A simple attorney-drafted will typically costs $300 to $1,000 as a flat fee, and adding a power of attorney runs another $150 to $500 per document. That is the middle of the market. The full cost of a will and power of attorney can drop below $100 if you use an online platform or qualify for free legal help, and it can climb past $5,000 once trusts, business interests, or tax planning enter the picture.
Attorney Flat Fees and Hourly Rates
Estate planning attorneys usually quote either a flat fee or an hourly rate. Hourly billing generally falls between $250 and $500, with small-town practitioners sometimes charging $150 and big-city specialists exceeding $500. Attorneys in larger firms and those doing tax-heavy work sit at the top of that range.
Flat fees dominate for straightforward work. A simple will — one that names beneficiaries, an executor, and a guardian for minor children, with no trust provisions — runs $300 to $1,000. A standalone power of attorney adds $150 to $500, whether it’s for financial or healthcare decisions. Attorneys can price these predictably because the drafting time is easy to estimate up front.
Two other pricing notes matter before you call around. A financial power of attorney and a healthcare power of attorney are separate documents covering different decisions, and a healthcare agent cannot touch your finances any more than a financial agent can consent to surgery. If you want both, you’re paying for both. And within financial powers of attorney, a “durable” version (effective on signing) and a “springing” version (effective only on incapacity) typically cost the same to draft, though springing documents may need extra language defining the trigger.
Package Pricing for a Full Estate Plan
Bundling documents almost always beats buying them one at a time. A package that combines a will, one or more powers of attorney, and a healthcare directive commonly runs $1,000 to $3,500, and may include a living trust at the higher end. Adding a revocable living trust to a basic package typically costs another $1,200 to $1,500 on top, but it can save the estate thousands in probate fees later.
Complex estates cost more. Business interests, real property in more than one state, or blended families can push the total to $5,000 to $15,000. Comprehensive planning with ongoing maintenance can exceed $25,000 at the high end.
Online Wills and DIY Pricing
Online will-making platforms are the cheapest way to get valid documents in hand. Base prices for an online will run about $50 to $150 depending on the platform and whether you’re covering an individual or a couple. LegalZoom, Trust & Will, Nolo’s Quicken WillMaker, and GoodTrust all sit in that range. Some include a power of attorney and healthcare directive in the base price; others charge separately per document.
Several platforms also sell subscriptions, generally $19 to $40 per year, that let you update your documents as circumstances change. Attorney help is available as an add-on: LegalZoom starts around $20 per month for 30-minute consultation calls, and Trust & Will charges roughly $299 per year for a similar service. These are consultations and formatting reviews, not full representation.
Where Cheap Turns Expensive
The savings carry real risk. Every state has specific rules for what a will must contain and how it must be signed, and online templates can be outdated or too generic to match those rules. A will that fails execution requirements can be thrown out in probate entirely. Common failure points include vague beneficiary language, provisions that aren’t enforceable under state law (like leaving assets directly to a pet), and missing witness or notarization steps.
Online services fit best when your situation is genuinely simple: a single person or married couple, straightforward assets, clear beneficiaries. If you own a business, hold property in more than one state, have a blended family, or your assets run into the several hundreds of thousands, paying an attorney is generally the safer spend.
Free and Low-Cost Options
If cost is the barrier, several routes can bring the price to zero or close to it.
- Legal aid organizations in most metropolitan areas draft basic wills and powers of attorney free for people who meet income guidelines.
- Law school clinics use supervised students to draft estate documents at no charge, with a licensed professor reviewing every document.
- State and local bar associations often run pro bono wills clinics where volunteer attorneys donate their time for qualifying individuals.
- Active-duty service members and their dependents can get wills and powers of attorney at no cost through their installation’s JAG legal assistance office.
- AARP members currently get 20 percent off estate planning documents through a partner platform, which can put an online will and trust package near $100.
These options work well for simple estates. Significant assets, complex family arrangements, or tax planning still justify paying an estate planning attorney.
Signing Costs the Quote Doesn’t Always Include
Drafting fees are only part of what you’ll spend. Getting the documents legally enforceable adds a few more line items.
