Guides › Estate, Probate & Inheritance › Living Trust Cost
Updated September 23, 2026. Quick answer: A revocable living trust drawn up by a Texas attorney runs a median $2,450, $2,050–$2,900 for the middle half of the 909 firms LegalTemplates surveyed in 2026. That lands almost exactly on the $2,475 national median for a standalone trust, right in the middle of the ten states compared here. A DIY platform runs $149 to $649. What that spend buys locally: Harris County, Texas’s most populous, charges a flat $360 for probate of a will, administration, or heirship, regardless of estate size.
Whether the state taxes the trust’s income is a separate question: does Texas tax trust income.
Fast routes: National living trust cost guide | Texas probate filing fee | Texas probate cost | Is a living trust worth it in Texas?
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How our partner relationships workLiving trust cost in Texas: attorney vs DIY
Set against the national median and the DIY platforms:
| Figure | Amount |
|---|---|
| Attorney median, Texas | $2,450 |
| Attorney middle-50% range, Texas | $2,050–$2,900 |
| National median, all 50 states and DC | $2,475 |
| DIY document platform range | $149–$649 |
Attorneys who bundle the trust into a fuller package (pour-over will, financial power of attorney, healthcare documents) charge a national median of $2,700 for that package. DIY document platforms run $149 to $649 and do not vary by state; the national living trust cost guide has the full platform comparison table (LegalZoom, Trust & Will, Quicken WillMaker, FreeWill) with what each one includes.
Attorney figures: LegalTemplates, September 23, 2026.
What a living trust avoids: probate in Texas
Texas’s probate system is what a funded trust bypasses entirely; here is what that system actually charges. Harris County, Texas’s most populous, charges a flat $360 for probate of a will, administration, or heirship, regardless of estate size. Full filing-fee breakdown.
Texas fixes the executor’s compensation by statute: 5% of cash received plus 5% of cash paid out, capped in aggregate at 5% of the gross value of the estate subject to administration (Tex. Estates Code §352.002), while attorney fees are simply reasonable, so that half of the bill still tracks hours worked. Full Texas probate cost guide, including how small an estate has to be to sidestep probate on its own.
Texas living trust: signing, notary and the deed
Each line is a short extract quoted from, or a plain summary of, the statute cited; the section has the exceptions.
- Creating the trust. Tex. Prop. Code § 112.002: “…the settlor manifests an intention to create a trust…”
- Writing rule. Tex. Prop. Code § 112.004 (summarized, not quoted): a trust in real or personal property is enforceable only if there is written evidence of the trust’s terms bearing the signature of the settlor or the settlor’s authorized agent.
- Certification of trust. Tex. Prop. Code § 114.086: “…the trustee may provide to the person a certification of trust…”
For what the court side costs if a trust is not used, see Texas probate cost.
Funding the trust in Texas
The trust protects only what is actually inside it, which for real estate means a recorded deed change, not just the trust paperwork. Funding the trust costs nothing extra in tax either way: Texas has no state real estate transfer tax of any kind (Tex. Const. art. VIII, §29), so a deed into your own trust is never taxed. A Texas home held in a qualifying revocable trust keeps its homestead property-tax exemption (Tex. Tax Code §11.13(j)) and its homestead creditor protection (Tex. Prop. Code §41.0021). The deed still has to be recorded at the county clerk’s office, for example $25 for the first page in Harris County.
Is a living trust worth it in Texas?
$2,450 up front buys out of the probate costs above, and buys privacy and speed a will cannot: no public court file, no waiting on a judge’s calendar. The full worth-it analysis for Texas runs the trade against your own real estate and estate size.
Sources
- LegalTemplates, 2026 Estate Planning Costs in the US (909 firms, read September 23, 2026).
- Texas probate filing fee, Texas probate cost, national living trust cost guide (Clear Money Guide).
- Statute/agency source, transfer-tax/recording source.