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Did someone die and leave you an estate to settle? Or are you pricing a will or a trust?

Probate and Estate Planning Costs by State

Learn the attorney and executor fees your state allows, worked out on the estate's value, and whether the estate is small enough to skip probate.

It's 100% free, with no sign-up and no cost to you.

Free tool

Probate attorney and executor fee calculator

How to use this free tool

  1. Answer the 2 questions below.
  2. Press "See the fee rule for this estate".
  3. Learn the attorney fee and executor fee computed from your state's recorded schedule, step by step, or the rule its statute sets instead. Every line shows its source.

A rough figure works; the result shows each step so you can redo it. The value of what the estate holds, before debts; each statute names its own base, and the result quotes it.

This form does not ask for your name, email or phone number. Your answers are worked out in your browser, and personal answers stay out of the page link.

Legal Cost by State is operated by LeadVera Media, a marketing company that is not a law firm and does not provide legal services. Nothing on this site is legal advice.

Tools

Tool

Probate Fee Calculator: Attorney and Executor Fees

Choose your state and enter an estate value to learn the attorney and executor fees its statute sets, tier by tier, or the rule where it sets no schedule, and the state's small-estate limit, each with its source.

See the fee rule for this estate
Tool

Is the Estate Small Enough? Check by State

Choose your state, a personal property band, whether real property is in the estate and the time since death to learn whether the band sits under the recorded small-estate limit, whether the wait is met, and the real-property and short-procedure rules, each with its source.

Check this estate

State charts

51-row chart

Probate Fees and Small Estate Limits by State

Learn the attorney and executor fee rules, small estate affidavit and short court procedure limits, creditor claim periods and the probate court in your state, one row per state, each with its source.

See the state chart

Guides

Guide

Probate Timeline: Deadlines and Creditor Periods

Learn the court-stated timeline, the creditor claim periods that set your minimum, and the waiting periods for small-estate affidavits.

Read the guide
Guide

Living Trust Cost: Online Prices and Funding Costs

Learn the online list prices for a revocable living trust, what it can cost to move your property into it, and how that compares with probate fees.

Read the guide
Guide

Will Cost: Online Prices, Free Forms, Lawyers

Learn the online list prices, the free fill-in wills two states print in their statutes, signing costs, and what drives a lawyer's price.

Read the guide
Guide

Probate Cost by State: Attorney and Executor Fees

Learn California's statutory fee schedule with worked examples, the states that allow a reasonable fee instead, and the court filing fees you can expect.

Read the guide
Guide

Small Estate Affidavit: Limits and How It Works

Learn how you, as an heir, can collect property without probate, the dollar limits and waiting periods in six states, and what counts toward the limit.

Read the guide

This section explains what a will, a living trust and probate cost, and how long probate takes, using the fee schedules, deadlines and dollar limits written into state statutes and court self-help pages, plus the list prices online services publish. Each guide names its sources and the date they were checked, and works the arithmetic where a statute sets a percentage.