Is $5 - $7K to have a will drafted and trust established reasonable?

[Anonymous]

OP, see if your employer offers any sort of deal Some employers have deals with firms for these sort of services at a discount. I ended up purchasing an optional attorney coverage plan through my work. I had to sign up for the whole year as part of open enrollment, but it ended up being just a couple hundred bucks for the year, so well worth it. I got the service at no additional charge via the plan, which is why I signed up.

Also really shop around an do your homework. The initial consultation should be free. One attorney tried to rip us off by saying we would owe an additional $5-6K for his services, when in fact our plan covered 100%. We went with another attorney who correctly told us that the plan covered everything except a small fee to file it with DC and move our property under the will. It was about $150 IIRC. The first attorney also tried to get us to name him as the executor, which would have entitled him to 5% of our property's value every year. The second guy never tried that.

[Anonymous]

Harold Pskowski. We are paying less than 1K for everything you want with similar assets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are any of you lawyers? We are lawyers and I feel like we could wing it and have the docs notarized. Not planning to set up a trust, just a simple will.

Unless you know what very specific language is needed because of the vagaries of the law in your jurisdiction, that's something that no lawyer should or would do. If it's simple, use legal zoom. If not, hire someone. A patent litigator writing their own will is a good way to give your executor needless headaches

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are any of you lawyers? We are lawyers and I feel like we could wing it and have the docs notarized. Not planning to set up a trust, just a simple will.

OP has young kids, she absolutely needs a testamentary trust with that level of assets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We paid 3k earlier this year for comprehensive documents, including a special needs trust, which requires significant expertise. I think you’re overpaying. We got quotes from a few lawyers/firms and found that solo practicers were significantly less expensive, presumably because they had less overhead. They were also more responsive/accessible than firms with admin staff. Go figure.

Are you in Maryland, by chance? If so, would you mind sharing your attorney's name?

Thank you!
-OP

We used Morris Klein in Bethesda. We’ve recommended him to others and his cost was less without the special needs trust.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, see if your employer offers any sort of deal Some employers have deals with firms for these sort of services at a discount. I ended up purchasing an optional attorney coverage plan through my work. I had to sign up for the whole year as part of open enrollment, but it ended up being just a couple hundred bucks for the year, so well worth it. I got the service at no additional charge via the plan, which is why I signed up.

Also really shop around an do your homework. The initial consultation should be free. One attorney tried to rip us off by saying we would owe an additional $5-6K for his services, when in fact our plan covered 100%. We went with another attorney who correctly told us that the plan covered everything except a small fee to file it with DC and move our property under the will. It was about $150 IIRC. The first attorney also tried to get us to name him as the executor, which would have entitled him to 5% of our property's value every year. The second guy never tried that.

We did this over 15 years ago and had a similar experience.. Just paid a nominal amount for registering the documents. After seeing what other family members did and learning more about things, I now think our Trusts were very simplistic. Plan on revising it to make it more comprehensive (Age threshold for withdrawal, incorporating other beneficiaries (nephews/nieces), etc.) plus assets have gone from about a mil. back then to about $6mil today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi Everyone,

Thank you for the responses. I'm going to do some homework and shop around a bit. Maybe this is the going rate in Maryland but I have no idea and it was shockingly high given the straightforward nature of my assets.

Thanks again.

Do either you or your spouse have a company legal plan which you could sign up for next benefits year? This is what we did and I paid only a teeny bit outside of the very small fees for the plan.

[Anonymous]

I have a work benefit - MetLaw
$20/month to have a lawyer on retainer. The will and trust was no extra charge. Only to pay the notary. Research if your job offers this benefit. It’s really a good deal.

[Anonymous]

I never knew that some people get legal plans as a job perk.

