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 Maryland, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a estate planning / probate in Maryland costs on average $2,100, typically $1,050-$3,200 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $200 to $405 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 | $2,100 | $3,200 | 2-6 weeks |
| Complex | $3,700 | $7,400 | $12,400 | 1-3 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$200 – $405/ hour
Median: $315/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 Maryland. The recorded median total is $2,100, 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 $1,175–$1,790 of the Maryland median as professional time — the part that differs between quotes.
At $2,100, the median estate planning / probate cost in Maryland runs 7% above the $1,954 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Maryland carries 3 rows — simple, $300–$1,100 at $175–$315/hr over 1-2 weeks; moderate, $1,050–$3,200 at $200–$405/hr over 2-6 weeks; complex, $3,700–$12,400 at $290–$545/hr over 1-3 months — on 4 shared citations. They put it above the midpoint, short of the top quarter.
$2,100 is a median, not the middle of the band — $1,050 above the $1,050 floor, $1,100 under the $3,200 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 46.
At 20th of 46, Maryland sits above the midpoint of the estate planning / probate table: $25 more than the $2,075 median state, or 1%, with 19 states recording a higher median.
Virginia ($2,150) and Nevada ($2,100) bracket Maryland inside a $50 window — narrow enough that 20th is close to arbitrary.
11 tracked states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware among them — record a median within three percent of Maryland's $2,100. 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.
Rate and total point in different directions. Maryland attorneys rank 10th of 46 at $315 an hour, 10 places above where the state lands on total estate planning / probate cost (20th) — on these rows, high rates are not accompanied by high totals.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Maryland |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | Arizona | $2,150 | +$50 |
| 15 | California | $2,150 | +$50 |
| 16 | Colorado | $2,150 | +$50 |
| 17 | Delaware | $2,150 | +$50 |
| 18 | Maine | $2,150 | +$50 |
| 19 | Virginia | $2,150 | +$50 |
| 20 | Maryland | $2,100 | — |
| 21 | Nevada | $2,100 | −$0 |
| 22 | Utah | $2,100 | −$0 |
| 23 | Wisconsin | $2,100 | −$0 |
| 24 | Georgia | $2,050 | −$50 |
| 25 | Ohio | $2,050 | −$50 |
| 26 | Minnesota | $2,000 | −$100 |
Within ten percent of the Maryland figure there are 13 states above and only 7 below. $50 up or $0 down moves Maryland a row, which means the ranking has far more room to improve than to slip: the estate planning / probate field is dense overhead and sparse underneath.
Climbing five places would mean passing California, Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Virginia and adding $50 to the $2,100 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Nevada, Utah, Wisconsin, Georgia, Ohio: $50.
$500 short of Hawaii ($2,600), $750 clear of Alabama ($1,350).
The $2,100 median covers only about 7 hours at the $315 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 Maryland is indistinguishable from the middle of the table at this precision.
Moving from a simple to a complex estate planning / probate multiplies the Maryland total by 11.4, and almost all of that is hours rather than price: 3 hours at $230 becomes 18 hours at $405, so the workload grows 6x while the rate grows only 1.76x. 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 7 hours at $315.
By implied hours Maryland falls to 42nd of 46 at 7 hours, 22 places below its 20th on cost — the estate planning / probate total arriving on less recorded work.
48% up the $1,050–$3,200 band sits the $2,075 table midpoint, buying 7 hours at $315 against the 7 the local estate planning / probate median implies — 0 hours apart.
| Measure | Maryland | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $2,100 | 20th |
| Hourly median | $315 | 10th |
| Implied hours | 7 | 42nd |
| Simple median | $650 | 15th |
| Complex median | $7,400 | 4th |
$315 an hour puts Maryland between District of Columbia ($315) and Massachusetts ($315) — not the estate planning / probate cost pairing.
4 other states record exactly $315 — District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Vermont, Virginia among them — so rate is a coarse instrument in this estate planning / probate table.
