The kind of lawyer who deals with an inheritance depends on where you are in the process. If you’re planning ahead, you want an estate planning attorney. If a relative has died and someone has to settle their affairs, that’s a probate lawyer. If the family is fighting over what was left behind, you need an estate litigator. Large or complex estates may call for a tax attorney, and situations involving an aging parent who is still alive often fit an elder law attorney better than any of the above. All of them fall under the broader label of trusts and estates law, but the specialties are genuinely different.
Estate Planning Lawyers (Before Anyone Dies)
An estate planning lawyer works with people who are still alive and want to control what happens to their property after death. The goal is to put legally binding documents in place so your family doesn’t have to guess, argue, or spend years in court, and so the tax bill on what you leave behind is as small as possible.
The core documents an estate planning lawyer typically prepares are a will, which names who inherits your property, who serves as executor, and who becomes guardian of minor children; a revocable living trust, which lets assets pass to beneficiaries without going through probate; a power of attorney for financial decisions if you become incapacitated; and an advance healthcare directive specifying your wishes for medical treatment.
Estate planning is not just for the wealthy. Anyone with children, a home, retirement accounts, or strong preferences about medical care benefits from having these documents in place. Without them, state law dictates who inherits, and that formula may not match your intentions.
Probate Lawyers (After Someone Dies)
After a death, a probate lawyer guides the executor through the court-supervised process of settling the estate. Probate is the legal procedure where a court validates the will, oversees payment of the deceased person’s debts and taxes, and authorizes the final transfer of property to beneficiaries.1Justia. Probate Law – Estate Planning Legal Center
An executor who mishandles their duties can face personal financial liability for losses the estate suffers, and the court can remove them from the role.2Justia. An Executors Legal Duties A probate lawyer’s job is to prevent that, keep the paperwork on schedule, and move the estate to closing.
When someone dies without a will, state intestacy laws determine who inherits. The pattern is similar across states: spouses and children come first, then parents, then siblings, working outward through the family tree.3Legal Information Institute. Intestate Succession A probate lawyer helps the family petition the court to appoint an administrator in that situation.
Small Estates Often Skip Full Probate
Not every estate needs the full court process. Most states offer a simplified procedure, often called a small estate affidavit or summary administration, when the total value of probate property falls below a set threshold. Thresholds vary widely by state, and certain assets like real estate are often excluded. A brief consultation with a probate attorney can tell you whether the estate qualifies, which can save thousands in fees and months of waiting.
Deadlines Executors Can’t Miss
Probate has real deadlines. States set time limits for filing the will after death, and letting the clock run out can complicate or bar the process. Executors also face deadlines for notifying creditors, filing tax returns, and giving accountings to beneficiaries. The federal estate tax return, if one is required, is due nine months after the date of death, with a six-month extension available if requested before the original due date.4Internal Revenue Service. Filing Estate and Gift Tax Returns An executor who ignores these can be personally liable for penalties and interest.
Estate Litigators (When the Family Is Fighting)
When a family can’t agree on how an inheritance should be handled, an estate litigator steps in. These lawyers don’t plan estates or administer them. They litigate disputes, representing beneficiaries, heirs, or executors in court.
The most common dispute is a will contest, where someone challenges whether the will is legally valid. The usual grounds are that the deceased lacked the mental capacity to understand what they were signing, that someone exerted undue influence, or that the will was the product of fraud.5Legal Information Institute. Will Contest These cases are hard to win. Courts generally presume a properly executed will is valid, and the challenger carries the burden of proving otherwise.
Estate litigators also handle breach of fiduciary duty claims against executors and trustees. If an executor stalls, fails to account for assets, makes self-interested decisions, or simply does a poor job, beneficiaries can petition the court for removal, an accounting, or damages. Beneficiaries have a legal right to be informed about the estate’s status and to receive a full accounting, and a litigator enforces those rights when the executor won’t cooperate.
One thing to know before hiring one: estate litigation is expensive. Fees are typically hourly, and cases that reach trial can run tens of thousands of dollars. Courts sometimes order the estate to pay both sides’ fees when a contest was brought in good faith with reasonable cause, but that outcome is never guaranteed, and legal fees reduce what everyone inherits.