It never ceases to amaze how rich people don't have to pay for things they could well afford and poor people have to pay out of their pocket for all such services. For example, when I worked at an elite hospital in NYC, the children of clinical department chairs got free college tuition, no matter where they went to college. As the child of a blue collar worker, I was confused by that. You know those people would have gone to college regardless. The janitor's kid needed free tuition.

Now I know how the world works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I never knew that some people get legal plans as a job perk.

It never ceases to amaze how rich people don't have to pay for things they could well afford and poor people have to pay out of their pocket for all such services. For example, when I worked at an elite hospital in NYC, the children of clinical department chairs got free college tuition, no matter where they went to college. As the child of a blue collar worker, I was confused by that. You know those people would have gone to college regardless. The janitor's kid needed free tuition.

Now I know how the world works.

Perks like this are essentially a way for people to get extra pay without incurring any tax liability. My neighbor has millions of airline mopiest because he travels for his job. The miles are available to him for his personal use, even though his company paid for them. He and his family go on vacation and never have to pay for airfare. That is worth thousands of dollars, but he never has to pay tax on it.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have a rec for an atty in VA who charges less than the 5-7K above?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I never knew that some people get legal plans as a job perk.

It never ceases to amaze how rich people don't have to pay for things they could well afford and poor people have to pay out of their pocket for all such services. For example, when I worked at an elite hospital in NYC, the children of clinical department chairs got free college tuition, no matter where they went to college. As the child of a blue collar worker, I was confused by that. You know those people would have gone to college regardless. The janitor's kid needed free tuition.

Now I know how the world works.

I can tell you that many of the attorneys that participate in these plans are not very good and you would not want to use them for any matters of significance. Some of them are decent attorneys that have figured out how to work the MetLife system efficiently to supplement an existing law practice but the reimbursement rates are not nearly enough to build a practice around it. Also, with the exception of wills, most of the services provided are of extremely limited scope and are of limited value. I think the service is fine for most people that just need a basic will (testamentary trust was not covered by Metlife for me and cost extra) but if you have a special situation I would not use these plans.

Also, at least at my place, these plans are not employer subsidized so these companies are selling a product on which they generate profits. Some of these plans are available for regular consumers as well, not just through employers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never knew that some people get legal plans as a job perk.

It never ceases to amaze how rich people don't have to pay for things they could well afford and poor people have to pay out of their pocket for all such services. For example, when I worked at an elite hospital in NYC, the children of clinical department chairs got free college tuition, no matter where they went to college. As the child of a blue collar worker, I was confused by that. You know those people would have gone to college regardless. The janitor's kid needed free tuition.

Now I know how the world works.

I can tell you that many of the attorneys that participate in these plans are not very good and you would not want to use them for any matters of significance. Some of them are decent attorneys that have figured out how to work the MetLife system efficiently to supplement an existing law practice but the reimbursement rates are not nearly enough to build a practice around it. Also, with the exception of wills, most of the services provided are of extremely limited scope and are of limited value. I think the service is fine for most people that just need a basic will (testamentary trust was not covered by Metlife for me and cost extra) but if you have a special situation I would not use these plans.

Also, at least at my place, these plans are not employer subsidized so these companies are selling a product on which they generate profits. Some of these plans are available for regular consumers as well, not just through employers.

I tried using a plan and was referred to a sole practitioner who did criminal defense, family law, personal injury law, and trusts and estates. I never actually contacted them because I assume any one person specializing in every thing under the sun would be terrible at everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are any of you lawyers? We are lawyers and I feel like we could wing it and have the docs notarized. Not planning to set up a trust, just a simple will.

I’m an estate lawyer. Take my word for it that you can’t just wing it (as I probably couldn’t in your area of law). You don’t know what you don’t know, and you won’t be around to fix it when (not if) there are problems.

That said, it’s fine to shop around. Don’t get a $200 will from someone in general practice, but beyond a certain threshold, I don’t think higher price necessarily correlates with higher quality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have a rec for an atty in VA who charges less than the 5-7K above?

Geller law group