Accepted Answer

Ollie -

It wouldn't be surprising if the fees ran $5,000 to $10,000. There are some parts of the process that are the same for every probate, so there is a base amount of time that each procedure requires. But many estate have complexities which add to the time involvement, but complexities come in all flavors including difficult to deal with family situations, uncooperative people, lost records, a large variation of and or a large quantity of different kinds of assets, past tax records not in order, etc.

To try to keep things at the lower end of the cost scale, or even lower than that, you might try to locate a newer attorney in a smaller practice and/or one who is out on their own. Their hourly rates will not be as high because they don't yet have an established clientele.

Another approach is to look for someone who has their office in a more humble location - their fee structure is usually lower. The same often goes for attorneys who practice in smaller towns instead of the larger cities.

One other thing to try would be to look for an attorney who is up in age, beyond when people would normally retire, but still maintaining a practice, especially if that person has their office in an older less fancy place. They often are still charging what they charged 20 years ago, and so rates are lower and they have the experience to do the job well and efficiently.

Finally, in some cases I had clients who asked me to work with them on a basis where they would do as much of the leg work as possible, and asked that I only do the things that required an attorney. If you or someone in the family is good at problem solving and able to take direction so that they are truly an asset to the attorney, you might find someone willing to work with you on that basis.


I hope this has been helpful. Let me know if you have any followup questions. If none, please remember to click on the ACCEPT link so that I may receive credit for working on this topic with you. (I'd greatly appreciate it!)


Thank you,

Dan

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Expert:	Dan
Pos. Feedback:	99.7 %
Accepts:
Answered:	4/29/2009

Retired JD

Retired attorney, general practice, with an additional background in financial planning,