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 Minnesota, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a estate planning / probate in Minnesota costs on average $2,000, typically $1,000-$3,000 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $185 to $375 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 | $1,000 | $2,000 | $3,000 | 2-6 weeks |
| Complex | $3,500 | $6,950 | $11,600 | 1-3 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$185 – $375/ 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 Minnesota. The recorded median total is $2,000, with reported quotes clustering between $1,000 and $3,000. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $310–$925, which leaves roughly $1,075–$1,690 of the Minnesota median as professional time — the part that differs between quotes.
At $2,000, the median estate planning / probate cost in Minnesota is in line with the $1,954 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Minnesota carries 3 rows — simple, $350–$1,100 at $160–$295/hr over 1-2 weeks; moderate, $1,000–$3,000 at $185–$375/hr over 2-6 weeks; complex, $3,500–$11,600 at $270–$510/hr over 1-3 months — on 4 shared citations. They put it below the midpoint of the table without reaching the bottom quarter.
$2,000 is a median, not the middle of the band — $1,000 above the $1,000 floor, $1,000 under the $3,000 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 46.
Minnesota occupies the 26th row of 46 for a estate planning / probate. Its $2,000 median trails the $2,075 table midpoint by $75, which is 4% — close enough that a single firm's quote can straddle both figures.
Ohio ($2,050) and Pennsylvania ($2,000) bracket Minnesota inside a $50 window — narrow enough that 26th is close to arbitrary.
5 tracked states — Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana among them — record a median within three percent of Minnesota's $2,000. 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 rankings disagree sharply. Minnesota attorneys sit 18th of 46 on hourly rate at $295 an hour, but the state is only 26th on total estate planning / probate cost — the recorded matters resolve in fewer billed hours than the rate alone would produce.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Minnesota |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | Maryland | $2,100 | +$100 |
| 21 | Nevada | $2,100 | +$100 |
| 22 | Utah | $2,100 | +$100 |
| 23 | Wisconsin | $2,100 | +$100 |
| 24 | Georgia | $2,050 | +$50 |
| 25 | Ohio | $2,050 | +$50 |
| 26 | Minnesota | $2,000 | — |
| 27 | Pennsylvania | $2,000 | −$0 |
| 28 | Indiana | $1,950 | −$50 |
| 29 | Oregon | $1,950 | −$50 |
| 30 | Wyoming | $1,900 | −$100 |
| 31 | Florida | $1,850 | −$150 |
| 32 | Michigan | $1,850 | −$150 |
Within ten percent of the Minnesota figure there are 15 states above and only 6 below. $50 up or $0 down moves Minnesota 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 Nevada, Utah, Wisconsin, Georgia, Ohio and adding $100 to the $2,000 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Pennsylvania, Indiana, Oregon, Wyoming, Florida: $150.
$600 short of Hawaii ($2,600), $650 clear of Alabama ($1,350).
The $2,000 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 Minnesota is indistinguishable from the middle of the table at this precision.
Moving from a simple to a complex estate planning / probate multiplies the Minnesota total by 10.7, and almost all of that is hours rather than price: 3 hours at $215 becomes 19 hours at $375, so the workload grows 6.3x while the rate grows only 1.74x. Complexity here buys attorney time, not a premium hourly rate.
From $1,000 to $3,000 the moderate band is $2,000 wide, close to the $2,050 peer median. End to end that is 7 hours at $295.
By implied hours Minnesota falls to 39th of 46 at 7 hours, 13 places below its 26th on cost — the estate planning / probate total arriving on less recorded work.
54% up the $1,000–$3,000 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 | Minnesota | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $2,000 | 26th |
| Hourly median | $295 | 18th |
| Implied hours | 7 | 39th |
| Simple median | $650 | 17th |
| Complex median | $6,950 | 11th |
$295 an hour puts Minnesota between Illinois ($295) and Oregon ($295) — not the estate planning / probate cost pairing.
