Cost for probate lawyer

[LoneStarJeffe]

My MiL passed away. She and had assets under 5k and medical debts over 25k. I looked to do it myself simple probate in Texas and that required a will made in Texas and hers was from NY. To hire a probate lawyer was going to cost what she had as assets or more and that made no sense to me. Texas has a default probate that kicks in after three years and that is the path we are using. I sure wish Texas allowed a simple probate process for estates which have little to no assets that allowed out of state wills. Lesson learned is to check requirements for a simple probate in your state and see what might need to be done ahead of time like getting a simple will in place done in that state.

 

[Sunset]

My MiL passed away. She and had assets under 5k and medical debts over 25k. I looked to do it myself simple probate in Texas and that required a will made in Texas and hers was from NY. To hire a probate lawyer was going to cost what she had as assets or more and that made no sense to me. Texas has a default probate that kicks in after three years and that is the path we are using. I sure wish Texas allowed a simple probate process for estates which have little to no assets that allowed out of state wills. Lesson learned is to check requirements for a simple probate in your state and see what might need to be done ahead of time like getting a simple will in place done in that state.

Seems like nothing needs to be done, as once any debt is paid, there is nothing left.

 

[lakehawk]

Probate

Our fee was $2000 for the lawyer only. Check around, we were quoted 2000-3500 with different lawyers doing similar work.

 

[dreamchaser]

When my Dad passed away in 2020, his house needed to go through probate in NY. We talked to a couple of lawyers who wanted $10-12K. We just called to probate court for that area of NY and the court clerk (and their website) walked us through the process. We did it ourselves and it was surprisingly simple, tedious but simple.

 

[meleana]

Here's the situation:


My sister's ex husband died last week. They have two daughters. She lives in Connecticut. The estate is not big...house is ~$500,000

my sister said she talked to a lawyer referred by the funeral home and to hire her the end cost will be $2500-5000. That sounds extremely high to me , but I don't really have any knowledge so figured I'd throw it out to the board.

Any experiences/thoughts?
thank you

My parents had a house and a nice amount of money and back in 2011 in NY cost us something like $10,000. But we used a really good atty. that my brother knew personally.

 

[NoEZmoney]

$5K to $7K range

Been awhile but seems like most "small/simple" probate fees for lawyers can range from $5,000 to $7,000 for wills, property successions, etc. There are some who will charge a small percentage instead of flat-fees but I believe those would be for larger, more complicaticated estates, especially if mineral rights / royalties are involved.

 

[aaronc879]

In my limited experience those prices don't seem excessive. I think my Dad paid on the high end of the OPs range for an estate only worth around $150K. If there is a "small" estate worth half a million dollars then paying $5K isn't alot IMO.