Probate is pricey!
Why is probate so expensive? The simple answer is there are many expenses and also costs that go into probate. There are Court costs as well depending on your territory, it can be hundreds simply to submit an estate for probate down at the courthouse.
Lawyer charges
And depending on your territory, the attorney fees are most likely going to make up the bulk of the probate fees. For probate, the lawyer costs, filing fees, and costs can easily be from $3,200 to about $7500, depending on your territory. It could be a whole lot much more where you live.
The next price is publication charges. Something that people don’t understand when you do a probate publication of notifications in probate. Each time there is a hearing, the judge will certainly issue an order for notice of that hearing. That notification of hearing needs to be released in the paper. Normally 10 days before the hearing. In probate, there might be 3 or 4 different publications. And depending on the paper as well as how many words are in that newspaper, it can cost you anywhere from $90 to $190 for each specific notification.
Much like we had to publish those notices, we also need to mail them. We usually always send out notices to beneficiaries as well as various other interested parties by Certified Mail. Every single one of those notices can cost between $7 and also $9, depending on where it is going and also just how much paper we are sending to them. So there is a lot of expenditures that can go into probate.
Real Estate
Real estate agent fees, business charges, title fees, and auctioneer costs if we need to auction an asset. There can also be appraisal fees, which are expensive. Artwork will usually always have to get appraised https://youtu.be/VDY0ndO0-q0
So there is a lot of costs that go into probating an estate. The easier and maybe the cheaper means is to get a revocable living trust centered estate plan established so that your beneficiaries avoid the probate procedure entirely.