How much should a will cost?

[liveintheville]

H and I have been extremely lazy about this ( the kids are 8 and 5) but we're ready now. The one I called on the recommendation of a friend charges $2100. Is this normal?? It's for wills, living wills, health proxies for each of us then a trust. For the kids.

[iheartbanjos]

Ours was $750, discounted from $1000 for L/MCOL. We met the estate attorney at a party.

[imojoebunny]

We have a quote for about $900 for a regular will, and the trust stuff for the kids, and health related decision making papers. We haven't done it either. They want too much information, all our accounts and things. We don't really want all that, since it changes. I need to find someone who will do it without us listing out all our assets. All we have now is a very simple will for each of us, and I have an advanced directive, but DH won't do one.

[Deleted]

That sounds about right. Remember, minors can't inherit so a trust is really important! A will doesn't have as much "power" as many assume it does. (From your post, it sounds like you're getting a trust, which is key.)

[MNH2013]

Also check your work benefits. Ours were prepared free of charge through our EAP.

[Cicero]

We just paid $1k for both of ours (wills/trust language/POAs/living wills/whole shebang) without any sort of friends discount. The last time we had them done I gave the friend who drafted them a set of MLB baseball tickets and a parking pass. I don't know what I would call it--maybe a MCOL area.

[Pom]

We did ours this past year. No kids, but left assets to nieces. Pretty simple estate planning, POA, Medical Power of Attorney, Directives, Wills $650. This was a smaller office, in our area, but not in the city. City attorney/larger firm quoted us $2500. No difference in what we were quoted for within the docs/package.

[UnderProtest]

I believe ours was $1,600 a couple years ago in a MCOL. It included guardianship, trusts, a special clause if all 4 of us died and a deed change on our house.

Oh, and it was a one guy shop, not a big firm with expensive offices.

[CrazyLucky]

Wow, we live in LCOL, but still! It cost us $450 for the original documents - will, power of attorney for medical, POA for other stuff, the health directive (the one that says don't keep me on life support). Then when we updated them after DS was born, it cost $200. One tip from our lawyer is to make the will say something about "all lawful children." That way if you have another or adopt, you don't have to change the will.

[lishie]

DH and I are signing new ones tomorrow. We're in a fairly LCOL are and are using an attorney in one of our city's larger firms. They charge $1,000 for everything. Wills, trusts, financial POA, healthcare POA, etc.

[justjen]

I signed up for the legal service service (Hyatt Legal Plan) through my work last year, and the will and all the other "basics" that go with it were included in my fee. I think it was like $15/mo? You just go to one of the lawyers associated with the serve, so the lawyer was someone local to us, not necessarily tied to where my job is.

[lolo]

$800 for trust set up plus will. Vhcol.

[melmel48]

My Aunt and Uncle paid around $3,000. I couldn't believe it! They want their son and daughter in law to get nothing (the grandkids get everything) and my Uncle said it was worth every penny to know his daughter in law won't get anything of his.

[hockeywife]

Feb 18, 2016 18:24:20 GMT -5 tryingtobehappy said:

I live in a VHCOL area but I wonder if I could get a lawyer in a lcol area to make a will. Does anyone know if it's possible? Here the quote is around 3 k

I'm an estate planning attorney about 2.5 hours outside of NYC and I've actually built quite a large client base of NYC residents bc our "high" rates are still a deal in comparison to most attorneys in the city.

It helps that I travel to the city every few months for other business and I can meet with clients then (or they can come to me).

A word to the wise: not all info in this thread is correct. A lot of this stuff is state specific, so be careful what you read on here!

[drloretta]

That sounds about right. A basic will can be cheap, but the more involved, the more it will cost. My parents paid about $3500 for all the bells and whistles.

[sweetteavodka]

When we had life insurance through MetLife it was included as a free benefit. Maybe check and see if you have anything similar.

[dr.girlfriend]

Does your work offer a legal plan? We joined mine for a year (Hyatt Legal I think it was), did all our wills, trusts, power of attorneys, etc. The legal plan was about $250 for the year I think, so totally worth it.