Tag Archives: durable power of attorney

What to Do When One Parent Lacks Capacity







How Much Should A Living Trust Cost?

Dear Liza: What is a reasonable amount to pay for a lawyer to do a living trust? Here’s my rule of thumb: you should probably start by assuming that the whole process will take about 10 hours of an attorney’s time. This should include a face-to-face initial meeting to thoroughly discuss your goals, your family situation, and your finanicial assets.  The lawyer should then draft your documents, you should review them, and there should be some back-and-forth over the drafts. Some lawyers do this in a second meeting, some do it by phone or by email. Ultimately, though, you should finalize the language and get back together to sign the documents. Included in my estimate, by the way, is that the attorney will also be preparing a Will, a Durable Power of Attorney for finance, a Health Care Directive, and assist you in transferring your real property into the trust. If you are single, you can reduce the estimate to 8 hours. Since lawyer’s rates vary a lot around the country, just take my ten hours and translate that into the going rate where you live: in Northern California, where I practice, you can spend between $3000 and $5000, but in other parts of the country in could be much less.

Of course, that’s my estimate for something rather straight forward. If you need to do any planning for a child with special needs, or for parents, or have a second marriage, or have complicated assets, it can take longer.