Fees and What to Expect
You should have a general idea of what this will cost before you call.
At Mathews Law, our fees reflect more than the preparation of legal documents. Our clients receive thoughtful legal advice, a planning process designed around their circumstances and assets, careful drafting, help implementing the plan, and the option of ongoing support after the documents are signed.
Every situation is different, so the final fee depends on the type and complexity of the planning you need. But we believe in transparency, and what follows should give you a good sense of what to expect before you get in touch.
Estate Planning Fees
Three general planning levels.
Most estate planning at Mathews Law falls into one of these. Which one fits is something we work out together, and we will tell you plainly if a simpler level is all you need.
Will-Based Estate Plans
Starting at
$2,000 individual
$3,000 married couple
A will-based plan may be appropriate when your needs can be addressed primarily through wills, powers of attorney, advance medical directives, beneficiary designations, and other foundational documents.
For many clients this plan is designed so assets pass efficiently through beneficiary designations or other non-probate arrangements, with the will serving as an important back-up.
Trust-Based Estate Plans
Starting at
$4,500 individual
$5,500 married couple
A trust-based plan may be appropriate if you want greater control over how assets are managed and distributed, want to simplify administration after death, are planning for children or other beneficiaries, or have circumstances that make a revocable living trust a better fit.
Trust planning involves more than drafting the trust. We also help you understand how assets should be titled, how beneficiary designations should coordinate with the plan, and what it takes to fund and implement the trust properly.
Concierge Estate Planning
Add approximately
$3,000 above trust-based
Concierge planning is for clients who want a more comprehensive and highly supported experience.
It includes enhanced implementation and funding assistance, greater coordination with financial or tax advisors, and additional support from our team. We will help you decide whether this level is appropriate for you.
Before you decide to move forward, we explain the options we recommend and the fee for each one. You will not be asked to begin an engagement without knowing what your plan will cost.
What Determines the Cost
Two clients with similar net worth can have very different planning needs.
The things that move the fee are rarely the size of the estate on its own:
- Whether the plan is will-based or trust-based
- The number and type of trusts needed
- How complex your assets are, and how they are owned
- Planning for minor children
- Planning for beneficiaries who may need financial or asset protection
- Blended-family considerations
- Business ownership
- Real estate ownership
- Estate tax or other tax-planning needs
- Planning around a beneficiary who receives means-tested benefits
- Asset-protection goals
- Charitable planning
- How much implementation and funding assistance is needed
- How much coordination is needed with your financial, tax or insurance advisors
What Your Fee Includes
We are planning for four moments, not one.
Most estate planning is written for a single event: death. That is the one people expect. It is rarely the one that arrives first.
Our whole service model is built around four, because you do not get to choose the order they come in.
Emergency
It could be tonight.
Someone needs to know where your documents are, who to call, and who is authorized to act — today, not after a filing.
Incapacity
You are still here.
The people you chose can step in and manage things for you, without your family petitioning a court for permission first.
Death
The part everyone plans for.
Your wishes carried out, with as little court involvement, delay and cost as your circumstances allow.
Legacy
Long after you are gone.
What an inheritance actually does when it lands, and whether it reflects what you wanted for the people receiving it.
What You Actually Receive
The parts that make a plan work when nobody can ask you.
Documents are the beginning. These are the things that decide whether the plan functions on the day it is needed.
What you leave the people you love
- The For My Loved Ones Workbook — the practical instructions your legal documents cannot hold. Where things are, who to contact, what you would want done.
- An asset and debt inventory we build with you. It is the single thing families most often wish they had: one place that says what exists and where to find it.
- Written guidance for your agents and trustees, so the people you named are not reading their instructions for the first time during the worst week of their lives.
If you have children under 18
- Our Kids Protection Plan is included in every plan for a parent of minor children, at no additional cost.
- Standby guardian designations, written caregiver instructions, and wallet cards for whoever might be with your children when something happens.
- If it happened tonight, the person watching your children would know who to call and what to do. That is the entire point of it.
For the moment nobody can ask you
- An emergency wallet card for every client, naming the people authorized to make medical decisions. It travels with you, and an emergency room can act on it.
- A conversation about how and when an inheritance arrives, not only who receives it. Money reaching a twenty-two-year-old outright does something different from money held and released with purpose.
- Planning shaped around what you actually want for your children, which is rarely the same as an equal split on a spreadsheet.
What continues after you sign
- Permanent access to your secure client portal, so you and the people you authorize can reach your plan whenever it is needed.
- We come back to you every three years to ask what has changed. You do not have to remember to call us. That is included with every plan through Cornerstone Client Care.
- A complimentary Guidance Session for your family after your death — the same 45-minute session with an attorney we would otherwise charge $500 for. They will not be working out the first steps alone.
