How much does probate cost? Often times, people think there is an exact fee or cost to probating an estate. However, the total cost of a probating a loved ones estate depends on the assets that are being probated.

First, lets review probate. A probate is what happens when a loved one dies holding assets over a certain amount. The reason the estate is in probate court is because the deceased person either did not prepare any legal documents ahead of time, or they died having only a Will in place.

Let’s review a case we recently probated in our office to see what the facts were and what the outcome was as an illustration.

For purposes of this example, we will call the person who passed away G. In this probate proceeding, G was a father and husband. He left behind a surviving wife and 3 adult children. His sole asset was a real property owned in his name alone as married man owed sole and separate. This means his wife was NOT a co-owner of the property and her name was not on title.  G passed away not having prepared any legal documents.

Who Inherits G’s property?

His estate will pass to his loved ones via intestate succession. The word Intestate means that he does not have any legal documents with instructions for the court to follow, so a judge will follow the law instead.

According to the probate code, at G’s death, his property will be inherited by his wife AND 3 children. The wife will inherit 1/3 and the children will share the 2/3s equally, giving each of them a 2/9th interest in the property.

How much does Probate cost?

In this particular probate, the property was valued at $820,100 by the probate referee (appraiser working for the court).

The probate attorneys fees are statutory (written in the law) and they are based on the value of the estate.

The total attorneys fees on this case were $19,402.00.

In addition to the attorneys statutory ordinary fees, if the family had decided to sell the property or any conflicting petitions were filed, the attorney would also have the option of charging extraordinary fees which are charged at the attorney hourly rate agreed and approved by the court.

In addition to these fees, the court also approved the costs of the probate (i.e. filing fees, appraisal fee, other court fees) at $1,719.45.

Now, it is important to note that all of these fees must be presented to the Judge and approved.

 

Summary.

This probate took a total of a year and 6 months to complete, from start to finish.

The property at the end of the probate was re-titled and owned by the following people:

Total cost out the door $21,121.45.

If G had seen an attorney ahead of time and done an estate plan, his average estate planning costs in addition to administration legal fees at his death would be somewhere around the ballpark of $6,000 to $8,000. His loved ones would have saved $13,000-$15,000  and a year of their time.

Contact our office for a free consultation so your loved ones don’t end up in the same mess as G’s.