen’s Park Cemetery, 32 Avenue and 4 Street NW, Calgary AB
St. Mary’s Cemetery
Erlton Street and 32 Avenue SE, Calgary AB
Union Cemetery
28 Avenue and Spiller Road SE, Calgary AB
Cemeteries owned and operated by the Rocky View County 403-285-0660:
The Rocky View Garden of Peace Cemetery 403-285-0660
16th Avenue. (Highway #1 East) and Garden Road N.E. (100 Street N.E.).
Bottrel Cemetery
located ½ mile south of the Bottrel General Store
Dalemead Cemetery
nestled in a thicket of bushes, at the top of a hill north of the Hamlet of Dalemead
Corporate Cemeteries owned and operated by Memorial Gardens Canada (Arbor Canada) of Toronto, ON:
Mountain View Memorial Gardens 403-272-5555
17 Avenue at Garden Road SE, Calgary
Eden Brook Memorial Gardens 403-217-3700
17 Avenue at Lower Springbank Road SW, Calgary
The towns of Okotoks, High River, Airdrie, Cochrane, Canmore andStrathmore have town cemeteries.
Newspaper notices (obituaries) let the public know that the death has occurred and when services will take place. They also make the death a matter of public record and can aid in tracing family histories in the years to come. The preparation of obituaries and coordination with the newspaper is included in the funeral home’s basic service fee. The price of the actual obit is billed to the family at cost. The funeral home receives a discount from the local newspapers so there is an advantage to having the funeral home deal with the newspaper on your behalf.
Reception and Catering
Gatherings following the Celebration of a life are often the most important part of funeral service. Pierson’s offers the convenience of catered luncheons and receptions for our families, giving friends and family an opportunity to laugh, to cry, and to begin the healing process together.
Whether you would prefer light lunch for your immediate family or a full buffet for family and friends, our funeral home can accommodate you with the following options:
Off site catering:
Many Churches or community halls in our area provide full funeral lunches, others may only provide the facilities and you bring the food. We will work with any caterer to assist the church volunteers with any food services and cleanup needed. We will be happy to reserve and secure your luncheon with the church as well.
Our food is provided by Illichmann’s Sausage Shop, another Calgary family owned and operated business, just blocks from our main location in Forest Lawn. Illichmann’s operates and provide the finest quality of food in Calgary. We have some favourite menu options to choose from and can accommodate any size of gathering and most requests.
You can find Illichmann’s Sausage Shop website here.
To see our sample menus, please open this Catering Menu.
An honorarium is a payment made to a professional who performs a service on behalf of the family but has no set fee. This fee is normally paid by the funeral home upon consultation with the family and billed along with the other funeral charges. A sample of who would receive a payment and a guideline of what would be considered an acceptable starting range would be as follows:
- Clergyman – $250 minimum
- Church – varies
- Organist – $125 minimum
- Soloist – $125 minimum
- Bagpiper – $175 minimum
If a death has occurred away from home, there will be transportation fees to repatriate the remains. There may also be fees from the local funeral home at the place of death.
Our society is so mobile that many people will travel to attend a funeral service. While these expenses are rarely shown on the funeral account, they certainly do contribute to the overall cost of a funeral. For those traveling by air for a funeral, please enquire about a “Compassionate Travel Discount” which is available through many airlines. We provide the necessary documents to assist in receiving these discounts.
Government certificates are needed only in special circumstances. Nearly all agencies which need proof of death (Death Certificate) to settle an estate will use the “Funeral Director’s Statement of Death,” a number of which are included in your basic service fee. Your funeral director can let you know if other certificates are needed and how much they cost.