Estate planning here is a flat fee, agreed before any work begins. No hourly billing, and no clock running when you call with a question.
What Clients Tell Us
The comment we hear most often is that we made it easy.
Estate planning has a reputation for being confusing. For leaving people nodding along to language they do not actually follow, and signing documents they could not explain a week later.
That is the part our clients most often say we got right. We explain things in plain language. We check that you have genuinely understood rather than assuming it. We do not talk down to anyone. And we walk through the process beside you, rather than handing over a stack of documents and leaving you to work out the rest.
You work with an attorney
Not an intake form and not a questionnaire passed along to someone else. You meet with an attorney to design the plan, and your attorney stays involved through drafting, review and signing.
You will understand your own plan
We explain each recommendation and why it fits your situation, as many times as it takes. You should be able to describe what your plan does after you have signed it.
Questions are the process
Asking is not an interruption to the work. It is the work. Our team stays reachable while you are deciding, and afterward when life raises something new.
Access to your attorney is not an upgrade here, and it is not an add-on. It is how the firm is built.
Being Straightforward About It
Why we are not the cheapest option.
There are estate planning options that cost less than working with Mathews Law. There are also firms that charge considerably more. Our aim is neither: it is to provide an exceptional level of legal advice, service and ongoing support at a fee that reflects that work.
Some practices are built around producing documents as efficiently and inexpensively as possible. This one is built for clients who want sophisticated, personalized planning alongside a genuinely supportive experience.
Your fee reflects the time our team spends understanding your circumstances and assets, identifying issues before they become problems, designing the right approach, preparing and reviewing your documents carefully, guiding you through implementation and funding, and remaining available when questions come up.
Accessibility matters too. You get real time with your attorney throughout. You should be able to ask questions, understand what we are recommending, and feel supported while you decide.
There will almost always be a less expensive way to create an estate plan. If your main goal is documents at the lowest possible price, another firm is likely a better fit.
Clients typically choose us because they want confidence that the planning has been thoughtfully designed, properly implemented, and backed by a legal team they can return to as life changes.
The Real Cost of Cutting Corners
Saving money now often costs more later.
We frequently meet families dealing with a plan that was signed but never made to work. The bill arrives eventually — in court costs, in delay, and at the worst possible time.
The true cost of estate planning is not what you pay today. It is what happens if your plan does not work when your loved ones need it most.
What we see go wrong
- Plans that were poorly designed or left outdated
- Trusts that were never properly funded
- Documents in conflict with beneficiary designations
- Missing provisions that pull the family into court
- No valid power of attorney or advance directive, so the family has to ask a court to appoint a guardian or conservator before anyone can act
- Nothing adequate for minor children or difficult family dynamics
Virginia Probate Cost Estimate
What would it cost your family instead?
A rough, educational estimate of what probate can cost when a plan is missing or does not work. Probate is only one of the consequences.
Your Assets
Your Estimate
Filings, court oversight, bonds, appraisals, and the related steps court involvement triggers.
Executor compensation and professional fees are commonly charged as a percentage of the estate when probate is required.
Important notes and disclaimer
- This calculator provides a general educational estimate only.
- Whether probate or court involvement is required depends on asset titling and beneficiary designations.
- Estimates do not include extraordinary litigation or tax issues.
- Nothing you enter is saved, sent, or shared.
Ongoing Client Care
A plan is not something you finish and forget for twenty years.
Families change. Assets change. Laws change. Sometimes the plan needs to change with them.
Our Client Care Program lets you keep an ongoing relationship with the firm after the initial planning is done. Levels range from care included at no cost with every plan, through to paid tiers for clients who want more hands-on assistance.
A paid membership is never required in order to work with us. Every estate plan includes our Cornerstone level of care.
Depending on the level, that can include
- Periodic reviews of your estate plan
- Help keeping trust funding up to date
- Updates to certain planning documents
- Ongoing access to our team for planning questions
- Educational programs and resources
- Additional planning or implementation support
What You Are Really Paying For
A plan may sit quietly for years before anyone needs it.
When that day comes, the details are what matter. Who has authority to act for you? How are your assets titled? Are the beneficiary designations coordinated with the plan? Has the trust actually been funded? Do the people you chose know what to do? Will your family know who to call?
Those questions are why we treat estate planning as more than document preparation. Our job is to help you think the decisions through, put the legal structure in place, implement it properly, and be a trusted resource for your family when they need one.
For many of our clients, that is the most valuable part of the whole process.
Ready when you are
Want to know what your plan would cost?
Start with a complimentary 15-minute call. Our client service coordinator will listen, answer your first questions, and help you understand which level of planning is likely to fit. There is no charge and nothing to prepare beforehand.
Schedule a Complimentary CallOr call us at (703) 215-2088.
Settling an estate rather than planning one? See Estate Administration.