Illinois, Oregon record the same $295: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$2,000 buys 9 hours at $215, 7 at $295, 5 at $375.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | Colorado | $305 |
| 17 | Illinois | $295 |
| 18 | Minnesota | $295 |
| 19 | Oregon | $295 |
| 20 | Texas | $290 |
Minnesota moves up the table as complexity rises: 17th at the simple tier, 26th at moderate, 11th at complex, a 6-place climb. The state's position on the headline moderate figure understates where it sits once a matter is contested.
$650 is 17th of 46 on a straightforward estate planning / probate, under Michigan ($650) and over Pennsylvania ($650), $25 over the $625 tier midpoint.
$6,950 is 11th of 46 once contested, between New York ($7,050) and Oregon ($6,750), $1,050 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 $1,000 — but there is a clear gap of $500 between the moderate ceiling of $3,000 and the complex floor of $3,500. In Minnesota the jump into contested work is a step, not a slope.
| Tier | Minnesota | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $650 | 17th | $625 | 3 |
| moderate | $2,000 | 26th | $2,075 | 7 |
| complex | $6,950 | 11th | $5,900 | 19 |
$650 puts Minnesota 17th of 46 on straightforward matters, 9 up on 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.
Michigan ($650) and Pennsylvania ($650) bracket it — a $0 window.
13 states record a simple-tier median within three percent of $650, denser than the 5 around the moderate row.
$6,950 puts Minnesota 11th of 46 on contested matters, 15 up on its moderate position, and $1,050 (18%) over the $5,900 tier midpoint.
19 implied hours at $375: 271% of the moderate tier's 7, over 1-3 months.
New York ($7,050) and Oregon ($6,750) bracket it — a $300 window.
5 states sit within three percent of the $6,950 here, against 5 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 15 | Maryland | $650 |
| 16 | Michigan | $650 |
| 17 | Minnesota | $650 |
| 18 | Pennsylvania | $650 |
| 19 | Rhode Island | $650 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | Delaware | $7,100 |
| 10 | New York | $7,050 |
| 11 | Minnesota | $6,950 |
| 12 | Oregon | $6,750 |
| 13 | Virginia | $6,750 |
Among the 8 matter types tracked in Minnesota, a estate planning / probate records the smallest median at $2,000, below Real Estate Closing on the line above.
The state does not rank uniformly. Minnesota is 11th of 46 for Bankruptcy but 26th for Estate Planning / Probate, a 15-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 26th on estate planning / probate says little about what the other lines cost.
Minnesota is not equally priced in every practice area. Measured against each matter's own midpoint, Immigration runs 14% above its own midpoint while Estate Planning / Probate runs 4% below its own midpoint — a 18-point spread between the extremes.
The largest tracked median in Minnesota 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.
4 of 7 matter types rank Minnesota in the upper third, 0 in the lower, 3 between; estate planning / probate is 26th.
In percentile terms it sits at the 44th percentile of the 46 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,550 | $10,750 | $30,600 | 34 | 20th | +5% | Colorado |
| Divorce | $3,200 | $9,350 | $21,800 | 29 | 21st | +9% | Maine |
| DUI / DWI | $3,900 | $8,300 | $20,000 | 28 | 13th | +11% | Connecticut |
| Personal Injury | $1,650 | $5,500 | $16,250 | — | — | +6% | — |
| Immigration | $2,200 | $5,400 | $11,050 | 18 | 16th | +14% | Texas |
| Bankruptcy | $1,550 | $4,050 | $5,650 | 15 | 11th | +13% | Washington |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,150 | $2,450 | $4,800 | 9 | 11th | +10% | New Hampshire |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $650 | $2,000 | $6,950 | 7 | 26th | −4% | Ohio |
Simple tier. $650 ÷ $215 = about 3 hours — 4 fewer than the moderate tier's 7, and $1,350 less.
Work against price. $2,000 to $6,950 is a $4,950 step, mostly work: 12 more hours at $295 is $3,540, while moving to $375 across 19 hours adds $1,520. Work carries 70%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Budgeting from Pennsylvania ($2,000) lands $0 under Minnesota; from Ohio ($2,050), $50 over; from the $2,075 table midpoint, $75 out.
Contested against simple. At Minnesota's own recorded figures, $6,950 buys 10.7 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 Minnesotacourt'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.