Tax Attorneys (For Large or Complex Estates)
Most estate planning lawyers handle routine tax issues as part of their work. Estates large enough to trigger federal estate tax, or those with complicated structures like business interests, international assets, or generation-skipping trusts, often need a dedicated tax attorney.
The federal estate tax applies only above the basic exclusion amount. For 2026, that threshold is $15,000,000 per person after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made the higher exemption permanent and increased it slightly.6Internal Revenue Service. Whats New – Estate and Gift Tax The same exemption applies to the generation-skipping transfer tax, which targets assets that skip a generation, like a grandparent leaving money directly to grandchildren.7Congress.gov. The Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax
Married couples get a benefit called portability. If the first spouse to die doesn’t use their full exemption, the survivor can claim the unused portion on top of their own. Portability isn’t automatic. The executor must file a federal estate tax return (Form 706) even when no tax is owed, and must do so within nine months of death (or fifteen months with an extension).8Internal Revenue Service. Frequently Asked Questions on Estate Taxes Missing that filing can cost the surviving spouse millions in lost exemption.
A tax attorney becomes particularly valuable for lifetime gifting strategies, charitable remainder trusts, family limited partnerships, and business succession plans built to minimize estate tax. The annual gift tax exclusion for 2026 is $19,000 per recipient, meaning you can give that amount to as many people as you want each year without filing a gift tax return or using up lifetime exemption.9Internal Revenue Service. Gifts and Inheritances
Elder Law Attorneys (When the Issue Is Aging)
Elder law attorneys overlap with estate planning lawyers but focus on a different problem. Estate planning is primarily about what happens to your assets after death. Elder law is about protecting you and your assets while you’re still alive, particularly as you age.
The biggest issue elder law attorneys handle is long-term care planning. Nursing home care can exceed $100,000 per year, and Medicaid eligibility rules are notoriously complex. An elder law attorney helps families structure assets to qualify for Medicaid without giving everything away, working around the look-back periods and transfer penalties that trip up people who try to do it themselves.
They also handle guardianship and conservatorship proceedings when someone becomes unable to manage their own affairs and has no power of attorney in place, along with Social Security and veterans’ benefits disputes, protection against elder financial abuse, and the tax issues that arise when someone needs institutional care. If the person you’re trying to help is elderly and still alive, an elder law attorney is often a better fit than a traditional estate planning lawyer.
What These Lawyers Typically Cost
Fees vary by the type of work, the complexity of the estate, and the local market. The main structures to expect:
- Flat fees for estate planning. Simple wills often run $300 to $1,000. A comprehensive plan with a revocable trust, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, and pour-over wills typically costs $1,500 to $5,000 or more for an individual.
- Hourly rates. Estate and probate attorneys generally charge between $150 and $500 per hour, with major metros at the higher end. Hourly billing is standard for probate administration and nearly universal for litigation.
- Percentage-based fees. Some states set statutory fee schedules for probate attorneys based on the gross value of the estate, typically around 2% to 4%. On a $500,000 estate, that’s $10,000 to $20,000 in legal fees, which is one reason trust-based plans designed to avoid probate are popular.
Court filing fees to open probate generally run a few hundred dollars and vary by jurisdiction. The real cost driver is almost always attorney time. Get the fee agreement in writing before any work begins, whichever type of lawyer you hire.
How to Pick the Right One
Trusts and estates is a specialty, and experience within it matters more than general legal skill. A lawyer who mostly handles personal injury cases will not have the technical knowledge to structure a tax-efficient trust or run a contested probate.
One credential worth looking for is fellowship in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC). Fellows must have at least ten years of practice focused predominantly on trusts and estates and a reputation strong enough that other Fellows in their jurisdiction would refer work to them.10The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. Become an ACTEC Fellow It isn’t the only marker of a good attorney, but it’s one of the more reliable ones.
Beyond credentials, match the specialty to your problem. Planning, probate administration, litigation, tax, and elder law are different skill sets. Many attorneys handle both planning and administration, fewer do litigation, and fewer still work the tax side at a high level. A better screening question than how long someone has been licensed is what percentage of their current practice is dedicated to the specific issue in front of you.