Witnesses
Nearly every state requires at least two witnesses to observe a will signing, and those witnesses generally must be “disinterested” — not named as beneficiaries. Friends, neighbors, or coworkers usually serve at no cost. Professional witnesses, sometimes needed when you’re signing in a hospital or care facility, run $50 to $200 per witness.
Notary Fees
States cap what notaries can charge per signature. The maximums range from $2 in states like New York and Georgia to $25 in Rhode Island. A typical in-person notarization costs $5 to $15. Many banks notarize documents free for account holders.
Self-Proving Affidavits
A self-proving affidavit is a sworn statement signed by you and your witnesses in front of a notary, usually at the same time as the will. It removes the need for your witnesses to appear in court during probate to confirm the will is authentic. Most states recognize it, and the only added cost is the notary fee for the extra signatures. Small money now saves the executor real money later.
Remote Online Notarization
As of 2025, 45 states and the District of Columbia have permanent laws authorizing remote online notarization by video call. A typical remote session costs about $25. It’s widely accepted for powers of attorney, but some states restrict or don’t yet allow it for wills, so check your state’s rules before signing a will this way.
Recording Fees
A will doesn’t get filed with any government office during your lifetime. A power of attorney sometimes does: if your agent will handle real estate transactions, the document may need to be recorded with the county clerk or recorder. Recording fees run roughly $10 to $75 depending on the county and page count.
What It Costs to Update Documents Later
Estate planning isn’t a one-and-done expense. Marriage, divorce, a new child, the death of a named beneficiary or executor, a major change in assets, or a move to a different state can all make existing documents wrong or unenforceable. Some states automatically revoke bequests to an ex-spouse; not all do, and relying on that default is risky.
For small changes to a will — swapping an executor, adjusting a specific bequest — an attorney can draft a codicil for roughly $150 to $400. A codicil has to be signed and witnessed with the same formality as the original will. Once changes affect more than about a quarter of the document, or after multiple prior amendments, drafting a new will is cleaner and costs about the same as the original: $300 to $1,000 for a simple estate.
Powers of attorney are generally replaced rather than amended. To change your agent, you revoke the existing document and execute a new one, at the same drafting fee as the original.
When the Price Goes Up: Larger Estates
Federal estate tax hits a small share of estates. The 2026 federal estate tax exemption is $15 million per individual, or $30 million for a married couple, after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act permanently extended the elevated exemption that had been scheduled to drop back to roughly $7 million under the original Tax Cuts and Jobs Act sunset.1Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026, Including Amendments From the One Big Beautiful Bill Amounts above the exemption face rates up to 40 percent.
Planning at that scale costs more. Specialized estate and tax attorneys often charge $400 to $500 an hour or more, and a comprehensive plan involving irrevocable trusts, generation-skipping trusts, charitable giving strategies, or business succession can run $10,000 to $25,000 or more.
Some states also impose their own estate or inheritance taxes with much lower exemptions than the federal figure, so a state-level check is worth doing even if your estate is well under $15 million, especially if you own property in more than one state.
What It Costs to Skip It
Saving a few hundred dollars by not planning can cost your family far more. Dying without a will — “intestate” — hands the distribution of your assets to a state-law formula, replaces the executor you would have chosen with a court-appointed administrator, and generally makes probate slower and more expensive.
The formula rarely matches what most people actually want. A surviving spouse doesn’t automatically inherit everything in most states: with children in the picture, the spouse typically receives a fixed dollar amount plus a fraction of the remainder, and the children take the rest. With no spouse or children, assets pass to parents, then siblings, then more distant relatives. If no relatives can be found, the state keeps everything. Stepchildren, unmarried partners, friends, and charities get nothing under these defaults.
Courts also often require the administrator of an intestate estate to post a probate bond, essentially insurance for the beneficiaries against mismanagement. Premiums run 0.5 to 1 percent of the estate’s value annually for qualified applicants, and 2 to 5 percent for applicants with poor credit. On a $500,000 estate, that’s $2,500 to $25,000 in bond premiums alone — many times what a simple will would have cost.