Understanding Probate Fees and Costs

Probating an estate has costs and fees attached to it, in many cases, costs that beneficiaries and others may not anticipate. While these are expenses everybody would rather avoid, they are necessary to the probate process and to ensuring the proper distribution to the beneficiaries named in the will.

Hard Costs for the Estate

Aside from attorneys fees, there are a number of hard costs involved in probating an estate.

Some might include things like appraising property, in order to ascertain their value. That might be necessary to determine a fair sale price, or just to get the value of the estate as a whole, to see what kind of probate might be necessary.

Sometimes there are fees associated with transferring property–you probably already know that you pay fees and taxes when transferring real estate in a typical transaction.

There often is tax work or taxes to be paid from the estate, and that will require hiring the appropriate expert. Other professionals, such as realtors, or business brokers to sell a business, or auction fees to sell property, might also be necessary.

These expenses get paid out of the estate, before any beneficiary gets his or her share of the estate.

What About Attorneys Fees?

Attorneys fees are also included in probate costs.

Almost every personal representative will need a probate attorney, as the personal representative’s job requires interacting with the court, doing court filings, and handling transfers of property and retitling of assets, as well as notifying creditors and determining the merit of any claims they may make.

While it would be nice to just answer the question of what a probate attorney costs, that depends on a number of factors. The size/value of the estate, and whether there are any contests, whether from or related to creditors, or contests to the will itself, will affect what attorneys fees are.

Florida does have a model, where a probate attorney is paid a percentage of the overall value of the estate–usually between 1% to 3%, based on the overall size and value of the estate, for estates with a value over $100,000. However, these percentages are suggestions, and attorneys are free to deviate from them.

And again, those percentages don’t account for nontraditional issues that might arise, such as will challenges, which may be billed on an hourly basis, just like traditional legal cases.

Different Fee Models

But like anything, every attorney is different. While some will stick with the traditional model, others will look at individual estates. Those estates with more complex assets, like real estate, businesses, hard-to-locate property or missing beneficiaries, or with possible challenges to the will by beneficiaries or family, might charge or cost more–even if the overall value of the state itself is less.

If you’re worried about affordability, smaller value estates may qualify for a quicker, summary administration, which lowers the fees and costs involved.

What will probate cost your estate? Let us help you with that question. Call the West Palm Beach probate law attorneys at The Law Offices of Larry E. Bray today.

Source:

leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0733/Sections/0733.6171.html