We paid about $3,000 to update our revokable trusts, wills, medical directives, etc. Our financial planner was also involved in the process. He charged by the hour. Luckily working through our financial planner kept the involvement with the attorney limited because the financial planner was able to answer many of our questions off line.

Anonymous wrote:We just interviewed three firms, felt positive about two and selected one.

Family Trust, Pourover wills, medical POAs, Living Wills, etc all for $4k. Northern VA.

I am getting a similar quote, but feel that as someone who has never been married, it should cost less (basically, you are getting documents for half the number of people!)

Anonymous wrote:Most people don’t need a living trust. It’s a money grab by the estate planning trade. It’s fine to direct the establishment of a trust in the event you die with minor children, but putting all your assets in a living trust is generally an unnecessary complication in life. Don’t let the attorney convince you that it is necessary to avoid probate because that is “such a long and expensive process.” That is also generally not true.

Even though I have a responsible adult child, I don’t want her inheriting more than a million dollars at age 25.

I want an adult guiding her financial decisions at that age.

Anonymous wrote:We need to setup a will and trust. If we were to both die, our kids would get about $3mil including life insurance. What is a reasonable amount to pay for the estate planning?

We just paid a little under $5K

Anonymous wrote:Most people don’t need a living trust. It’s a money grab by the estate planning trade. It’s fine to direct the establishment of a trust in the event you die with minor children, but putting all your assets in a living trust is generally an unnecessary complication in life. Don’t let the attorney convince you that it is necessary to avoid probate because that is “such a long and expensive process.” That is also generally not true.

This person says this every single post. Wills are public. Anyone can get a copy of your will after you die. Do you want the world to see, for example, that young children who lost both parents got a pot of money? The person posts that going through probate is easy. Bull. So many people will tell you otherwise. The trust directs things and makes it easier. I worried my kids would be at the mercy of an unscrupulous lawyer without the trust.

Bump.

Please include costs and specific recommendations of possible

Geller law group in Va

We just interviewed three firms, felt positive about two and selected one.

Family Trust, Pourover wills, medical POAs, Living Wills, etc all for $4k. Northern VA.

We just did it online through trust and will. It was easy and only $400 maybe. Papers come to you, you get them notarized, then send them back etc.

Anonymous wrote:If your employer offers the MetLife legal benefit then you can use that to get all your estate planning done for cheap. It costs about $20/month but you can cancel when you're done

Yes it’s a good and cheap benefit. But they have a real shyster in Bethesda who they have in the plan who they referred us to. We ran from him. He gave us what felt like a total sales pitch under the guise of a Zoom consultation. It felt like a timeshare presentation to use a trust.

If your employer offers the MetLife legal benefit then you can use that to get all your estate planning done for cheap. It costs about $20/month but you can cancel when you're done

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Avoid probate, set up the trusts.

And...make a directive to move assets if the estate tax threshold moves down.

And...if there is a spouse who is in need of chronic care, make sure there is a trust established to take care of them, rather than burden the kids with it. They will have enough on their plate managing the parent who still needs care, to have to fund it as well.

The thing is for the substantial majority of folks probate can be largely avoided simply by using beneficiary designations on their accounts combined with (subject to availability by state) a ladybird deed on the house. Sure, if you have a special needs child or some other type of complicated estate (i.e. a business) then these other options come into play.

I think a trust has value if you have minor children.

I had to look up "lady bird trust" bc I have never heard of that, and it looks like it is only available in 5 states. Florida, Texas, Michigan, Vermont and West Virginia.

PP here and it is a lady bird deed not a lady bird trust. Also known as a transfer on death deed it is available in VA among other places.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Avoid probate, set up the trusts.

And...make a directive to move assets if the estate tax threshold moves down.

And...if there is a spouse who is in need of chronic care, make sure there is a trust established to take care of them, rather than burden the kids with it. They will have enough on their plate managing the parent who still needs care, to have to fund it as well.

The thing is for the substantial majority of folks probate can be largely avoided simply by using beneficiary designations on their accounts combined with (subject to availability by state) a ladybird deed on the house. Sure, if you have a special needs child or some other type of complicated estate (i.e. a business) then these other options come into play.

I think a trust has value if you have minor children.

I had to look up "lady bird trust" bc I have never heard of that, and it looks like it is only available in 5 states. Florida, Texas, Michigan, Vermont and West Virginia.

Anonymous wrote:I am a real estate attorney. I am involved in billions of transactions annually and see lots of wills and trusts. Many lawyers are awful and whether they charged $3K or $300 you were ripped off. Cost does not necessarily equate with what you get. But there are many horrid wills and trust out there.

There are and they can cost you money. One attorney put a specific bequest of $50,000 that the client wanted to give to a cousin in a memorandum attached to the Will. This attorney had zero experience with estate planning.

Anonymous wrote:A solo practitioner can do it for $800-1500. A bigger firm will probably be more like $2000-4000. Bigger is not necessarily better.

That seems very low. Make sure you go to a specialist and not a general solo attorney who knows a little about a lot of things but is an expert at none of them.