What Does an Estate Plan Cost in Alabama?
The cost of an estate plan depends on your family, your property and the work the plan needs. We charge flat fees for estate planning, based on the documents and planning your family needs, and we agree on the fee before you engage the firm.
A will for a single person whose accounts already name beneficiaries is one plan. A trust for a couple with a lake house in another state, a family business and a child who is not ready to manage money is another. The fee follows the work: the documents, the decisions behind them and what it takes to put the plan in place.
Will-Based and Trust-Based Plans
A will-based plan is built around your will, with a durable power of attorney for your finances and an advance directive for health care. Property that passes under a will goes through probate after your death. If your estate is simpler and your accounts already name beneficiaries, a will-based plan may be all you need. More on what a will does, and what happens without one.
A trust-based plan adds a revocable living trust and a pour-over will that directs property passing under your will into the trust after probate. Property titled in the trust can pass to your beneficiaries without probate, and the successor trustee you choose can manage it if you become unable to. Planning a trust also means planning how it will be funded. See whether you need a revocable living trust, or read about our living trust planning.
You do not need to choose before you call. Sarah S. Shepard, the estate planning attorney at Sparkman, Shepard & Shepard, LLC, recommends one or the other once she understands your family and your property.
What Else Shapes the Cost
Funding the trust. A trust controls the property it holds or receives. Assets outside the trust may pass by beneficiary designation or survivorship. Property passing under your will goes through probate. Moving your home into the trust takes a new deed. We prepare and record deeds only as part of an estate plan, when your engagement includes that work. Our post on avoiding probate in Alabama includes a funding checklist.
Trusts for children or a beneficiary who needs protection. An inheritance held in trust for young children, or for an adult who should not receive a lump sum, takes more drafting: the trust has to say who manages the money and when it is paid out. Sarah can build that trust into your living trust or into your will as a testamentary trust.
A business interest. A closely held business needs a plan for who will own and manage it after your death, and that plan has to be coordinated with any operating or shareholder agreement. Read about estate and succession planning for business owners.
Property in another state. Real estate in more than one state is one of the usual reasons for a trust-based plan, and each property adds to the work of funding the trust.
Updating an existing plan. If you already have a will or a revocable trust, Sarah reviews it and recommends whether to amend it or replace it. The fee depends on how much has to change.
How Our Flat Fee Works
After your first call with Sarah, we agree on the work and the fee before you engage the firm. Both are written into your engagement agreement, which comes with an invoice and a request for intake information.
Your conversations with Sarah help settle the questions behind the documents: the trustee you are unsure about, the retirement account that still names a former spouse, the second marriage and the children from the first.
Most of the planning can happen by phone, email or video.
The Work Behind Your Plan
Sarah's advice on the structure of your plan: a will or a trust, who serves in each role and how each part of your property should pass.
The documents your plan calls for, prepared by Sarah for your family.
A review of the drafts with Sarah, including the people you are appointing and what you are asking them to do.
The signing. You usually sign at our Huntsville office, and we provide the witnesses and a notary.
Funding guidance. Sarah explains what your plan still needs, such as a new deed, retitled accounts or updated beneficiary designations, and your engagement states which of those the firm handles. See how beneficiary designations and trusts work together.
What to Bring to the First Conversation
Your first consultation is a free phone call of about 20 to 30 minutes, and our office arranges the time with you. It helps to have:
A general picture of what you own: your home and any other real estate, bank and investment accounts, retirement accounts, life insurance and any business interest.
The people in your plan: who you want to provide for, who you might ask to serve as executor or trustee, and any concerns about them.
Any will, trust or power of attorney you already have.
Talk With Sarah About Your Plan
Schedule a consultation with Sarah S. Shepard. Sarah was admitted to the Alabama State Bar in 2012 and works with families in Huntsville and North Alabama. Ty Shepard handles the firm's probate and trust administration, and that work shapes the questions Sarah asks.
Settling the estate of someone who has died? Probate is separate work; see probate for executors named in a will.