Tips To Reduce Estate Planning Fee Schedule Attorney Costs (from My Experience)

My wife and I hired the same estate planning attorney twice. I didn’t follow my own rule of asking for the estate planning fee schedule ahead of the attorney’s service. Oh Boy, was I surprised? Estate planning attorney costs are expensive! It’s especially expensive if you don’t ask for the schedule and know the pricing options.

Estate planning costs tend to range
from a few hundred dollars to several thousand.

Índice

Estate Attorney Planning Cost Questions to Ask Yourself When Hiring an Attorney

Estate Attorney Planning Cost Questions to Ask Yourself When Hiring an Attorney

1. Trusts Are Basic for Most People

If you have kids, you should immediately establish a trust to protect them. For most average American, a Trust does not need to be complicated or extremely expensive.

You should not be shy about reminding the estate planner you want a basic Trust and try negotiating a better flat fee or a revision in the future. Revisions can include new assets or a business, newborn child, or change of beneficiaries or guardians.

You do estate planning to avoid probate for your family and beneficiaries.

2. Ask Family & Friends for Referrals

After we received the outlandish bill for revising our Trust, I started calling friends and family for comparable pricing. I was shocked to hear I was billed well over twice comparable work. One friend used an estate planning firm that charges a flat fee and has unlimited revisions in the future. It was even more surprising that his quote was well under the price I paid for the original setup and now my revisions.

Lee TambiénHow To Make Automotive Audio system Louder With out Amp?

3. Ask for an Initial Meeting

Most estate planning lawyers will not charge for the initial meeting. It’s not a universal policy and may prefer the initial consultation by phone. The time they spend with you reduces the time they can devote billing someone else for work.

4. Check Out the Attorney’s Office

In hindsight, I should have known I was overpaying. When I dropped the check off at their office, they had a beautiful view of the Chicago skyline in an expensive building on a costly street. My accountant, on the other hand, has a very basic office with the bare necessities on the second floor of a boring strip mall. They are wonderful, and my annual bill is exceptionally reasonable.

5. Be Prepared Ahead of the First Meeting

To save time and money, be prepared ahead of your first meeting. Create a balance sheet of all your assets and potential assets you expect within the next few years.

Discuss with your significant other the beneficiaries, who will manage your minor’s assets, charities, life choices if you are incapacitated, and other related questions.

6. Personalized Estate Planning Solutions

You ultimately need them to provide you estate planning solutions for your current lifestyle and future expectations.

Be organized ahead of your first meeting. The attorney’s time is your money. If the attorney sees you are disorganized and time-consuming, it will cost more for planning. Let them focus on planning vs trying to decipher your financial situation.

7. Always Ask for a Flat Fee Schedule

Since initially drafting the documents, we’ve had two guardians for my kids pass-away and also our affiliation with some charities changed over time. Also, we wanted our trust to prevent our kids from getting money too early. No one ever knows what their child will be like in their 20’s, so I’d rather delay any inheritance.

These were all relatively minor
changes to our original trust.

We decided to use the same estate
planner since he was familiar with our wishes and the creator of the original
estate documents.

What seemed like minimal work to me
was deemed to be a lot of work for the attorney. Once complete, we
received a bill for about double what originally cost to create a trust, a
living trust, and put our house in the trust. When I questioned the
attorney, he said I essentially made the mistake of not asking for a flat fee
while he instead charged me per hour for the revisions. I was speechless
given he was an acquaintance and it was considerably less work than the
original drafting.

Don’t make my mistake. Always ask the estate planning attorney costs ahead of time. Ask the estate lawyer for a flat fee vs. an hourly fee. An estate attorney cost per hour can range from $150 to $600 per hour depending on location.

8. Comparing Estate Planning Fee Schedules

After getting my second bill, I started calling more friends and got more references. I was amazed some attorneys will not only charge you a flat rate but offer either limited or unlimited revisions in your lifetime.

9. Estate Planning Binders

The attorney will provide you a summary of all the legal documents once all your estate planning solutions are complete.

You should receive one or several estate planning binders which include documents like:

Trust documents for both spouses
Living Will
Health Power of Attorney
Children’s Trust
Financial accounts transferred or to be transferred into the Trust
Tax ID number for the trust

The estate planning binders can be simple to very complex depending on the package you chose.

Keep your estate planning binders in a safe place such as a fireproof safe or a bank deposit box.

Tips to Reduce Estate Planning Fee Schedule Attorney Costs (from my experience)