$2,100 buys 9 hours at $230, 7 at $315, 5 at $405.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | Rhode Island | $320 |
| 9 | District of Columbia | $315 |
| 10 | Maryland | $315 |
| 11 | Massachusetts | $315 |
| 12 | Vermont | $315 |
Rank is not stable across the tiers, and the direction matters. Maryland runs 15th at the simple tier, 20th at moderate, 4th at complex of 46 — it climbs 11 places as the matter gets harder. Straightforward estate planning / probate work is recorded at ordinary prices here; contested work is not.
$650 is 15th of 46 on a straightforward estate planning / probate, under Maine ($650) and over Michigan ($650), $25 over the $625 tier midpoint.
$7,400 is 4th of 46 once contested, between California ($7,400) and Washington ($7,400), $1,500 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 $1,050 — but there is a clear gap of $500 between the moderate ceiling of $3,200 and the complex floor of $3,700. In Maryland the jump into contested work is a step, not a slope.
| Tier | Maryland | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $650 | 15th | $625 | 3 |
| moderate | $2,100 | 20th | $2,075 | 7 |
| complex | $7,400 | 4th | $5,900 | 18 |
$650 puts Maryland 15th of 46 on straightforward matters, 5 up on its moderate position, and $25 (4%) over the $625 tier midpoint.
3 implied hours at $230: 43% of the moderate tier's 7, over 1-2 weeks.
Maine ($650) and Michigan ($650) bracket it — a $0 window.
13 states record a simple-tier median within three percent of $650, denser than the 11 around the moderate row.
$7,400 puts Maryland 4th of 46 on contested matters, 16 up on its moderate position, and $1,500 (25%) over the $5,900 tier midpoint.
18 implied hours at $405: 257% of the moderate tier's 7, over 1-3 months.
California ($7,400) and Washington ($7,400) bracket it — a $0 window.
5 states sit within three percent of the $7,400 here, against 11 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | Illinois | $650 |
| 14 | Maine | $650 |
| 15 | Maryland | $650 |
| 16 | Michigan | $650 |
| 17 | Minnesota | $650 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | New Hampshire | $7,550 |
| 3 | California | $7,400 |
| 4 | Maryland | $7,400 |
| 5 | Washington | $7,400 |
| 6 | Connecticut | $7,300 |
Among the 8 matter types tracked in Maryland, a estate planning / probate records the smallest median at $2,100, below Real Estate Closing on the line above.
Across practice areas Maryland ranges from 8th of 46 for Divorce to 21st for Criminal Defense — a 13-place spread, with its 20th on estate planning / probate inside it.
The spread across practice areas is wide. Divorce runs 23% above its own midpoint, while Estate Planning / Probate runs 1% above its own midpoint — 22 percentage points apart. A single "Maryland is expensive" or "Maryland is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
The largest tracked median in Maryland is 5x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
4 of 7 matter types rank Maryland in the upper third, 0 in the lower, 3 between; estate planning / probate is 20th.
In percentile terms it sits at the 58th percentile of the 46 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Divorce | $3,750 | $10,550 | $27,650 | 31 | 8th | +23% | California |
| Criminal Defense | $3,650 | $10,500 | $33,450 | 30 | 21st | +3% | Minnesota |
| DUI / DWI | $4,000 | $8,250 | $18,500 | 26 | 15th | +11% | Arizona |
| Personal Injury | $1,600 | $6,000 | $17,300 | — | — | +15% | — |
| Immigration | $2,350 | $5,350 | $13,850 | 17 | 17th | +13% | Minnesota |
| Bankruptcy | $1,700 | $3,800 | $6,050 | 13 | 16th | +6% | Wisconsin |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,250 | $2,300 | $5,350 | 8 | 19th | +3% | Vermont |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $650 | $2,100 | $7,400 | 7 | 20th | +1% | Virginia |
Simple tier. $650 ÷ $230 = about 3 hours — 4 fewer than the moderate tier's 7, and $1,450 less.
Work against price. $2,100 to $7,400 is a $5,300 step, mostly work: 11 more hours at $315 is $3,465, while moving to $405 across 18 hours adds $1,620. Work carries 68%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Budgeting from Nevada ($2,100) lands $0 under Maryland; from Virginia ($2,150), $50 over; from the $2,075 table midpoint, $25 out.
Contested against simple. At Maryland's own recorded figures, $7,400 buys 11.4 matters at the $650 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 Marylandcourt'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.