Fair Price + Recommendations for Wills/Trusts/Estates/Advance Directive Attorney/Services?

[ACDC771]

NOTE: I have real property in DC, so I assume I would need to get a DC attorney.....but if not, I am open to whatever lawyer is best/cheapest in DMV area

I know others have asked this question before on this board, but it seems like the lawyers/firms and prices quoted are older and might not be accurate any longer (i.e., a lot of these firms offered heavily discounted services about 1-3 years ago, given COVID + heavy number of retirements).

After some research online, I think I would need the following: 1) Living Trust (main estate document); 2) Pour over will ("pours over" into living trust....sort of like a catch all for anything not captured in living trust if any accidents made); 3) Advance directive/medical directive (if I get injured). The problem is that I have no way of getting a sense of a "Fair" price for these types of services - some firms have quoted me at around $7k for those three documents, others way lower, and some firms with ads online seem to be able to do this for about $1k total.

There does not seem to be a good way to gauge quality and prices for these types of legal services, so reaching out to everyone here to see if they have any recommendations and/or what they paid so I get a sense of what is "fair" price for this.

[Anonymous]

What is your net worth?

[Anonymous]

ACDC771 wrote:NOTE: I have real property in DC, so I assume I would need to get a DC attorney.....but if not, I am open to whatever lawyer is best/cheapest in DMV area

I know others have asked this question before on this board, but it seems like the lawyers/firms and prices quoted are older and might not be accurate any longer (i.e., a lot of these firms offered heavily discounted services about 1-3 years ago, given COVID + heavy number of retirements).

I am an attorney. I alway say that the problem with choosing an attorney is that lay people have no idea of their lawyer is any good. And the only way to know for certain is to get a referral from another good attorney. But therein lies the rub. You don’t know if you first attorney is any good.

There was an attorney a number of years ago who wrote a nationally syndicated column. He was highly regarded and seen as an expert by everyone, except those practiced in the same field. Amongst them he was viewed as mediocre on a good day.

After some research online, I think I would need the following: 1) Living Trust (main estate document); 2) Pour over will ("pours over" into living trust....sort of like a catch all for anything not captured in living trust if any accidents made); 3) Advance directive/medical directive (if I get injured). The problem is that I have no way of getting a sense of a "Fair" price for these types of services - some firms have quoted me at around $7k for those three documents, others way lower, and some firms with ads online seem to be able to do this for about $1k total.

There does not seem to be a good way to gauge quality and prices for these types of legal services, so reaching out to everyone here to see if they have any recommendations and/or what they paid so I get a sense of what is "fair" price for this.

[Anonymous]

I haven’t shopped this in a while but I’d think you could get all that done from a solo practitioner for under $2k. A big law firm would probably be more like $5-7k