How Much Does Estate Planning Cost? (2026): DIY vs Attorney, In Dollars

Updated July 23, 2026. Quick answer: Estate planning costs anywhere from $0 to about $5,000 depending on the route. DIY platforms run $0 (FreeWill) to $599 (Trust & Will’s couples trust plan). Attorney-drafted documents, per a 2026 nationwide study of 909 law firms: a simple will has a median of $625 (middle half of firms: $450–$1,000) and a revocable living trust package a median of $2,475 (middle half: $1,600–$3,000); the National Council on Aging puts a full attorney-prepared plan at $2,000–$5,000+. Hourly work typically bills $250–$400/hour. All prices below were pulled from the platforms’ own pricing pages and named surveys, checked July 23, 2026.

Fast routes: Probate cost by state | Small-estate limits by state | How much a will costs | How much a living trust costs | Methodology | Ancillary probate calculator

DIY platform prices (from their own pricing pages, July 23, 2026)

Attorney-drafted documents: what the surveys show

Source honesty notes: the LegalTemplates study is published by a DIY-documents company (an interest in making attorneys look expensive), so we treat its medians as one input and corroborate against NCOA and marketplace data — they broadly agree. The Martindale-Nolo package figures date to 2018 and understate current prices. The vast majority of estate planning firms quote flat fees, so always ask for one.

What actually drives the price up

Per NCOA and the fee studies, the levers are: estate complexity (blended families, business ownership, out-of-state property, special-needs beneficiaries), plan type (trust-based costs roughly 3–4x will-based at the median, but bundles typically save ~$1,000 versus buying documents separately), geography (major metros price above the national range), and attorney experience. State law matters too — what probate costs if you don’t plan varies enormously, which is the next section.

Will-based or trust-based? The probate math decides

The honest way to evaluate a ~$2,475 trust package against a ~$625 will is to price what a trust avoids: probate in your state. In statutory-fee states the avoided cost is computable — a $1,000,000 gross California estate generates up to $46,000 in combined statutory attorney and executor compensation, which makes trust economics obvious; in reasonable-fee states the avoided cost is smaller and depends on complexity. Our statute-cited probate cost by state table gives your state’s answer, and the small-estate limits table shows when an estate is small enough to skip formal probate regardless. Or let the will vs trust breakeven calculator run your state’s statutory math on your numbers.

Five copy/paste questions for any estate planning quote

1. Is this a flat fee, and exactly which documents does it include — will or trust, powers of attorney, healthcare directive, HIPAA authorization?
2. If it’s a trust package, does the fee include funding the trust — retitling accounts and deeds — or is that extra?
3. What would the same plan cost as a will-based package, and what does probate actually cost in this state that the trust would avoid?
4. What do updates cost later — amendments, restatements, or an annual plan?
5. Are there state-specific costs here (deed recording, transfer taxes, notarization requirements) not in the quote?

Work out the number for your estate

Seven states publish a statutory percentage schedule, so probate cost there is arithmetic you can check — and in several of them the attorney and the personal representative are each entitled to the full amount, which doubles it. The probate cost calculator does that math for all 51 jurisdictions, cites the statute beside each result, and tells you whether your estate is small enough to skip full probate altogether.

What probate costs if you skip the planning

The case for paying for planning is the cost of the alternative. These pages price that alternative in each state, from the fee statute rather than an estimate:

• Alabama
• Alaska
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• California
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• District of Columbia
• Florida
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Montana
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• New York
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Vermont
• Virginia
• Washington
• West Virginia
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming

Methodology

This page was materially reviewed on July 23, 2026. Platform prices were read directly from each company’s public pricing page on that date (list prices, ignoring temporary promotions); survey figures are attributed inline with their publication dates and publisher interests disclosed. Figures are educational benchmarks, not quotes, and prices change. Nothing here is legal, tax, or personalized financial advice. See our Editorial Policy, Corrections, Affiliate Disclosure, and Disclaimer.

If you are on the receiving end instead

Pricing the planning is one question. What it costs to have someone manage the money afterwards is a different one, and it is rarely computed:

• What 1% actually costs on a $1M inheritance — the fees paid and the ending balance are two different numbers
• At $250,000, what decides it is composition, not size
• Hourly vs AUM — an inheritance is a burst of decisions, not a permanent stream
• How long to wait — hiring and deploying are two separate clocks
• Attorney, CPA or advisor first? Order by what is irreversible
• Before the estate closes there is usually nothing to manage yet