Only 31% of US adults have a will, as per the 2025 Estate Planning Report by Trust & Will, the biggest estate planning survey to ever be conducted in the USA. This means that almost 7 in 10 adults, including many thousands of parents with minors, have let the court take care of their assets as well as their children in case of death.
If you want to have an estate plan, the best way to start is creating a will. Many people may be delaying due to the cost, but you must understand that the price can vary widely. Still, you may want to know exactly how much a will costs.
Understanding what influences the price of a will can help you choose an option that fits your needs while ensuring your wishes are legally documented.
The Three Main Ways to Create a Will and What Each Costs
Online sites like LegalZoom, Trust & Will, and Nolo provide a guided questionnaire process for drafting wills for most adults whose assets are relatively uncomplicated.
Costs are generally between $20 and $200 for a standard will and up to $500 for a package containing a will, power of attorney, and health care directive. MetLife estimates the cost of drafting a will via an online estate planning service to be about $160.
A simple will prepared by an attorney will cost between $300 and $1,000. A basic estate planning package including a financial power of attorney and a health care directive will set you back anywhere from $1,000 to $2,500. An estate plan, which includes a trust, a business continuity plan, or blended families, among other things, may set you back between $3,000 and $7,000.
Most estate planning lawyers charge flat fees for their normal documentation services rather than hourly billing so that they can let the client know about their total charges. The cost of their services in case of hourly billing falls between $150 and $400 per hour in the country.
Higher billing costs are charged in urban areas and by specialists in estate planning. Estate planning lawyer Paul V. L. Campo, who works in a market like California, typically prices a family estate planning package as a bundle. They have a revocable trust, pour-over will, durable powers of attorney, advance health care directives, and guardian nominations together, since California’s estate planning norms lean heavily toward pairing a will with a living trust specifically to avoid the state’s often lengthy and costly probate process.
About half of the states within the United States accept holographic wills, which are wills drafted solely by the hand of the testator himself/herself, are dated, and are signed without witnesses or notarization. They do not require any cost to be made but involve great risks.
Handwritten wills are subjected to greater scrutiny by courts than are formal documents, and any uncertainty in the wording of the handwritten will could lead to costly lawsuits, which will definitely outweigh the cost of hiring an attorney to make the document.
What Actually Drives the Price Difference
The cost of creating a will tracks with the complexity of what the document needs to accomplish, not with any single factor in isolation. Several specific variables push costs higher.
Real property in multiple states might need separate provisions in the will or separate ancillary probate processes in each state. A minor child will mean the appointment of a guardian, setting up a testamentary trust to hold assets until the child becomes an adult, and detailing out terms for asset distribution.
These will necessitate detailed drafting in the will. A blended family will mean a distinction between biological and step children, dealing with the rights of spouses in community property states, and avoiding accidental disinheriting, which is generally done badly by online will templates.
Business interests will involve succession planning in case there is a closely held business, partnership interests, or professional practice ownership.
According to current law, the federal estate tax exemption in 2025 was set at $13.99 million per person. The previously scheduled 2026 sunset would have dropped the exemption to roughly $7 million. Instead, this was averted by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law in July 2025. Now, the exemption has been permanently raised to $15 million per person, effective in 2026.
Estates nearing such limits should consider tax planning that takes into account this future reduction.
What Happens Without a Will, and Why the Answer Varies by State
A will addresses asset distribution at death, and what happens in its absence is governed entirely by state intestacy law, which varies more than most people expect.
The Intestate Succession Act of North Carolina, found under Chapter 29 of the General Statutes, is a classic example of a common myth in action. Most people wrongly think that when they die without a will, all their assets go to their spouse.
In North Carolina, that is not the case at all. For instance, if a person dies intestate with a spouse and kids, the property will be divided between them depending on the statutory percentages rather than being left for the sole benefit of the spouse.
Documents That Should Accompany a Will
A will deals with asset allocation at the time of death. However, there are two other circumstances that are equally probable but which the will does not cover: incapacitation during one’s lifetime and decision-making in relation to one’s health care while being unable to communicate. The full basic estate plan contains four documents.
The financial power of attorney appoints an agent to handle the finances should the individual become incapacitated. Otherwise, the family will have to go through a costly and lengthy procedure to get a guardianship or conservatorship order from the court, costing several thousand dollars and months of time.
The healthcare proxy allows someone to act as a decision-maker in case an individual is unable to express their own decisions. The laws of each state determine who is eligible to make medical decisions in this case and how to do it.
An advance directive for healthcare, also known as a living will in some states, includes the individual’s preferences regarding his or her own end-of-life treatment, including artificial ventilation, artificial nutrition, and organ donation.
The combined cost of drafting all four documents together is almost always less than drafting the will alone plus the other three documents separately at different times. Most estate planning attorneys price the package together.
Additional Costs to Anticipate
Several costs arise around the will itself that are separate from drafting fees and are worth planning for.
Notarization fees and witness fees are inexpensive, ranging from $5 to $25 per signature, although they are mandatory for the validity of a will in most states.
Probate fees are distinct from the cost of making the will. It constitutes the cost of administering the estate of the testator upon death. Some states set probate fees in relation to the value of the estate. In California, it is established that an attorney’s fees as well as an executor’s fees would be set at 4% of the first $100,000 of estate value, 3% of the second $100,000, and decreasing percentages thereafter.
There are events that may necessitate a revision of the will. This includes marriage, divorce, birth of a child, demise of a beneficiary, substantial change in the estate, and moving to another state. This revision may cost in the range of $150 to $500.
Where the Cost-Benefit Calculation Actually Falls
Pew Research Center’s 2025 survey, conducted in September 2025 among 8,750 adults, shows that about two-thirds of Americans get around to making a will or living will in their 70s. Also, 80 percent of people older than 80 years have one.
According to Caring.com’s 2025 Wills Survey, only 24 percent of participants indicated that they had a will in 2025. That is a significant decrease compared to 33 percent in 2022. The most cited problem by the respondents is procrastination. In fact, about 43% of them said so.
For adults who have minor children, the judge uses the best interests of the child standard to appoint guardians without a will. It means that he/she will make his/her decision not knowing the family.
For individuals with simple estates and no children, an inexpensive online will-writing service can help you create an effective and legally binding will for far less than what a lawyer would charge.
Estate planning resources from the American Bar Association can help you choose your advisor.
Leave a Reply