QUESTION: How much do you charge for a simple will?

ANSWER BY RICK COURTNEY:

“One question we often get is, what did you charge for a simple will?  Well, it depends.  A will is just written instructions about what happens with your stuff when you die.  That’s the definition of a will, according to Rick.

But a will is not a form.  It should address your personal circumstances.  For instance, are you in a second marriage?  Do you have minor children, that is, children under age 21 or grandchildren under age 21?

Do you have a child or a grandchild with a disability who may have Medicaid benefits?  Do you have an adult child that’s in a rocky marriage, or who has debts and creditors, or who can’t manage money?  In any of those kinds of situations a simple will just won’t work by itself.  You need to consider who is getting money or assets at your death and how they’re going to get it.

You could consider using a trust. Now you can put a trust for those people in your will.  You can appoint in your will the trustee, that is who is the person or the bank or the trust company who would manage those assets for your child or grandchild after your death.  And you can describe it that trust language how those assets will be invested, managed, and distributed so that the needs of your child or your spouse or your grandchild will be adequately met.  But they won’t have ownership of those assets, and therefore it would be protected from creditors and predators.

So the question, what do you charge for a simple will?  Well, a few hundred dollars may purchase a simple will, but rarely do we find the client who needs just a simple will.  There are other circumstances in life that dictate a little more in a will than just, who’s going to get my stuff when I die?”