Flat fee. $3,000 for a single person. $4,000 for a married couple. That's the full price for most California families. Living trust, will, powers of attorney, advance health care directive, and the trust transfer deed for your California home. Same fee whether you meet us in El Dorado Hills, Roseville, or by Zoom from anywhere in the state. No hourly billing. No surprise invoices. Once you are a client, follow-up questions are free.
Base flat fee. Final fee depends on what you need.
Base flat fee. Final fee depends on what you need.
The Revocable Living Trust holds your home and major assets, names who gets what, and names a successor trustee to manage everything if you become incapacitated or pass away. California probate runs twelve to eighteen months and costs roughly $40,000 to $50,000 in attorney fees and court costs for a typical home-owning family. A properly drafted and funded living trust avoids all of it.
The asset protection language built into the trust significantly shields your children's inheritance from a future divorce. Many California firms charge separately for this drafting or skip it entirely. We include it in the flat fee whenever it fits your family.
The Durable Power of Attorney authorizes the person you choose to pay your bills, file your taxes, sell property if needed, and manage your financial affairs if you cannot. Without it, your family ends up filing a conservatorship petition in probate court if you become incapacitated, which becomes a living probate.
The Advance Health Care Directive and HIPAA authorization name the person who makes medical decisions for you if you cannot, and authorize your doctors to talk to that person.
The Trust Transfer Deed moves your California home into the trust and records it with the county. We do this as part of the flat fee.
The Pour-Over Will picks up any asset you didn't put in the trust and routes it there. Also names guardians for minor children. Every estate plan needs one even when the trust is the workhorse document.
Schedule a free fifteen-minute intro call. You'll talk to one of our California estate planning attorneys, who will personally walk through what your family needs.
Trust administration is what happens after a loved one dies. The successor trustee has a lot of work to do, and most hire an estate planning attorney to help them. The successor trustee notifies beneficiaries, values the assets, manages the trust property, handles any required tax filings, prepares an accounting of assets and expenses, and makes distributions to the beneficiaries. We handle California trust administration throughout the state, and we charge a flat fee.
Our minimum fee for a trust administration is $7,500. Our fee varies depending on the circumstances. Four factors drive the fee: the size of the estate, the complexity of the assets, the number and type of beneficiaries (adults, children, charities), and family dynamics, which is often the biggest factor. When the beneficiaries get along, the work goes smoothly, and the fee is lower. When they're fighting each other or the trustee, it takes far more time and effort, and the fee is higher.
There is a basic pattern and structure to every trust administration, but those four factors make each one unique. Once we gather the basic information and understand the context, we quote you a flat fee. You work directly with an experienced California attorney from the first call to the final distribution. No hourly billing, no surprise invoices.
We use flat fees for a reason. Trustees often feel a tension with their own attorney: they need to ask a question, but they don't want to be billed $500 every time they pick up the phone. So they hesitate, they guess, and small problems grow into expensive ones. A flat fee removes that tension entirely. There is no meter running, so you call when you need to. Eliminating billable hours puts us and the trustee on the same team, working toward the same finish line: a clean, complete administration and a distribution everyone can trust.
Our flat fee for updates depends on who drafted the original plan.
If we drafted your estate plan, our update fee is generally $1,000 to $2,000, depending on what needs to change.
If we didn't draft your estate plan, we have to start from scratch, and our fee is generally the same as a new plan: $3,000 for a single person or $4,000 for a married couple, less $500 if your home is already in the existing trust and we don't need to pull title, prepare a new deed, and record it.
If you want a clear plan for your dogs or cats, we can add pet trust provisions to your living trust. The provisions name a caretaker, set aside funds for care, and give instructions for how the funds get used. Quoted flat fee at the intro call.
Many old-school-style California estate planning firms charge more, take six weeks or longer, and route the work and the client relationship through a paralegal and a case manager after the initial meeting.
Some firms are primarily litigation practices that handle estate planning on the side. The attorney drafting your trust may handle a few estate plans a year, while the firm's real focus and expertise is elsewhere.
Many estate planning attorneys are solo practitioners. When they retire, leave the state, or stop practicing, the client has to start over with someone new.
Most DIY online template platforms charge less, generate documents from a questionnaire, and have no attorney accountable for the result. Fingers crossed.
A growing trend: financial advisors offering to draft their clients' estate plans for free, as a way to lock in the relationship. Several venture-funded software platforms now make this possible: a financial advisor version of LegalZoom. An option if you believe your advisor is qualified to write the legal documents that will protect your family and assets.
We only do California estate planning and trust administration. You work directly with an attorney, never a paralegal or case manager. Most plans finished in about two weeks. Flat fees and we return calls quickly.
For most California families, yes. The flat fee covers a complete estate plan: living trust, certification of trust, pour-over will, durable power of attorney, advance health care directive and HIPAA, trust transfer deed for your California home, and divorce protection provisions for your children's inheritance. No hourly billing. No surprise invoices. No separate charge for the trust transfer deed.
We quote a higher flat fee. The base price covers most California families. For blended families, special needs children, business ownership, unique assets, or complex planning goals, the flat fee runs higher than the base. We lock in the number once we understand what you have, and what you need, sometimes on the intro call, sometimes after the design meeting. You will know the fee before you hire us. No surprises.
Online platforms charge less and produce documents from a questionnaire you complete with no attorney accountable for the result. Will your DIY plan work when you need it to work? Maybe. Maybe not. We fix DIY estate plans for clients all the time.
Many California estate planning firms charge more and take six weeks or longer to finish a plan, with most of the drafting and client communication routed through a paralegal and case manager after the initial meeting. We finish faster, you work directly with one attorney from the first call to the final signing, and the flat fee is the full price.
Most California trust administrations fall between $7,500 and $20,000, depending on the size of the estate, the types of assets, and how well the family works together. Larger or more involved matters run higher and we quote those flat fees based on the specific facts.
It depends on who drafted the original plan. If we drafted your estate plan, our update fee is generally $1,000 to $2,000 depending on what needs to change. If we didn't draft your estate plan, we have to start from scratch and the fee is generally the same as a new plan: $3,000 single or $4,000 married, less $500 if your home is already in the existing trust and we don't need to pull title, prepare a new deed, and record it.
Sometime before you die. Otherwise, it's too late.