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 New York, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a estate planning / probate in New York costs on average $2,250, typically $1,150-$3,400 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $210 to $415 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 | $400 | $800 | $1,300 | 1-2 weeks |
| Moderate | $1,150 | $2,250 | $3,400 | 2-6 weeks |
| Complex | $3,500 | $7,050 | $11,700 | 1-3 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$210 – $415/ hour
Median: $325/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 New York. The recorded median total is $2,250, with reported quotes clustering between $1,150 and $3,400. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $310–$925, which leaves roughly $1,325–$1,940 of the New York median as professional time — the part that differs between quotes.
At $2,250, the median estate planning / probate cost in New York runs 15% above the $1,954 national average across all 50 states and DC.
New York carries 3 rows — simple, $400–$1,300 at $180–$325/hr over 1-2 weeks; moderate, $1,150–$3,400 at $210–$415/hr over 2-6 weeks; complex, $3,500–$11,700 at $300–$565/hr over 1-3 months — on 4 shared citations. Those figures put it in the top quarter of the table.
$2,250 is a median, not the middle of the band — $1,100 above the $1,150 floor, $1,150 under the $3,400 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 46.
New York ranks 10th of 46 tracked states for a estate planning / probate, inside the highest-cost quarter of the table. The gap to the $2,075 midpoint is $175 — 8% — and only 9 states record a higher median.
In the estate planning / probate table New York falls between Illinois at $2,200 and Rhode Island at $2,300, $50 above the first and $50 below the second.
6 tracked states — Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Illinois among them — record a median within three percent of New York's $2,250. 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. New York attorneys sit 4th of 46 on hourly rate at $325 an hour, but the state is only 10th on total estate planning / probate cost — the recorded matters resolve in fewer billed hours than the rate alone would produce.
| Rank | State | Median | Against New York |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | District of Columbia | $2,400 | +$150 |
| 5 | Vermont | $2,400 | +$150 |
| 6 | Massachusetts | $2,350 | +$100 |
| 7 | Connecticut | $2,300 | +$50 |
| 8 | New Jersey | $2,300 | +$50 |
| 9 | Rhode Island | $2,300 | +$50 |
| 10 | New York | $2,250 | — |
| 11 | Illinois | $2,200 | −$50 |
| 12 | Texas | $2,200 | −$50 |
| 13 | Washington | $2,200 | −$50 |
| 14 | Arizona | $2,150 | −$100 |
| 15 | California | $2,150 | −$100 |
| 16 | Colorado | $2,150 | −$100 |
The rows within ten percent are lopsided: 15 below New York against 7 above. $50 up or $50 down moves New York a row, so a downward revision would cost the state far more places than an equivalent upward one would gain — the 10th position is propped up by a thin estate planning / probate field above it and a crowded one beneath.
Climbing five places would mean passing Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island and adding $150 to the $2,250 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Illinois, Texas, Washington, Arizona, California: $100.
$350 short of Hawaii ($2,600), $900 clear of Alabama ($1,350).
The $2,250 median covers only about 7 hours at the $325 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 New York is indistinguishable from the middle of the table at this precision.
Moving from a simple to a complex estate planning / probate multiplies the New York total by 8.8, and almost all of that is hours rather than price: 3 hours at $240 becomes 17 hours at $415, so the workload grows 5.7x while the rate grows only 1.73x. Complexity here buys attorney time, not a premium hourly rate.
From $1,150 to $3,400 the moderate band is $2,250 wide, close to the $2,050 peer median. End to end that is 7 hours at $325.
By implied hours New York falls to 35th of 46 at 7 hours, 25 places below its 10th on cost — the estate planning / probate total arriving on less recorded work.
41% up the $1,150–$3,400 band sits the $2,075 table midpoint, buying 6 hours at $325 against the 7 the local estate planning / probate median implies — 1 hour apart.
| Measure | New York | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $2,250 | 10th |
| Hourly median | $325 | 4th |
| Implied hours | 7 | 35th |
| Simple median | $800 | 1st |
| Complex median | $7,050 | 10th |
$325 an hour puts New York between New Jersey ($325) and California ($320) — not the estate planning / probate cost pairing.
