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Military Funeral Honors — What the State Pays the Honour Guard

Since July 2023 the state pays a congressionally chartered veterans organisation $50 for each funeral at which it renders honours. The family pays nothing and claims nothing. Knowing the stipend exists is what lets a family ask for full honours rather than accept a recording and a folded flag.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

What it's worth: $50 paid by the state to the veterans organisation rendering honours — one organisation per funeral

The stipend is paid to the organisation, not to the family. It buys the family nothing directly; it is why the honour guard can afford to turn out.
The department describes the qualifying detail as including folding and presentation of the flag, presentation of the state coin, taps by live bugler or a high-quality recording, and a three-volley salute.
An organisation cannot draw the stipend for honours already funded through another source, including the federal Authorized Provider Partnership Program.

Who is entitled to it

Your discharge characterisation is within the usual range for state veteran programmes.
You are in this state.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

1Ask the funeral director to request military funeral honours explicitly. It is not automatic, and the request has to reach either the Guard's honours office or a chartered veterans organisation.
2Ask specifically what the detail will include. The state stipend is written around a detail that includes the flag, taps and a three-volley salute — so a family being offered less can reasonably ask why.
3The presentation of the state coin is part of the described detail here. Families often do not know it exists and so do not ask.
4Have the DD214 to hand. Eligibility for honours is established from the discharge document, and a funeral director who has it early can arrange the detail faster.
5If a chartered organisation renders the honours, tell them the state stipend exists — a smaller post may not have registered for it, and registration needs a substitute W-9 (SFN 53656) and an ACH authorisation (SFN 51620) the first time.
6Live taps is worth asking for. The stipend is payable whether a bugler or a recording is used, so there is no state saving in the recording.

Form: Military Funeral Honors Stipend Request (SFN 62362) — filed by the organisation, not the family
File with: The state Department of Veterans Affairs
Documents you will need: dd214
No renewal: Once granted it does not need renewing.

Worth knowingThis record carries a low value figure deliberately. The $50 never reaches the family. It is here because it changes what a family can ask for: the state has priced a full honour detail, so a full honour detail is what the system is built to deliver.

Worth knowingThe bar on double funding matters at the arrangement stage. If honours come through the federal partnership programme, the state stipend is not additionally payable — so a post being asked to cover a second funeral the same week is not being awkward when it asks which route is being used.

Known gapThe department does not publish how quickly the stipend is paid or whether there is an annual ceiling per organisation. A small post planning its year would need that from the department directly.

Sources

authority · published policyDepartment of Veterans Affairs — Funeral Honor Detail Stipend for Veteran Service Organizations (citing N.D.C.C. 37-18-16, HB-1182 of 2023)
operating · published policyDepartment of Veterans Affairs — State Burial Benefits index

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