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 Illinois, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a estate planning / probate in Illinois costs on average $2,200, typically $1,100-$3,300 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $190 to $380 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 | $300 | $650 | $1,100 | 1-2 weeks |
| Moderate | $1,100 | $2,200 | $3,300 | 2-6 weeks |
| Complex | $2,950 | $5,950 | $9,900 | 1-3 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$190 – $380/ hour
Median: $295/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 Illinois. The recorded median total is $2,200, 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 $1,275–$1,890 of the Illinois median as professional time — the part that differs between quotes.
At $2,200, the median estate planning / probate cost in Illinois runs 13% above the $1,954 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Illinois carries 3 rows — simple, $300–$1,100 at $160–$295/hr over 1-2 weeks; moderate, $1,100–$3,300 at $190–$380/hr over 2-6 weeks; complex, $2,950–$9,900 at $270–$515/hr over 1-3 months — on 4 shared citations. They put it above the midpoint, short of the top quarter.
$2,200 is a median, not the middle of the band — $1,100 above the $1,100 floor, $1,100 under the $3,300 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 46.
At 11th of 46, Illinois sits above the midpoint of the estate planning / probate table: $125 more than the $2,075 median state, or 6%, with 10 states recording a higher median.
New York ($2,250) and Texas ($2,200) bracket Illinois inside a $50 window — narrow enough that 11th is close to arbitrary.
9 tracked states — New York, Texas, Washington, Arizona among them — record a median within three percent of Illinois's $2,200. 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 $295 an hour Illinois is only 17th of 46 on rate, yet 11th on total estate planning / probate cost — the totals reflect billed hours accumulating, not an unusually high rate.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Illinois |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Vermont | $2,400 | +$200 |
| 6 | Massachusetts | $2,350 | +$150 |
| 7 | Connecticut | $2,300 | +$100 |
| 8 | New Jersey | $2,300 | +$100 |
| 9 | Rhode Island | $2,300 | +$100 |
| 10 | New York | $2,250 | +$50 |
| 11 | Illinois | $2,200 | — |
| 12 | Texas | $2,200 | −$0 |
| 13 | Washington | $2,200 | −$0 |
| 14 | Arizona | $2,150 | −$50 |
| 15 | California | $2,150 | −$50 |
| 16 | Colorado | $2,150 | −$50 |
| 17 | Delaware | $2,150 | −$50 |
The rows within ten percent are lopsided: 14 below Illinois against 7 above. $50 up or $0 down moves Illinois a row, so a downward revision would cost the state far more places than an equivalent upward one would gain — the 11th position is propped up by a thin estate planning / probate field above it and a crowded one beneath.
Climbing five places would mean passing Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New York and adding $150 to the $2,200 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Texas, Washington, Arizona, California, Colorado: $50.
$400 short of Hawaii ($2,600), $850 clear of Alabama ($1,350).
The $2,200 median covers only about 7 hours at the $295 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 Illinois is indistinguishable from the middle of the table at this precision.
Moving from a simple to a complex estate planning / probate multiplies the Illinois total by 9.2, and almost all of that is hours rather than price: 3 hours at $215 becomes 16 hours at $380, so the workload grows 5.3x while the rate grows only 1.77x. 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 $295.
By implied hours Illinois falls to 18th of 46 at 7 hours, 7 places below its 11th 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 $295 against the 7 the local estate planning / probate median implies — 0 hours apart.
| Measure | Illinois | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $2,200 | 11th |
| Hourly median | $295 | 17th |
| Implied hours | 7 | 18th |
| Simple median | $650 | 13th |
| Complex median | $5,950 | 22nd |
$295 an hour puts Illinois between Colorado ($305) and Minnesota ($295) — not the estate planning / probate cost pairing.
Minnesota, Oregon record the same $295: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$2,200 buys 10 hours at $215, 7 at $295, 6 at $380.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 15 | Delaware | $310 |
| 16 | Colorado | $305 |
| 17 | Illinois | $295 |
| 18 | Minnesota | $295 |
| 19 | Oregon | $295 |
Ranked tier by tier, Illinois slides 9 places downward: 13th at the simple tier, 11th at moderate, 22nd at complex. Its headline moderate position sits between the two extremes rather than summarising them.