New Jersey records the same $325: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$2,250 buys 9 hours at $240, 7 at $325, 5 at $415.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Washington | $330 |
| 3 | New Jersey | $325 |
| 4 | New York | $325 |
| 5 | California | $320 |
| 6 | Connecticut | $320 |
Ranked tier by tier, New York slides 9 places downward: 1st at the simple tier, 10th at moderate, 10th at complex. Its headline moderate position sits between the two extremes rather than summarising them.
At the simple tier New York records $800 and ranks 1st of 46, against a tier midpoint of $625.
$7,050 is 10th of 46 once contested, between Delaware ($7,100) and Minnesota ($6,950), $1,150 off the $5,900 tier midpoint.
The lower two bands run into each other — the simple tier tops out at $1,300 against a moderate floor of $1,150 — but there is a clear gap of $100 between the moderate ceiling of $3,400 and the complex floor of $3,500. In New York the jump into contested work is a step, not a slope.
| Tier | New York | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $800 | 1st | $625 | 3 |
| moderate | $2,250 | 10th | $2,075 | 7 |
| complex | $7,050 | 10th | $5,900 | 17 |
$800 puts New York 1st of 46 on straightforward matters, 9 up on its moderate position, and $175 (28%) over the $625 tier midpoint.
3 implied hours at $240: 43% of the moderate tier's 7, over 1-2 weeks.
Nothing else sits within three percent of the $800 here, against 6 at the moderate tier.
$7,050 keeps New York at 10th on contested matters, the same place it holds on the headline figure, $1,150 (19%) over the $5,900 tier midpoint.
17 implied hours at $415: 243% of the moderate tier's 7, over 1-3 months.
Delaware ($7,100) and Minnesota ($6,950) bracket it — a $150 window.
4 states sit within three percent of the $7,050 here, against 6 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | $800 |
| 2 | California | $750 |
| 3 | Delaware | $750 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | New Jersey | $7,150 |
| 9 | Delaware | $7,100 |
| 10 | New York | $7,050 |
| 11 | Minnesota | $6,950 |
| 12 | Oregon | $6,750 |
Among the 8 matter types tracked in New York, a estate planning / probate records the smallest median at $2,250, below Real Estate Closing on the line above.
Across practice areas New York ranges from 2nd of 46 for Immigration to 12th for Divorce — a 10-place spread, with its 10th on estate planning / probate inside it.
The spread across practice areas is wide. Immigration runs 32% above its own midpoint, while Estate Planning / Probate runs 8% above its own midpoint — 24 percentage points apart. A single "New York is expensive" or "New York is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
New York's practice areas fan out more than most: its largest tracked median is 5.5x its smallest, against 5.1x for the typical state. Prices here are set matter by matter rather than by one statewide level.
Every one of the 8 matter types tracked for New York places it in the upper third of its table, which is why the 10th on estate planning / probate is not an outlier.
In percentile terms it sits at the 80th percentile of the 46 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $4,250 | $12,450 | $34,800 | 35 | 4th | +22% | New Hampshire |
| Divorce | $3,600 | $10,100 | $26,450 | 28 | 12th | +18% | Delaware |
| DUI / DWI | $4,250 | $8,800 | $20,600 | 27 | 9th | +18% | Alaska |
| Immigration | $2,300 | $6,250 | $12,950 | 19 | 2nd | +32% | Hawaii |
| Personal Injury | $1,600 | $5,700 | $19,400 | — | 8th | +10% | Connecticut |
| Bankruptcy | $1,650 | $4,300 | $5,950 | 14 | 6th | +19% | California |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,100 | $2,800 | $5,600 | 9 | 2nd | +26% | Hawaii |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $800 | $2,250 | $7,050 | 7 | 10th | +8% | Rhode Island |
Simple tier. $800 ÷ $240 = about 3 hours — 4 fewer than the moderate tier's 7, and $1,450 less.
Work against price. $2,250 to $7,050 is a $4,800 step, mostly work: 10 more hours at $325 is $3,250, while moving to $415 across 17 hours adds $1,530. Work carries 68%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Budgeting from Illinois ($2,200) lands $50 under New York; from Rhode Island ($2,300), $50 over; from the $2,075 table midpoint, $175 out.
Contested against simple. At New York's own recorded figures, $7,050 buys 8.8 matters at the $800 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 New Yorkcourt'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.