Probate Cost Estimator

Probate costs are the legal, administrative, and professional fees required to validate a will and distribute a deceased person’s estate through the court system. Most costs are calculated as a percentage of the gross estate value, though some are flat fees.

Total probate cost formula: Total Cost = Attorney Fees + Executor Fees + Court Filing Fees + Appraisal Fees + Other Costs

Percentage-based attorney and executor fees (statutory in many states): Many US states use a sliding-scale fee schedule:

• 4% of first $100,000 of estate
• 3% of next $100,000
• 2% of next $800,000
• 1% of next $9,000,000
• Reasonable rate on amounts above $10,000,000

Percentage-based formula (simplified): Attorney Fee ≈ Estate Value × Fee Rate

Where:

• Estate Value: gross value of probate assets (does not include assets with named beneficiaries: 401k, IRA, life insurance, joint tenancy property, trust assets)
• Fee Rate: typically 2–5% of estate value for combined attorney + executor fees
• Executor fee: the person administering the estate may charge the same as the attorney in states with dual statutory fees; family executors often waive this
• Court filing fees: typically $200–$1,000 depending on state and estate size

Reference: estimated probate costs by estate size

These assume the executor takes the statutory fee. Waiving it removes roughly the lower half of each range.

• $100,000 estate: $5,000–$8,000 (5–8%)
• $250,000 estate: $10,000–$18,000 (4–7%)
• $500,000 estate: $18,000–$30,000 (3.5–6%)
• $1,000,000 estate: $30,000–$50,000 (3–5%)

Notice the percentage falling as the estate grows. That is the sliding scale at work, and it is also why the fixed costs make full probate uneconomic on a small estate. Below your state’s small-estate threshold there is a simplified procedure, often just an affidavit, that skips nearly all of this.

Probate avoidance strategies and their costs:

• Revocable living trust: $1,500–$5,000 to set up: avoids probate entirely
• Transfer-on-death deeds: $50–$200 filing fee: avoids probate for real estate
• Joint tenancy: free: avoids probate for jointly owned assets

Worked example: Estate value: $350,000, statutory fee schedule, simple estate, and the executor claims the fee.

• 4% of the first $100,000 = $4,000
• 3% of the next $100,000 = $3,000
• 2% of the remaining $150,000 = $3,000
• Statutory fee = $10,000
• Attorney fee = $10,000
• Executor fee, same scale = $10,000
• Court filing $350, appraisal $500, accounting $500, publication $200 = $1,550
• Total probate cost = $21,550, which is 6.2% of the estate

Have the executor waive the fee, which is what most family members do, and the same estate costs $11,550, or 3.3%. That single decision is worth more than every other line combined.

Timeline: probate typically runs 9 to 18 months. A living trust transfers the same assets within weeks for a one-time setup cost of $2,000 to $4,000, which is why it wins comfortably on any estate over about $200,000.