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 Delaware, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a estate planning / probate in Delaware costs on average $2,150, typically $1,100-$3,300 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $200 to $395 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 | $750 | $1,200 | 1-2 weeks |
| Moderate | $1,100 | $2,150 | $3,300 | 2-6 weeks |
| Complex | $3,550 | $7,100 | $11,800 | 1-3 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$200 – $395/ hour
Median: $310/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 Delaware. The recorded median total is $2,150, with reported quotes clustering between $1,100 and $3,300. 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 Delaware median as professional time — the part that differs between quotes.
At $2,150, the median estate planning / probate cost in Delaware runs 10% above the $1,954 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Delaware carries 3 rows — simple, $350–$1,200 at $170–$310/hr over 1-2 weeks; moderate, $1,100–$3,300 at $200–$395/hr over 2-6 weeks; complex, $3,550–$11,800 at $285–$535/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, $1,150 under the $3,300 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 46.
At 17th of 46, Delaware sits above the midpoint of the estate planning / probate table: $75 more than the $2,075 median state, or 4%, with 16 states recording a higher median.
Colorado ($2,150) and Maine ($2,150) bracket Delaware inside a $0 window — narrow enough that 17th is close to arbitrary.
12 tracked states — Illinois, Texas, Washington, Arizona among them — record a median within three percent of Delaware'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.
The two measures nearly agree: 15th of 46 on hourly rate at $310 an hour, 17th on total cost, 2 places apart.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Delaware |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Illinois | $2,200 | +$50 |
| 12 | Texas | $2,200 | +$50 |
| 13 | Washington | $2,200 | +$50 |
| 14 | Arizona | $2,150 | −$0 |
| 15 | California | $2,150 | −$0 |
| 16 | Colorado | $2,150 | −$0 |
| 17 | Delaware | $2,150 | — |
| 18 | Maine | $2,150 | −$0 |
| 19 | Virginia | $2,150 | −$0 |
| 20 | Maryland | $2,100 | −$50 |
| 21 | Nevada | $2,100 | −$50 |
| 22 | Utah | $2,100 | −$50 |
| 23 | Wisconsin | $2,100 | −$50 |
The 17th position is not a stable fact about Delaware: $0 up or $0 down moves Delaware 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 Texas, Washington, Arizona, California, Colorado and adding $50 to the $2,150 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Maine, Virginia, Maryland, Nevada, Utah: $50.
$450 short of Hawaii ($2,600), $800 clear of Alabama ($1,350).
The $2,150 median covers only about 7 hours at the $310 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. That rounds to the same 7 hours as the peer median, so on workload Delaware is indistinguishable from the middle of the table at this precision.
Moving from a simple to a complex estate planning / probate multiplies the Delaware total by 9.5, and almost all of that is hours rather than price: 3 hours at $225 becomes 18 hours at $395, so the workload grows 6x while the rate grows only 1.76x. Complexity here buys attorney time, not a premium hourly rate.
From $1,100 to $3,300 the moderate band is $2,200 wide, close to the $2,050 peer median. End to end that is 7 hours at $310.
By implied hours Delaware falls to 34th of 46 at 7 hours, 17 places below its 17th on cost — the estate planning / probate total arriving on less recorded work.
44% up the $1,100–$3,300 band sits the $2,075 table midpoint, buying 7 hours at $310 against the 7 the local estate planning / probate median implies — 0 hours apart.
| Measure | Delaware | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $2,150 | 17th |
| Hourly median | $310 | 15th |
| Implied hours | 7 | 34th |
| Simple median | $750 | 3rd |
| Complex median | $7,100 | 9th |
$310 an hour puts Delaware between Alaska ($310) and Colorado ($305) — not the estate planning / probate cost pairing.
Alaska records the same $310: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$2,150 buys 10 hours at $225, 7 at $310, 5 at $395.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | Virginia | $315 |
| 14 | Alaska | $310 |
| 15 | Delaware | $310 |
| 16 | Colorado | $305 |
| 17 | Illinois | $295 |
Ranked tier by tier, Delaware slides 6 places downward: 3rd at the simple tier, 17th at moderate, 9th at complex. Its headline moderate position sits between the two extremes rather than summarising them.
