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 Maine, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a estate planning / probate in Maine costs on average $2,150, typically $1,050-$3,200 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $175 to $345 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 | $1,050 | $2,150 | $3,200 | 2-6 weeks |
| Complex | $2,950 | $5,900 | $9,900 | 1-3 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$175 – $345/ hour
Median: $270/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 Maine. The recorded median total is $2,150, with reported quotes clustering between $1,050 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 Maine median as professional time — the part that differs between quotes.
At $2,150, the median estate planning / probate cost in Maine runs 10% above the $1,954 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Maine carries 3 rows — simple, $300–$1,100 at $150–$270/hr over 1-2 weeks; moderate, $1,050–$3,200 at $175–$345/hr over 2-6 weeks; complex, $2,950–$9,900 at $250–$470/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 — $1,100 above the $1,050 floor, $1,050 under the $3,200 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 46.
At 18th of 46, Maine sits above the midpoint of the estate planning / probate table: $75 more than the $2,075 median state, or 4%, with 17 states recording a higher median.
Delaware ($2,150) and Virginia ($2,150) bracket Maine inside a $0 window — narrow enough that 18th is close to arbitrary.
12 tracked states — Illinois, Texas, Washington, Arizona among them — record a median within three percent of Maine'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 $270 an hour Maine is only 26th of 46 on rate, yet 18th on total estate planning / probate cost — the totals reflect billed hours accumulating, not an unusually high rate.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Maine |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | −$0 |
| 18 | Maine | $2,150 | — |
| 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 |
| 24 | Georgia | $2,050 | −$100 |
The 18th position is not a stable fact about Maine: $0 up or $0 down moves Maine 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 Washington, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware and adding $50 to the $2,150 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Virginia, Maryland, Nevada, Utah, Wisconsin: $50.
$450 short of Hawaii ($2,600), $800 clear of Alabama ($1,350).
The $2,150 median covers only about 8 hours at the $270 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 Maine figure than behind the typical state's.
Moving from a simple to a complex estate planning / probate multiplies the Maine total by 9.1, and almost all of that is hours rather than price: 3 hours at $200 becomes 17 hours at $345, so the workload grows 5.7x while the rate grows only 1.73x. Complexity here buys attorney time, not a premium hourly rate.
From $1,050 to $3,200 the moderate band is $2,150 wide, close to the $2,050 peer median. End to end that is 8 hours at $270.
A third ordering: by implied hours Maine is 4th of 46 at 8 hours, 14 places above its cost rank of 18th on cost — more work behind the same estate planning / probate money.
48% up the $1,050–$3,200 band sits the $2,075 table midpoint, buying 8 hours at $270 against the 8 the local estate planning / probate median implies — 0 hours apart.
| Measure | Maine | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $2,150 | 18th |
| Hourly median | $270 | 26th |
| Implied hours | 8 | 4th |
| Simple median | $650 | 14th |
| Complex median | $5,900 | 23rd |
$270 an hour puts Maine between Nevada ($275) and Michigan ($270) — not the estate planning / probate cost pairing.
Michigan records the same $270: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$2,150 buys 11 hours at $200, 8 at $270, 6 at $345.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 24 | Wisconsin | $280 |
| 25 | Nevada | $275 |
| 26 | Maine | $270 |
| 27 | Michigan | $270 |
| 28 | Florida | $265 |
Ranked tier by tier, Maine slides 9 places downward: 14th at the simple tier, 18th at moderate, 23rd at complex. Its headline moderate position sits between the two extremes rather than summarising them.
$650 is 14th of 46 on a straightforward estate planning / probate, under Illinois ($650) and over Maryland ($650), $25 over the $625 tier midpoint.
$5,900 is 23rd of 46 once contested, between Illinois ($5,950) and Pennsylvania ($5,900), $0 off the $5,900 tier midpoint.
The three bands are continuous in Maine: the simple tier reaches $1,100 where the moderate tier starts at $1,050, and the moderate tier reaches $3,200 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 | Maine | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $650 | 14th | $625 | 3 |
| moderate | $2,150 | 18th | $2,075 | 8 |
| complex | $5,900 | 23rd | $5,900 | 17 |
$650 puts Maine 14th of 46 on straightforward matters, 4 up on its moderate position, and $25 (4%) over the $625 tier midpoint.
3 implied hours at $200: 38% of the moderate tier's 8, over 1-2 weeks.
Illinois ($650) and Maryland ($650) bracket it — a $0 window.
13 states record a simple-tier median within three percent of $650, denser than the 12 around the moderate row.
$5,900 drops Maine to 23rd of 46 on contested matters, 5 below its moderate position and $0 (0%) over the $5,900 tier midpoint.
17 implied hours at $345: 213% of the moderate tier's 8, over 1-3 months.
Illinois ($5,950) and Pennsylvania ($5,900) bracket it — a $50 window.
8 states sit within three percent of the $5,900 here, against 12 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | Connecticut | $650 |
| 13 | Illinois | $650 |
| 14 | Maine | $650 |
| 15 | Maryland | $650 |
| 16 | Michigan | $650 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | Florida | $5,950 |
| 22 | Illinois | $5,950 |
| 23 | Maine | $5,900 |
| 24 | Pennsylvania | $5,900 |
| 25 | Iowa | $5,800 |
In Maine a estate planning / probate is 7th of 8 at $2,150, between Bankruptcy and Real Estate Closing. At 20% of Criminal Defense ($10,850).
Across practice areas Maine ranges from 17th of 46 for Criminal Defense to 28th for DUI / DWI — a 11-place spread, with its 18th on estate planning / probate inside it.
Maine is not equally priced in every practice area. Measured against each matter's own midpoint, Immigration runs 12% above its own midpoint while Real Estate Closing runs 8% below its own midpoint — a 20-point spread between the extremes.
The largest tracked median in Maine is 5.3x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
1 of 6 matter types rank Maine in the upper third, 0 in the lower, 5 between; estate planning / probate is 18th.
In percentile terms it sits at the 62th percentile of the 46 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,350 | $10,850 | $29,900 | 37 | 17th | +6% | Texas |
| Divorce | $3,150 | $9,400 | $22,850 | 32 | 20th | +10% | Utah |
| DUI / DWI | $3,650 | $7,200 | $15,950 | 27 | 28th | −3% | Wyoming |
| Personal Injury | $1,600 | $5,350 | $15,850 | — | — | +3% | — |
| Immigration | $2,050 | $5,300 | $11,750 | 20 | 19th | +12% | Nevada |
| Bankruptcy | $1,500 | $3,350 | $4,950 | 13 | 27th | −7% | Ohio |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $650 | $2,150 | $5,900 | 8 | 18th | +4% | Delaware |
| Real Estate Closing | $900 | $2,050 | $4,550 | 8 | — | −8% | — |
Simple tier. $650 ÷ $200 = about 3 hours — 5 fewer than the moderate tier's 8, and $1,500 less.
Work against price. $2,150 to $5,900 is a $3,750 step, mostly work: 9 more hours at $270 is $2,430, while moving to $345 across 17 hours adds $1,275. Work carries 66%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Virginia ($2,150) is $0 light, Delaware ($2,150) is $0 heavy — but the $2,075 table midpoint is out by $75, 75x the neighbour error.
Contested against simple. At Maine's own recorded figures, $5,900 buys 9.1 matters at the $650 simple median — or, counted in time, 17 implied hours against 3, a factor of 5.7 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the Mainecourt'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.