How much does estate planning cost?
Trust & Will publishes $199 for an individual online will. Lawyers do not publish fees. The bigger cost is often probate later.
Almost every page that answers this question quotes a range for what a lawyer charges. We are not going to, because nobody publishes it — those ranges are estimates repeated between blogs until they look like facts. What is published, and what we can show you at its source, is three things: what the online services charge, what the courts charge, and what a state statute allows a probate lawyer to be paid when there is no plan at all.
Costs you can look up
Estate planning is not one price. It is several separate spends, and they arrive at different times — some while you are alive, one after you die.
| What | When you pay | Published figure | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online will plan | Now | $199 individual / $299 couples | Trust & Will published pricing |
| Online trust plan | Now | $499 individual / $599 couples | Trust & Will published pricing |
| Attorney-drafted plan | Now | Not published by firms — call and ask | — |
| Depositing the will with the court | Now (optional) | $25 in Ohio | Ohio Rev. Code § 2107.07 |
| Filing the will after a death | After death | $50 in California | Cal. Gov. Code § 70626 |
| Opening informal probate | After death | $175 in Michigan | Michigan Legal Help |
| Probate attorney compensation | After death | Percentage of the estate, set by statute in California | Cal. Prob. Code § 10810 |
The online figures come straight from Trust & Will’s published pricing page, read on August 21, 2026: Will Plan $199 for an individual and $299 for couples; Trust Plan $499 and $599; an optional membership at $49 a year; optional attorney support at an extra $299. Prices change — open the link and check today’s.
How much does an estate planning lawyer charge?
This is the version of the question most people are really asking, and the honest answer is that it is not published anywhere we could verify. Law firms quote per matter, per state, and per complexity. Any site printing “typically $X to $Y nationwide” is repeating an estimate, and we will not add another one to the pile.
What to ask instead
- Flat fee or hourly? Many firms quote a flat fee for a straightforward will and reserve hourly billing for complications.
- What documents are included?A “plan” may mean a will alone, or a will plus powers of attorney and a health care directive. The word does the work of hiding the difference.
- What triggers an extra charge? Retitling property, a trust, a business interest, a beneficiary with a disability.
- What does it cost to change it later? Wills get updated. Find out now what that costs.
- Will you hold the original?Free for some firms, declined by others. Worth knowing before you sign — see do lawyers keep original copies of wills.
Two or three calls will get you real numbers for your own state, which is worth more than any national average. Your state bar’s lawyer referral service is a reasonable place to start the list.
The cost on the other side: what probate is allowed to take
The expensive number in estate planning is usually not the plan. It is what happens after death when the estate goes through probate. California is unusual in that it writes the figure into statute, which means we can show it to you exactly rather than estimate it.
| Portion of the estate | Statutory rate |
|---|---|
| First $100,000 | 4% |
| Next $100,000 | 3% |
| Next $800,000 | 2% |
| Next $9,000,000 | 1% |
| Next $15,000,000 | One-half of 1% |
| Above $25,000,000 | A reasonable amount determined by the court |
Probate Code § 10810is the source. Note what the percentages apply to: the value of the estate accounted for by the personal representative, calculated as the section describes. And note that this is one state’s schedule — most states do not set fees this way, and the comparison with a several-hundred-dollar plan only holds where a statute like this one applies.
The tax number most people are worried about
Estate tax comes up in almost every conversation about this and applies to almost nobody. The IRS filing threshold is $13,990,000 for people who died in 2025 and $15,000,000 for 2026. Below that, no federal estate tax return is required.
States are a separate matter. Some impose their own estate or inheritance tax at far lower thresholds, and those rules are set state by state. Check yours, or ask the attorney you call — it is a one-question answer for someone who practices there.
Sources
Every rule and figure on this page was read directly from the source below on the date shown. Statutes are amended; check the current text before you rely on it.
- Trust & Will — Pricing — United States (online will company). Read 2026-08-21.
- California Probate Code § 10810 — California. Read 2026-08-21.
- Michigan Legal Help (nonprofit legal-information service) — An Overview of Informal Probate — Michigan. Read 2026-08-21.
- California Government Code § 70626 — California. Read 2026-08-21.
- Ohio Revised Code § 2107.07 — Ohio. Read 2026-08-21.
- IRS — Estate Tax — United States (federal). Read 2026-08-21.
Common follow-up questions
Why won't you tell me what a lawyer charges?▾
Because law firms do not publish it, and we only print numbers we read at their source. Fees swing on the state, the complexity of the estate and the firm. The honest instruction is to call two or three firms in your state and ask directly — most will quote a flat fee for a simple will over the phone.
Is a flat fee or an hourly rate better?▾
That depends on your situation and it is a fair question to ask a firm outright. What you can control is the ambiguity: ask what is included, what triggers an extra charge, and whether reviewing or updating the documents later costs more. Get the answer in writing before you engage.
Do I need to worry about federal estate tax?▾
For most families, no. The IRS filing threshold is $13,990,000 for deaths in 2025 and $15,000,000 for deaths in 2026. Estates below that do not file a federal estate tax return. States can impose their own estate or inheritance taxes at much lower thresholds, so check your state separately.
Does a living trust avoid these costs?▾
A trust is often sold on the promise of avoiding probate, and probate costs are real — California's statutory schedule below shows how they scale. But a trust costs more upfront, only helps for assets actually retitled into it, and does not fit every family. This is precisely the question to put to an attorney licensed in your state rather than to a website.
What are the court fees themselves?▾
Small compared with everything else, and lookup-able. Michigan charges $175 to file for informal probate. Ohio charges $25 to deposit a will with the probate court for safekeeping. California charges $50 to deliver a will to the superior court clerk. These are the statutory figures, not estimates.
Please read
This is general information, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. We are not a law firm and no one here is your lawyer. Wills and estates are governed by state law, and the rules differ from one state to the next — a deadline or a form that is right in Florida can be wrong in Ohio. The statutes quoted on this site are the ones we read, cited by name so you can check them yourself. Before you sign, store, change or file anything, talk to an attorney licensed in your state, or start with your state bar’s lawyer referral service or your state court’s self-help center. More about who we are.