Frequently Asked Questions about
Estate Planning, Wills, Trusts, and Probate

• What are your typical fees, and what do you do to earn them?

As a Virginia estate planning and estate and trust administration attorney, I help you deal with the wide range of legal issues that may arise at your death or incapacity, or upon the incapacity or death of your family members.

After I learn about your family, your financial situation, your philosophy, and your estate planning goals, I make recommendations. Once you decide which recommendations to pursue, I will draft appropriate legal documents and discuss them with you.

I can and do work closely with other advisors you may have retained, including accountants, financial planners, and insurance agents, in order to meet your needs efficiently.

I generally charge agreed, fixed fees for the work I do on estate planning tasks. I believe that fixed fees encourage clients to consult with me during the planning process and to ask more questions, and lead to better client relations in the long run. Fixed fees are based on my projection of the time I will spend on and the complexity of the complete estate planning project, and are different for each client. I usually can quote them at the conclusion of our initial personal interview.

A married couple with identical estate-planning objectives generally may hire the same attorney, paying only a single fee (which is often only slightly more than I charge to prepare one person’s estate plan).

I am often asked to quote a price for a “simple will.” I can’t do that, because there really is no such thing. Just as no two Virginia families are alike, neither are any two Virginia estate plans, and I would not fulfill my duty as your personal lawyer if I just emailed you a questionnaire and then filled in blanks on some sort of will form without getting to know you and without discussing other aspects of estate planning. For that reason, you are not likely to find me to be the cheapest lawyer in town. However, you almost certainly will find my fees to be lower than those of large-firm partners with comparable experience, and substantially lower than the fees of firms you might hear advertising themselves on radio stations in the Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia market areas.

(As an aside, there are a variety of “will kits” and “lawyer-in-a-box” software programs available in bookstores and by mail order, some of which may be adequate as temporary solutions for young people who cannot afford to hire an estate planning attorney. As of early 2010, there still are no web-based "legal document services" that I believe are adequate even for young people.)

I do understand my clients’ concerns about fees – especially for estate-planning work that possibly could be deferred to another day.

So when someone asks about a “simple will,” I explain that in addition to preparing a suitable will (one that is neither "simpler," nor more complicated, than necessary for that person's particular estate and family situation), I will also prepare for him an advance medical directive and a durable power (or powers) of attorney, and that I will also discuss titling of property and naming beneficiaries for retirement accounts and insurance. For such services, my fees are rarely less than $900 and are often $1,200 to $1,600. If my client’s estate plan will be centered around a revocable living trust, my fees will likely be somewhat higher. (As mentioned earlier, married couples with "mirror-image" estate planning needs pay only slightly more for two estate plans than single people with estates of similar size pay for one.)

Business owners, people with complex family situations, people with substantial assets in retirement plans, and certain high-net-worth families often will require additional services, sometimes over a substantial period of time, and their fees will be higher still. If you fit into one of those categories, I may quite you a fixed fee for most of the basic work involved, and agree with you on an "add-on" hourly fee for dealing with special problems.

For Virginia probate and trust work (representing the executor or administrator of an estate or the successor trustee of a living trust), I charge either a percentage fee based on the size of the estate or my regular hourly rate (currently $320 per billable hour.) I also represent clients on an hourly-rate basis in Virginia estate and trust litigation, and for filing and prosecuting guardianship and conservatorship applications for incapacitated elders in Virginia circuit courts.

“The minute you read something you can’t understand, you can almost be sure it was drawn up by a lawyer.”  –Will Rogers