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 North Dakota, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a estate planning / probate in North Dakota costs on average $1,600, typically $800-$2,400 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $145 to $295 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 | $250 | $550 | $900 | 1-2 weeks |
| Moderate | $800 | $1,600 | $2,400 | 2-6 weeks |
| Complex | $2,600 | $5,200 | $8,700 | 1-3 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$145 – $295/ hour
Median: $230/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 North Dakota. The recorded median total is $1,600, with reported quotes clustering between $800 and $2,400. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $310–$925, which leaves roughly $675–$1,290 of the North Dakota median as professional time — the part that differs between quotes.
At $1,600, the median estate planning / probate cost in North Dakota runs 18% below the $1,954 national average across all 50 states and DC.
North Dakota carries 3 rows — simple, $250–$900 at $125–$230/hr over 1-2 weeks; moderate, $800–$2,400 at $145–$295/hr over 2-6 weeks; complex, $2,600–$8,700 at $210–$400/hr over 1-3 months — on 4 shared citations. Those figures place it in the lower quarter of the table.
$1,600 is a median, not the middle of the band — $800 above the $800 floor, $800 under the $2,400 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 46.
Sorted by median cost, North Dakota is 40th of 46 for a estate planning / probate, placing it in the lowest-cost quarter of the table: $475 and 23% below the $2,075 midpoint, with 6 states recording a lower median still.
Louisiana ($1,600) and South Dakota ($1,550) bracket North Dakota inside a $50 window — narrow enough that 40th is close to arbitrary.
Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana record medians within three percent of North Dakota's $1,600. A estate planning / probate quote anywhere in that group is describing effectively the same market.
The two measures nearly agree: 38th of 46 on hourly rate at $230 an hour, 40th on total cost, 2 places apart.
| Rank | State | Median | Against North Dakota |
|---|---|---|---|
| 34 | Iowa | $1,750 | +$150 |
| 35 | New Mexico | $1,750 | +$150 |
| 36 | Nebraska | $1,650 | +$50 |
| 37 | Idaho | $1,600 | −$0 |
| 38 | Kentucky | $1,600 | −$0 |
| 39 | Louisiana | $1,600 | −$0 |
| 40 | North Dakota | $1,600 | — |
| 41 | South Dakota | $1,550 | −$50 |
| 42 | North Carolina | $1,500 | −$100 |
| 43 | Oklahoma | $1,500 | −$100 |
| 44 | South Carolina | $1,500 | −$100 |
| 45 | Arkansas | $1,400 | −$200 |
| 46 | Alabama | $1,350 | −$250 |
$0 up or $50 down moves North Dakota a row. A ten percent revision to the underlying figure would cross 7 rows in total — 3 up, 4 down — so the rank reads better as a band than as a precise place.
Climbing five places would mean passing New Mexico, Nebraska, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana and adding $150 to the $1,600 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under South Dakota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Arkansas: $200.
$1,000 short of Hawaii ($2,600), $250 clear of Alabama ($1,350).
The $1,600 median covers only about 7 hours at the $230 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 North Dakota is indistinguishable from the middle of the table at this precision.
Moving from a simple to a complex estate planning / probate multiplies the North Dakota total by 9.5, and almost all of that is hours rather than price: 3 hours at $170 becomes 18 hours at $295, so the workload grows 6x while the rate grows only 1.74x. Complexity here buys attorney time, not a premium hourly rate.
The North Dakota moderate band spans $800 to $2,400 — $1,600 — which is $450 narrower than the peer-median band of $2,050, so quoted estate planning / probate figures cluster more tightly here than in most tracked states. End to end that is 7 hours at $230.
A third ordering: by implied hours North Dakota is 33rd of 46 at 7 hours, 7 places above its cost rank of 40th on cost — more work behind the same estate planning / probate money.
80% up the $800–$2,400 band sits the $2,075 table midpoint, buying 9 hours at $230 against the 7 the local estate planning / probate median implies — 2 hours apart.
| Measure | North Dakota | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $1,600 | 40th |
| Hourly median | $230 | 38th |
| Implied hours | 7 | 33rd |
| Simple median | $550 | 31st |
| Complex median | $5,200 | 37th |
$230 an hour puts North Dakota between North Carolina ($230) and New Mexico ($220) — not the estate planning / probate cost pairing.