$650 is 13th of 46 on a straightforward estate planning / probate, under Connecticut ($650) and over Maine ($650), $25 over the $625 tier midpoint.
$5,950 is 22nd of 46 once contested, between Florida ($5,950) and Maine ($5,900), $50 off the $5,900 tier midpoint.
The three bands are continuous in Illinois: the simple tier reaches $1,100 where the moderate tier starts at $1,100, and the moderate tier reaches $3,300 where the complex tier starts at $2,950. A single quoted figure can therefore belong to two different tiers, and the tier label — not the number — is what identifies which.
| Tier | Illinois | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $650 | 13th | $625 | 3 |
| moderate | $2,200 | 11th | $2,075 | 7 |
| complex | $5,950 | 22nd | $5,900 | 16 |
$650 drops Illinois to 13th of 46 on straightforward matters, 2 below its moderate position and $25 (4%) over the $625 tier midpoint.
3 implied hours at $215: 43% of the moderate tier's 7, over 1-2 weeks.
Connecticut ($650) and Maine ($650) bracket it — a $0 window.
13 states record a simple-tier median within three percent of $650, denser than the 9 around the moderate row.
$5,950 drops Illinois to 22nd of 46 on contested matters, 11 below its moderate position and $50 (1%) over the $5,900 tier midpoint.
16 implied hours at $380: 229% of the moderate tier's 7, over 1-3 months.
Florida ($5,950) and Maine ($5,900) bracket it — a $50 window.
5 states sit within three percent of the $5,950 here, against 9 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | Colorado | $650 |
| 12 | Connecticut | $650 |
| 13 | Illinois | $650 |
| 14 | Maine | $650 |
| 15 | Maryland | $650 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | Texas | $6,500 |
| 21 | Florida | $5,950 |
| 22 | Illinois | $5,950 |
| 23 | Maine | $5,900 |
| 24 | Pennsylvania | $5,900 |
Among the 8 matter types tracked in Illinois, a estate planning / probate records the smallest median at $2,200, below Real Estate Closing on the line above.
The state does not rank uniformly. Illinois is 3rd of 46 for Personal Injury but 23rd for Real Estate Closing, a 20-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 11th on estate planning / probate says little about what the other lines cost.
The spread across practice areas is wide. Immigration runs 23% above its own midpoint, while Real Estate Closing runs 1% above its own midpoint — 22 percentage points apart. A single "Illinois is expensive" or "Illinois is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
The largest tracked median in Illinois is 4.8x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
5 of 8 matter types rank Illinois in the upper third, 0 in the lower, 3 between; estate planning / probate is 11th.
In percentile terms it sits at the 78th percentile of the 46 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,450 | $10,450 | $33,400 | 32 | 22nd | +2% | Maryland |
| Divorce | $3,150 | $9,650 | $22,050 | 30 | 17th | +13% | District of Columbia |
| DUI / DWI | $3,650 | $7,850 | $19,400 | 27 | 21st | +5% | Oregon |
| Personal Injury | $1,600 | $5,950 | $16,900 | — | 3rd | +14% | California |
| Immigration | $2,150 | $5,850 | $11,800 | 20 | 12th | +23% | District of Columbia |
| Bankruptcy | $1,700 | $3,900 | $5,500 | 14 | 14th | +8% | Texas |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,000 | $2,250 | $4,900 | 8 | 23rd | +1% | Virginia |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $650 | $2,200 | $5,950 | 7 | 11th | +6% | New York |
Simple tier. $650 ÷ $215 = about 3 hours — 4 fewer than the moderate tier's 7, and $1,550 less.
Work against price. $2,200 to $5,950 is a $3,750 step, mostly work: 9 more hours at $295 is $2,655, while moving to $380 across 16 hours adds $1,360. Work carries 66%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Budgeting from Texas ($2,200) lands $0 under Illinois; from New York ($2,250), $50 over; from the $2,075 table midpoint, $125 out.
Contested against simple. At Illinois's own recorded figures, $5,950 buys 9.2 matters at the $650 simple median — or, counted in time, 16 implied hours against 3, a factor of 5.3 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the Illinoiscourt'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.