Service Charges
We are pleased to provide you with a full disclosure of our Professional Service Charges.
To help you understand Funeral Costs we have prepared an outline of the categories that make up a funeral account. There are basically three sections that make up the total funeral account: Casket & Merchandise Selections, Professional Service Charges, Cash Disbursements.
To aid consumers, legislation provides that all funeral homes must provide an itemized price list of all of their related Professional Service Charges as well as casket and merchandise charges. This list must be available at consumers' request without cost or obligation.
We pride ourselves on always being one of the most reasonably priced funeral homes in the area, although many expect our charges to be much higher given the level of professionalism, quality of facilities and ethical standards. Consumers and families finally can learn first hand that there is a difference and families needn't fall into the trap of traditional loyalty many funeral homes attempt to count on. Today, being good is not good enough. We trust that this service will give you one more reason to give the Mercadante Funeral Home serious consideration when seeking a funeral home that is pro-actively working towards providing you the highest standards of services and facilities while offering sensible and affordable solutions.
Compare Our Prices
Parting.com is an independent service that allows you to instantly compare funeral homes.
Professional Service Charge
Our basic professional service charge includes, but is not limited to staff to respond to initial request for service, arrangement conference with family, preparation and filing of necessary certificates and permits, authorizations, and/or consents; planning of funeral arrangements, and coordinating with those providing other portions of the funeral, e.g. cemetery, crematory, and others. Also included in this charge are overhead expenses relative to our facility, utility expenses, secretarial and administrative costs, and equipment and inventory expenses.
This fee for our basic services will be added to the total cost of the funeral arrangements you select. This fee is already included in our charges for direct cremations, immediate burials and forwarding or receiving.
Casket & Merchandise Selections
This section is specific to the casket that a family selects. All of our caskets and merchandise is priced separately - meaning the price you see for the casket is for the casket itself with no other items included that can often become confusing to families. Some of the other types of merchandise you might find in these section of the funeral account are: Burial Vaults, Cremation Urns, and upgraded Stationary packages. Again, each is itemized based on your selection and a total is itemized under the "Casket & Merchandise Selections." As always, you are free to purchase or acquire these items from any other funeral home or other source. Receiving funeral homes cannot charge any handling or administration fees when a casket is purchased elsewhere.
Cash Disbursements
Cash Disbursements are as they imply. To aid the families we serve, we will cover third party expenses and place them on our account as a convenience until the estate is understood.
Strict legislation ensures that these items are not marked up and only the exact "cost" is included on the funeral account. Typical cash disbursements might include:
- Newspaper Notices
- Clergy Honorariums
- Cemetery or Crematory Charges
- Medical Examiner Cremation Certificates
Our Price Structure
For your convenience we have included our general price list for services we provide. If you have any questions or would like to make an appointment please feel free to contact us. It is very important to understand that we at Mercadante Funeral Home & Chapel DO NOT mark up our merchandise as most other funeral homes do. Our service charge directly reflects what we do best and that is to provide excellent funeral service. Consumers can now purchase caskets and merchandise online from Costco, Walmart and other retailers. Consumers can NOT purchase funeral service from anyone other than a funeral director. Our service charge is based on cost accounting and directly reflect what it costs us to stay in business. We do not rely on the sale of overpriced caskets, urns and other merchandise to supplement our income. This really is the only honest way a funeral home can offer both services and merchandise to you the consumer. We feel very confident that, given these facts, you, the consumer, will purchase your services AND your merchandise from our funeral home once you have made an honest effort to compare services and merchandise.
If you would like to have a copy of our Funeral Price List, you can either stop by the funeral home and request a copy or we can mail one to your home.
