Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

I charge between $1,800 and $3,500, depending on the complexity of the estate plan, as a fixed fee including trust, will(s), powers of attorney, assignment and trust transfer deed (s). I have seen both lower and higher fees.

You should find out how much time the attorney will actually spend with you discussing the law and what you wish to achieve by the Trust, what part of the time will just be a para-legal or secretary filing out a form document, what documents are provided, what the charges would be later if you what to make any change, how many Trusts the attorney has prepared, if you are being charged an hourly or flat rate, what the hourly rate is, what percentage of their business is trusts, estates, probate and what other types of legal matters do they handle. Cost is important but you also need to know what you are going to get for that price; you also need to determine whether your needs are very simple or complicated, as that will determine the price. If complex, it is worth spending more money to make sure it is done right.

Although I am licensed to practice law in both California and Nevada I write trusts only in Nevada. I charge $675 to do a trust for an individual or a couple and associated documents such as pourover wills, health care powers of attorney and one deed transferring the residence into the trust, and a Certificate and Affidavit of Trust. My trusts provide for successor trustees while the original grantors are still alive if they become disabled and can provide for a plan to gradually pay out assets to children, whether adults or minor. My trusts do not include tax planning, although currently there is no federal estate tax on estates under $5,000,000. My trusts do not seek to protect the grantors of the trust from their creditors although they can protect the eventual gift to the grantors' children from the children's creditors. I have been writing these trusts for over 20 years and find that they are very effective at avoiding probate and any significant fees upon the death of the grantors. My clients can make them as complex or simple as they want.

It seems to me that the price of trusts varies greatly. Also, the length of trusts varies. My trusts are a few pages and I encourage my clients to read and understand them. Some attorneys produce a trust that is an inch thick and obviously none of their clients actually read the trusts. An effective trust does not have to be more than a few pages long in most cases. I explain my trusts at my website, www.probatenevada.net

In many ways the price of a trust can be analogized to buying a car. For less than $25,000 you can buy a really reliable safe brand new car. Or you can spend a lot more.

Before committing to pay a lot of money for a trust you can always ask an attorney what the charge for a trust will be and then pay for a consultation to see if this is an attorney you feel confident in.