A living will costs nothing to about $50 if you draft it yourself from a free state-specific form, $35 to $150 through most online legal services, and $200 to $1,000 when an attorney prepares it. Most people who go the DIY or online route spend under $100. Attorney fees buy personalized guidance and state-specific compliance, and they cluster in the $300 to $500 range for a standalone document.
Doing It Yourself: Free to Low Cost
The cheapest path is drafting the document yourself, and it’s often free. Every state has its own requirements for advance directives, and most publish standardized forms or accept a document you draft on your own. AARP offers free, state-specific advance directive forms with instructions. State bar associations, hospitals, and hospice organizations publish free templates too, and some state health departments post downloadable forms directly.
The real price of the DIY route is your time and attention. Execution rules vary by state. Most states require two adult witnesses, and many disqualify your spouse, blood relatives, or anyone who would inherit from you. Some states accept either two witnesses or a notary; a few require both. Getting the signing requirements wrong can make the document unenforceable when it matters most.
The other risk is leaving gaps. A living will should address artificial nutrition, mechanical ventilation, pain management preferences, and organ donation, not just whether you want life support. Free templates usually prompt you through those decisions. A blank page will not.
Online Legal Services: $35 to $150
Online platforms sit between free templates and attorney fees. A standalone living will or advance healthcare directive typically runs $35 to $150, and some services charge less. LegalZoom offers a basic healthcare directive starting at $39 and a premium version at $49. FreeWill provides advance healthcare directives at no charge. Subscription services like Trust & Will bundle living wills into broader estate planning packages starting around $199 for individuals.
These platforms use guided questionnaires to translate your preferences into a document formatted for your state. The software prompts you through each decision point and generates state-compliant language, which is a real step up from a blank template. The tradeoff is that no human reviews your answers. If your family situation is complicated, you have overlapping medical conditions that shape your treatment preferences in unusual ways, or you split time between states, an online tool may produce something valid on paper that still doesn’t capture what you actually want.
Attorney-Drafted: $200 to $1,000
An attorney typically charges $200 to $1,000 for a living will, with most people paying $300 to $500 for a standalone document. Estate planning attorneys usually quote a flat fee for this work because a straightforward advance directive doesn’t take an experienced lawyer long to prepare.
When hourly billing does apply, rates run roughly $160 to $390 per hour depending on location and experience. A simple living will might take one to two hours of attorney time, but hourly billing makes the total less predictable. Ask about a flat fee upfront.
What you’re paying for is someone who knows your state’s rules and can catch problems you would miss. An attorney can make sure the document fits with the rest of your estate plan, flag places where your stated preferences might conflict with each other, and draft language suited to the medical scenarios most relevant to your history. For someone with straightforward wishes and no complicating factors, that level of attention may be more than you need. For anyone with a blended family, significant assets, or complex medical conditions, it usually pays for itself.
Bundling With Other Estate Planning Documents
Bundling brings the per-document cost down. A full attorney-prepared estate planning package typically runs $2,000 to $5,000 or more, and that usually includes a will, one or more powers of attorney, an advance healthcare directive, and sometimes a trust. Buying each document separately costs considerably more in total.
Online services work the same way. A standalone living will might be $39 to $50, but a bundle with a last will, healthcare directive, and power of attorney tends to run $150 to $300. If you need the other documents anyway, the package price almost always beats buying them one at a time.
Don’t Skip the Healthcare Power of Attorney
A living will and a healthcare power of attorney do different jobs, and cost decisions get made badly when people treat them as interchangeable. A living will states your treatment preferences in advance. A healthcare power of attorney names a specific person to make medical decisions for you when you can’t. A living will can only cover situations you anticipated when you signed it; a healthcare agent can interpret your values and make judgment calls in real time on scenarios your form never addressed.
Many states now combine both into a single advance directive form, which keeps the cost down. Where they’re separate documents, expect to pay for each. Attorneys typically prepare them together under one flat fee, and most online services include both in their advance directive packages. Skipping the healthcare power of attorney to save money is one of the more expensive mistakes people make here.
Add-On Costs
Notarization
Notarization fees are set by state law and typically run $5 to $15 per signature. Not every state requires a notary for a living will. Most states accept two witnesses, several give you the choice of two witnesses or a notary, and a few require both. Banks, UPS Store locations, and some hospitals offer notary services.
Medicare-Covered Planning Conversations
If you’re on Medicare, advance care planning conversations with your doctor are a covered benefit. When the conversation happens during your annual wellness visit with a provider who accepts Medicare assignment, you pay nothing out of pocket. If it takes place at a separate appointment or as part of other medical treatment, standard Part B cost-sharing applies: 20% of the Medicare-approved amount after you meet your Part B deductible.1Medicare. Advance Care Planning Coverage These visits are a chance to make sure your living will reflects a sound medical understanding of what you’re accepting or declining.
Storage and Distribution
Storing and distributing copies costs almost nothing beyond printing and mailing. Give copies to your healthcare agent, your primary care physician, specialists who treat you regularly, and close family. Bring a copy when you’re admitted to a hospital. Some states run advance directive registries where you can file your document for a small fee, usually under $10. Private registries also exist, though they’re only useful if your local hospital actually checks them.
What Updates Cost Later
A living will should be reviewed after major life changes: marriage, divorce, a new diagnosis, the death of your named healthcare agent, or a move to another state. State laws differ enough that a document valid where you signed it may not meet the execution requirements of a new state, so relocation is a particularly important trigger.
If you drafted the document yourself or used an online service, updates are essentially free beyond your time. If an attorney prepared the original, expect a modest revision fee, typically less than the original drafting cost. Some attorneys include one round of updates in their initial flat fee. Either way, keeping the document current costs far less than living with one that no longer reflects your wishes.