A trust set up by an estate planning attorney typically costs between $1,500 and $4,000 for a straightforward revocable living trust, and more than $5,000 when the plan involves irrevocable structures, tax planning, or special-needs provisions. Online DIY trust platforms run roughly $400 to $1,000. Whichever route you take, the drafting fee is only part of the answer to how much a trust costs to set up: funding the trust, keeping it current, and, in some cases, filing its own tax return all add to the lifetime price.
Attorney-Drafted Trusts
Most estate planning attorneys quote a flat fee for a standard trust package. That package usually includes the trust document, a pour-over will, powers of attorney, and an advance healthcare directive. For a simple revocable living trust, the flat fee lands in the $1,500 to $4,000 range. Complex trusts with irrevocable structures, tax planning, or multi-generational provisions often exceed $5,000.
Some attorneys bill hourly instead. Rates generally run $200 to $500 per hour depending on location and experience. Hourly billing suits unusual situations where the scope is hard to predict, but it takes away the cost certainty most people want. If you go hourly, ask for an estimate of total hours before signing an engagement letter.
The pour-over will inside the package is worth understanding. A living trust only controls assets you’ve formally transferred into it. The pour-over will directs any assets you forgot to move, or acquired later, into the trust when you die. It still passes through probate, but it prevents stray assets from falling to intestacy rules. Most attorneys include it in the flat fee.
Online and DIY Trusts
Online legal platforms create a trust document from a questionnaire, typically for $400 to $1,000 depending on the service and features you select. There is no lawyer reviewing your specific finances and no one flagging mistakes in the way you answered.
For a single person with simple finances and no blended-family issues, an online trust can do the job. For anyone with a taxable estate, business interests, beneficiaries with special needs, or property in more than one state, the savings usually don’t outweigh the risk of a document that fails to do what you intended.
The bigger hidden cost of the DIY route is an unfunded trust. The platform produces the document, but transferring assets into it is on you. Many people sign and never finish that step, leaving an empty container behind that sends everything through the probate they were trying to avoid.
What Drives the Price
Complexity is the biggest factor. A revocable living trust for a married couple with a house and retirement accounts is a simpler document than an irrevocable trust built to shelter assets from estate tax, protect a beneficiary with a disability, or split charitable and non-charitable interests. Each added goal means more drafting time and more legal analysis.
Your assets matter too. Moving a single-family home and a couple of bank accounts into a trust is routine. Add rental properties in multiple states, business interests, brokerage accounts with concentrated stock positions, or intellectual property, and the attorney has to research transfer rules for each one. More asset types mean more documents and more coordination with financial institutions and title companies.
Geography and attorney background finish the picture. Attorneys in major metros charge more than those in smaller markets. A specialist who focuses on estate planning charges more than a general practitioner. The specialist premium tends to pay for itself in fewer errors and a document that holds up when it matters.
Funding Costs You Should Budget For
Drafting is only half the job. Actually moving assets into the trust, called funding, has its own expenses.
- Real estate deeds and recording: Each property needs a new deed transferring it from your name into the trust’s name. County recording fees vary widely and commonly range from $50 to $250 or more. Moving real estate into your own revocable trust generally doesn’t trigger transfer taxes, since ownership is effectively unchanged.
- Financial account retitling: Banks and brokerages retitle accounts into the trust’s name, usually at no charge, though some impose processing fees. Retirement accounts and life insurance policies typically shouldn’t be retitled; instead, you update the beneficiary designation to name the trust if that fits your plan.
- Appraisals: Funding an irrevocable trust or setting a value for tax purposes may require a formal appraisal. Trust-related appraisals commonly cost $500 to $1,500 or more because they must meet stricter IRS and legal standards than a routine home appraisal.
If you hired an attorney, ask whether funding is included in the flat fee. Some handle deed preparation as part of the package; others charge separately. Don’t leave this step for later. An unfunded trust protects nothing.
Ongoing Annual Costs
Tax Return Filing
Whether the trust needs its own tax return depends on the type. A revocable trust during your lifetime is a grantor trust: the IRS treats its income as yours, and you report it on your personal return, so no separate filing is required in most cases. After the trust creator dies, or for irrevocable trusts not treated as grantor trusts, the trust becomes a separate taxpayer and must file Form 1041 if it has gross income of $600 or more, or any taxable income at all.1Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1041 and Schedules A, B, G, J, and K-1 (2025)
The IRS estimates the average out-of-pocket cost of preparing Form 1041 at roughly $1,300 for a simple trust and about $2,000 for a complex trust. Grantor trusts that do file separately average around $1,200. Those figures cover professional preparation fees and recur every year the trust has reportable income.1Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1041 and Schedules A, B, G, J, and K-1 (2025)
Professional Trustee Fees
If you name a bank, trust company, or other corporate trustee, expect an annual fee calculated as a percentage of assets under management. These fees commonly run 1% to 2% per year, sometimes with additional charges based on the trust’s annual income. On a $1 million trust, that’s $10,000 to $20,000 a year, a cost that compounds and can significantly erode the trust’s value over time. Naming a trusted family member or friend as trustee avoids the expense but shifts the administrative work onto someone who may not want it.
Amendments and Maintenance
A trust is not a set-it-and-forget-it document. Marriages, divorces, births, deaths, moves to a new state, and major asset purchases can all require updates. A good rule of thumb is to review the trust every three to five years, or after any significant life event.
Simple amendments, like changing a successor trustee or updating a beneficiary, typically cost $300 to $500 when handled by an attorney. A full restatement, which rewrites the trust while keeping the same legal entity, can run $2,000 or more depending on the scope. If you used a flat-fee attorney originally, ask whether they offer a maintenance plan or discounted rates for amendments.
Is a Trust Worth the Cost?
Compare the price of a trust to the price of not having one. Dying without a trust sends your estate through probate, a court-supervised process that is public, often slow, and not cheap. Costs vary by state and estate size, but estimates commonly place total probate expenses at 4% to 7% of the estate’s value once you add court fees, attorney fees, executor compensation, and appraisal costs. On a $500,000 estate, that’s $20,000 to $35,000.
A $2,000 to $4,000 trust, properly funded and maintained, can eliminate most or all of that expense. It keeps your estate out of public court records and lets your family access assets without waiting months for a judge to authorize distributions. If you own real estate in more than one state, the math is even more favorable, because without a trust your family could face separate probate proceedings in each state where property sits.
The picture is different for younger people with few assets, renters with no real estate, or anyone whose estate would qualify for a simplified probate procedure in their state. In those cases, a well-drafted will and correct beneficiary designations on financial accounts may accomplish the same goals for a fraction of the price. An honest estate planning attorney will tell you if a trust isn’t worth it yet and will help you revisit the question when your situation changes.