How much does probate cost?

When you’re making an estate plan and determining how to best pass your assets on to your heirs and beneficiaries after you die, probate costs are often a big question mark. It’s something that everyone who is just getting started in estate planning hears about, and it’s often high on their list of planning concerns. After all, the goal of estate planning is to plan for your family’s future when you’re gone, not spend it all in fees. Here’s some important information about probate fees, how to avoid additional costs, and how to contact an attorney for help. 

Typical Probate Expenses in Washington

One of the biggest probate expenses in Washington is just the amount of time it takes to go through the entire process. There are certain minimum time limits that must pass in order to successfully close out the estate, such as the mandatory notice to creditors, which must be published for at least four months. The time required to inventory the estate, get appraisals, manage complex title issues, or handle tax problems all adds up. It can take from six to nine months for even the simplest estate. Larger or more complex estate situations can extend this time considerably, and the longer it takes, the more likely attorney’s fees will pile up, too.

The actual fixed expenses involved in probate depend almost entirely on the details of the estate. There are many filing fees with the court involved in the process, which can run from a few dollars each to over $200, depending on the filing. Your county clerk’s office will have a schedule of fees, and King County has these fees published online. There are a few other fixed costs that can’t be avoided, as well. The four-month publication of a notice to creditors is one expense that simply can’t be ignored, so you’ll likely end up paying your local newspaper’s rates for a classified ad for that period of time.

Estate taxes are one major source of dread that many people have, but there is a little bit of good news there for smaller estate situations: the standard exclusion amount in Washington is a little over $2 million dollars, and the federal estate tax exemption is over $5 million dollars as of 2017. Larger estates will have to file and pay these estate taxes, which often also means hiring a tax attorney or accountant, which only adds to the expense.

Avoiding Probate

Whether your estate is large or small, there are many legal tools available to help your family avoid the probate process after you die, including:

• Living trusts. You may choose to use either a revocable or irrevocable trust to hold your assets, allowing the transfer of assets directly to the named beneficiaries and avoiding probate.
• Community property agreements. This agreement between spouses allows the transfer of property to a surviving spouse directly, making probate unnecessary.

Very small estates may also be able to avoid probate altogether, as Washington does not require probate for estates with assets under $100,000.

Every probate situation is unique, with different goals and challenges to be overcome. Your estate planning attorney will be able to tell you the best tools to use to meet the unique needs of your own family’s situation, so you can have peace of mind knowing that your loved ones will be cared for when you are gone.

Legal Help for Estate Planning

At the Law Offices of Molly B. Kenny, we have spent years helping families and individuals plan for the future, and we’d like to be there for you, too. If you have any questions or concerns about your estate planning situation, schedule a private consultation with one of our experienced attorneys here in our Bellevue office. Reach out to us by phone, or use the contact form to send an email to speak to a professional today.