For most California families, that's the full price for a complete estate plan. Living trust, will, powers of attorney, health care directive, and the trust transfer deed for your home. 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.
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.
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.
Trust administration is what happens after a family member passes away. The successor trustee notifies beneficiaries, values the assets, manages the trust property, files what needs to be filed, and distributes what your family member left to the people they named. We handle California trust administration throughout the state, and we charge a flat fee.
There is a pattern and structure to a trust administration, but also many variables that make each one different, including family dynamics, estate value, and asset types. Once we gather the basic information and understand the context, we can quote a fixed fee.
Our minimum fee for a trust administration is $7,500. 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.
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.