$750 is 3rd of 46 on a straightforward estate planning / probate, under California ($750) and over Hawaii ($750), $125 over the $625 tier midpoint.
$7,100 is 9th of 46 once contested, between New Jersey ($7,150) and New York ($7,050), $1,200 off the $5,900 tier midpoint.
The lower two bands run into each other — the simple tier tops out at $1,200 against a moderate floor of $1,100 — but there is a clear gap of $250 between the moderate ceiling of $3,300 and the complex floor of $3,550. In Delaware the jump into contested work is a step, not a slope.
| Tier | Delaware | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $750 | 3rd | $625 | 3 |
| moderate | $2,150 | 17th | $2,075 | 7 |
| complex | $7,100 | 9th | $5,900 | 18 |
$750 puts Delaware 3rd of 46 on straightforward matters, 14 up on its moderate position, and $125 (20%) over the $625 tier midpoint.
3 implied hours at $225: 43% of the moderate tier's 7, over 1-2 weeks.
California ($750) and Hawaii ($750) bracket it — a $0 window.
4 states sit within three percent of the $750 here, against 12 at the moderate row.
$7,100 puts Delaware 9th of 46 on contested matters, 8 up on its moderate position, and $1,200 (20%) over the $5,900 tier midpoint.
18 implied hours at $395: 257% of the moderate tier's 7, over 1-3 months.
New Jersey ($7,150) and New York ($7,050) bracket it — a $100 window.
5 states sit within three percent of the $7,100 here, against 12 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | $800 |
| 2 | California | $750 |
| 3 | Delaware | $750 |
| 4 | Hawaii | $750 |
| 5 | Massachusetts | $750 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Massachusetts | $7,200 |
| 8 | New Jersey | $7,150 |
| 9 | Delaware | $7,100 |
| 10 | New York | $7,050 |
| 11 | Minnesota | $6,950 |
Among the 8 matter types tracked in Delaware, a estate planning / probate records the smallest median at $2,150, below Real Estate Closing on the line above.
The state does not rank uniformly. Delaware is 7th of 46 for DUI / DWI but 22nd for Bankruptcy, a 15-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 17th on estate planning / probate says little about what the other lines cost.
The spread across practice areas is wide. Immigration runs 27% above its own midpoint, while Bankruptcy runs 1% above its own midpoint — 26 percentage points apart. A single "Delaware is expensive" or "Delaware is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
The largest tracked median in Delaware is 5.2x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
6 of 7 matter types rank Delaware in the upper third, 0 in the lower, 1 between; estate planning / probate is 17th.
In percentile terms it sits at the 64th percentile of the 46 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $4,000 | $11,150 | $31,150 | 33 | 14th | +9% | New Jersey |
| Divorce | $3,300 | $10,200 | $24,000 | 30 | 11th | +19% | New Hampshire |
| DUI / DWI | $3,800 | $8,850 | $20,750 | 29 | 7th | +19% | Colorado |
| Immigration | $2,250 | $6,050 | $13,650 | 20 | — | +27% | — |
| Personal Injury | $1,850 | $5,600 | $15,900 | — | 9th | +8% | New York |
| Bankruptcy | $1,750 | $3,650 | $5,900 | 13 | 22nd | +1% | Colorado |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,250 | $2,400 | $4,600 | 8 | 16th | +8% | Colorado |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $750 | $2,150 | $7,100 | 7 | 17th | +4% | Colorado |
Simple tier. $750 ÷ $225 = about 3 hours — 4 fewer than the moderate tier's 7, and $1,400 less.
Work against price. $2,150 to $7,100 is a $4,950 step, mostly work: 11 more hours at $310 is $3,410, while moving to $395 across 18 hours adds $1,530. Work carries 69%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Maine ($2,150) is $0 light, Colorado ($2,150) is $0 heavy — but the $2,075 table midpoint is out by $75, 75x the neighbour error.
Contested against simple. At Delaware's own recorded figures, $7,100 buys 9.5 matters at the $750 simple median — or, counted in time, 18 implied hours against 3, a factor of 6 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the Delawarecourt'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.