This tool provides general cost estimates for informational purposes only. It is NOT legal advice. Costs vary significantly based on individual circumstances. Consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for specific guidance.
2026 cost estimates for estate planning / probate in Arizona, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a estate planning / probate in Arizona costs on average $2,150, typically $1,100-$3,200 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $180 to $355 per hour. A moderate-complexity case typically takes 2-6 weeks to resolve. Common related costs include notarization fees ($10-$25) and trust registration fee ($50-$200).
Data verified: June 29, 2026
| Complexity | Low | Median | High | Typical Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple | $350 | $650 | $1,100 | 1-2 weeks |
| Moderate | $1,100 | $2,150 | $3,200 | 2-6 weeks |
| Complex | $3,300 | $6,600 | $11,000 | 1-3 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$180 – $355/ hour
Median: $280/hr
2-6 weeks
For moderate complexity cases
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</script>Estate planning and probate cost formation depends on which side of death the work happens on. Planning documents drafted while someone is alive — a will, a revocable living trust, powers of attorney — are usually flat-fee, priced by document complexity and whether a trust (which avoids probate but requires more drafting) is involved rather than a simple will alone. Probate, which happens after death when an estate moves through court, is billed differently: often hourly or as a percentage of the estate's value, and its cost tracks estate size and how many beneficiaries or disputes are involved.
The biggest cost driver in probate specifically is whether the estate is contested. An estate with a clear will, cooperative beneficiaries, and no significant debts moves through simple probate with predictable court filing fees, executor fees, and appraisal costs. A contested estate — disputed will validity, disagreements among heirs, or complex assets like a business — adds litigation-style hourly billing on top of the base probate costs, which is why complex-case figures on this page run substantially above the simple-case median.
Take a moderate-complexity estate planning / probate matter in Arizona. The recorded median total is $2,150, with reported quotes clustering between $1,100 and $3,200. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $310–$925, which leaves roughly $1,225–$1,840 of the Arizona median as professional time — the part that differs between quotes.
At $2,150, the median estate planning / probate cost in Arizona runs 10% above the $1,954 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Arizona carries 3 rows — simple, $350–$1,100 at $155–$280/hr over 1-2 weeks; moderate, $1,100–$3,200 at $180–$355/hr over 2-6 weeks; complex, $3,300–$11,000 at $255–$485/hr over 1-3 months — on 4 shared citations. They put it above the midpoint, short of the top quarter.
$2,150 is a median, not the middle of the band — $1,050 above the $1,100 floor, $1,050 under the $3,200 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 46.
At 14th of 46, Arizona sits above the midpoint of the estate planning / probate table: $75 more than the $2,075 median state, or 4%, with 13 states recording a higher median.
Washington ($2,200) and California ($2,150) bracket Arizona inside a $50 window — narrow enough that 14th is close to arbitrary.
12 tracked states — Illinois, Texas, Washington, California among them — record a median within three percent of Arizona's $2,150. The figure sits in the densest part of the estate planning / probate distribution, where a rank change of several rows costs only a few hundred dollars.
Hourly rate does not explain this state's position. At $280 an hour Arizona is only 23rd of 46 on rate, yet 14th on total estate planning / probate cost — the totals reflect billed hours accumulating, not an unusually high rate.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Arizona |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | New Jersey | $2,300 | +$150 |
| 9 | Rhode Island | $2,300 | +$150 |
| 10 | New York | $2,250 | +$100 |
| 11 | Illinois | $2,200 | +$50 |
| 12 | Texas | $2,200 | +$50 |
| 13 | Washington | $2,200 | +$50 |
| 14 | Arizona | $2,150 | — |
| 15 | California | $2,150 | −$0 |
| 16 | Colorado | $2,150 | −$0 |
| 17 | Delaware | $2,150 | −$0 |
| 18 | Maine | $2,150 | −$0 |
| 19 | Virginia | $2,150 | −$0 |
| 20 | Maryland | $2,100 | −$50 |
The 14th position is not a stable fact about Arizona: $50 up or $0 down moves Arizona a row, and a ten percent revision in either direction would cross 18 rows, 8 above and 10 below in near-equal numbers.
Climbing five places would mean passing Rhode Island, New York, Illinois, Texas, Washington and adding $150 to the $2,150 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under California, Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Virginia: $0.
$450 short of Hawaii ($2,600), $800 clear of Alabama ($1,350).
The $2,150 median covers only about 8 hours at the $280 median rate, which is short enough that flat-fee and limited-scope arrangements, rather than an hourly meter, tend to describe how the work is actually billed. The peer median is 7 hours, so 1 more hours of work sit behind the Arizona figure than behind the typical state's.
Moving from a simple to a complex estate planning / probate multiplies the Arizona total by 10.2, and almost all of that is hours rather than price: 3 hours at $205 becomes 19 hours at $355, so the workload grows 6.3x while the rate grows only 1.73x. Complexity here buys attorney time, not a premium hourly rate.
From $1,100 to $3,200 the moderate band is $2,100 wide, close to the $2,050 peer median. End to end that is 8 hours at $280.
A third ordering: by implied hours Arizona is 9th of 46 at 8 hours, 5 places above its cost rank of 14th on cost — more work behind the same estate planning / probate money.
