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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm an estate planning attorney in a very small firm. I charge $1000 for wills, powers of attorney, and medical directives for a couple - so 6 docs. I charge $2000 if you want to do those 6 docs plus revocable trusts. I agree with the previous posters, though, that in today's estate tax world revocable trusts aren't needed for most people. I actively dissuade my clients from them except for certain circumstances like 2nd marriages, property in multiple states, high net worth, etc. Too many people get revocable trusts then don't retitle assets into them so its a big fat waste of time and money.[/quote]

I thought the assets went into  the  trust upon death, no?

Also I paid $6k.[/quote]

You likely have a pour over will which puts assets into the trust at death (these are what I draft) - but now you've lost probably the biggest current benefit of a trust ... avoiding probate. 100% of my clients who come to me wanting trusts do so because they don't want their kids or other loved ones to have to probate their estate. But assets that aren't titled into the name of the trust prior to death will still have to go through probate. There are exceptions, of course. In Virginia we have the small estate act that creates a speedier form of probate if your estate is below a certain value. A lot of assets these days have beneficiary designations - those don't go through probate either.

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