46% up the $1,100–$3,200 band sits the $2,075 table midpoint, buying 7 hours at $280 against the 8 the local estate planning / probate median implies — 1 hour apart.
| Measure | Arizona | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $2,150 | 14th |
| Hourly median | $280 | 23rd |
| Implied hours | 8 | 9th |
| Simple median | $650 | 10th |
| Complex median | $6,600 | 16th |
$280 an hour puts Arizona between Utah ($285) and Wisconsin ($280) — not the estate planning / probate cost pairing.
Wisconsin records the same $280: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$2,150 buys 10 hours at $205, 8 at $280, 6 at $355.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | Pennsylvania | $285 |
| 22 | Utah | $285 |
| 23 | Arizona | $280 |
| 24 | Wisconsin | $280 |
| 25 | Nevada | $275 |
Ranked tier by tier, Arizona slides 6 places downward: 10th at the simple tier, 14th at moderate, 16th at complex. Its headline moderate position sits between the two extremes rather than summarising them.
$650 is 10th of 46 on a straightforward estate planning / probate, under Virginia ($700) and over Colorado ($650), $25 over the $625 tier midpoint.
$6,600 is 16th of 46 once contested, between District of Columbia ($6,700) and Rhode Island ($6,600), $700 off the $5,900 tier midpoint.
The lower two bands run into each other — the simple tier tops out at $1,100 against a moderate floor of $1,100 — but there is a clear gap of $100 between the moderate ceiling of $3,200 and the complex floor of $3,300. In Arizona the jump into contested work is a step, not a slope.
| Tier | Arizona | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $650 | 10th | $625 | 3 |
| moderate | $2,150 | 14th | $2,075 | 8 |
| complex | $6,600 | 16th | $5,900 | 19 |
$650 puts Arizona 10th of 46 on straightforward matters, 4 up on its moderate position, and $25 (4%) over the $625 tier midpoint.
3 implied hours at $205: 38% of the moderate tier's 8, over 1-2 weeks.
Virginia ($700) and Colorado ($650) bracket it — a $50 window.
13 states record a simple-tier median within three percent of $650, denser than the 12 around the moderate row.
$6,600 drops Arizona to 16th of 46 on contested matters, 2 below its moderate position and $700 (12%) over the $5,900 tier midpoint.
19 implied hours at $355: 238% of the moderate tier's 8, over 1-3 months.
District of Columbia ($6,700) and Rhode Island ($6,600) bracket it — a $100 window.
8 states sit within three percent of the $6,600 here, against 12 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | New Jersey | $700 |
| 9 | Virginia | $700 |
| 10 | Arizona | $650 |
| 11 | Colorado | $650 |
| 12 | Connecticut | $650 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 14 | Colorado | $6,700 |
| 15 | District of Columbia | $6,700 |
| 16 | Arizona | $6,600 |
| 17 | Rhode Island | $6,600 |
| 18 | Alaska | $6,550 |
In Arizona a estate planning / probate is 7th of 8 at $2,150, between Bankruptcy and Real Estate Closing. At 19% of Criminal Defense ($11,050).
Across practice areas Arizona ranges from 14th of 46 for DUI / DWI to 28th for Real Estate Closing — a 14-place spread, with its 14th on estate planning / probate inside it.
Arizona is not equally priced in every practice area. Measured against each matter's own midpoint, DUI / DWI runs 11% above its own midpoint while Real Estate Closing runs 8% below its own midpoint — a 19-point spread between the extremes.
The largest tracked median in Arizona is 5.4x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
3 of 7 matter types rank Arizona in the upper third, 0 in the lower, 4 between; estate planning / probate is 14th.
In percentile terms it sits at the 71th percentile of the 46 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,400 | $11,050 | $33,100 | 36 | 15th | +8% | Delaware |
| Divorce | $3,100 | $8,550 | $21,800 | 28 | 26th | level | Oregon |
| DUI / DWI | $3,300 | $8,250 | $18,700 | 29 | 14th | +11% | Minnesota |
| Personal Injury | $1,650 | $5,350 | $15,400 | — | — | +3% | — |
| Immigration | $2,050 | $4,750 | $11,350 | 17 | 24th | level | Wisconsin |
| Bankruptcy | $1,650 | $3,600 | $5,200 | 14 | 23rd | level | Delaware |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $650 | $2,150 | $6,600 | 8 | 14th | +4% | Washington |
| Real Estate Closing | $950 | $2,050 | $4,900 | 8 | 28th | −8% | Tennessee |
Simple tier. $650 ÷ $205 = about 3 hours — 5 fewer than the moderate tier's 8, and $1,500 less.
Work against price. $2,150 to $6,600 is a $4,450 step, mostly work: 11 more hours at $280 is $3,080, while moving to $355 across 19 hours adds $1,425. Work carries 68%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Budgeting from California ($2,150) lands $0 under Arizona; from Washington ($2,200), $50 over; from the $2,075 table midpoint, $75 out.
Contested against simple. At Arizona's own recorded figures, $6,600 buys 10.2 matters at the $650 simple median — or, counted in time, 19 implied hours against 3, a factor of 6.3 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the Arizonacourt's own schedule; billing models are covered in the legal fees guide.
This tool provides general cost estimates for informational purposes only. It is NOT legal advice. Costs vary significantly based on individual circumstances. Consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for specific guidance.