Nebraska, North Carolina record the same $230: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$1,600 buys 9 hours at $170, 7 at $230, 5 at $295.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 36 | Nebraska | $230 |
| 37 | North Carolina | $230 |
| 38 | North Dakota | $230 |
| 39 | New Mexico | $220 |
| 40 | South Carolina | $220 |
Ranked tier by tier, North Dakota slides 6 places downward: 31st at the simple tier, 40th at moderate, 37th at complex. Its headline moderate position sits between the two extremes rather than summarising them.
$550 is 31st of 46 on a straightforward estate planning / probate, under Nevada ($550) and over Ohio ($550), $75 under the $625 tier midpoint.
$5,200 is 37th of 46 once contested, between Nebraska ($5,200) and South Dakota ($4,950), $700 off the $5,900 tier midpoint.
The lower two bands run into each other — the simple tier tops out at $900 against a moderate floor of $800 — but there is a clear gap of $200 between the moderate ceiling of $2,400 and the complex floor of $2,600. In North Dakota the jump into contested work is a step, not a slope.
| Tier | North Dakota | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $550 | 31st | $625 | 3 |
| moderate | $1,600 | 40th | $2,075 | 7 |
| complex | $5,200 | 37th | $5,900 | 18 |
$550 puts North Dakota 31st of 46 on straightforward matters, 9 up on its moderate position, and $75 (12%) under the $625 tier midpoint.
3 implied hours at $170: 43% of the moderate tier's 7, over 1-2 weeks.
Nevada ($550) and Ohio ($550) bracket it — a $0 window.
4 states record a simple-tier median within three percent of $550, denser than the 3 around the moderate row.
$5,200 puts North Dakota 37th of 46 on contested matters, 3 up on its moderate position, and $700 (12%) under the $5,900 tier midpoint.
18 implied hours at $295: 257% of the moderate tier's 7, over 1-3 months.
Nebraska ($5,200) and South Dakota ($4,950) bracket it — a $250 window.
1 states sit within three percent of the $5,200 here, against 3 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 29 | Florida | $550 |
| 30 | Nevada | $550 |
| 31 | North Dakota | $550 |
| 32 | Ohio | $550 |
| 33 | Wisconsin | $550 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 35 | Tennessee | $5,400 |
| 36 | Nebraska | $5,200 |
| 37 | North Dakota | $5,200 |
| 38 | South Dakota | $4,950 |
| 39 | North Carolina | $4,800 |
Among the 8 matter types tracked in North Dakota, a estate planning / probate records the smallest median at $1,600, below Real Estate Closing on the line above.
The state does not rank uniformly. North Dakota is 24th of 46 for Personal Injury but 45th for DUI / DWI, a 21-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 40th on estate planning / probate says little about what the other lines cost.
North Dakota is not equally priced in every practice area. Measured against each matter's own midpoint, Immigration runs 8% below its own midpoint while Estate Planning / Probate runs 23% below its own midpoint — a 15-point spread between the extremes.
The largest tracked median in North Dakota 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.
0 of 8 matter types rank North Dakota in the upper third, 5 in the lower, 3 between; estate planning / probate is 40th.
In percentile terms it sits at the 13th percentile of the 46 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,150 | $8,550 | $24,250 | 34 | 39th | −16% | Montana |
| Divorce | $2,600 | $7,200 | $17,750 | 29 | 44th | −16% | Oklahoma |
| DUI / DWI | $2,900 | $5,800 | $15,250 | 25 | 45th | −22% | Alabama |
| Immigration | $1,650 | $4,350 | $8,900 | 19 | 34th | −8% | Florida |
| Personal Injury | $1,350 | $4,050 | $12,100 | — | 24th | −22% | Kansas |
| Bankruptcy | $1,200 | $3,100 | $4,300 | 15 | 35th | −14% | Indiana |
| Real Estate Closing | $750 | $1,950 | $3,850 | 9 | 31st | −12% | Montana |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $550 | $1,600 | $5,200 | 7 | 40th | −23% | Louisiana |
Simple tier. $550 ÷ $170 = about 3 hours — 4 fewer than the moderate tier's 7, and $1,050 less.
Work against price. $1,600 to $5,200 is a $3,600 step, mostly work: 11 more hours at $230 is $2,530, while moving to $295 across 18 hours adds $1,170. Work carries 68%.
Borrowing the wrong row. South Dakota ($1,550) is $50 light, Louisiana ($1,600) is $0 heavy — but the $2,075 table midpoint is out by $475, 10x the neighbour error.
Contested against simple. At North Dakota's own recorded figures, $5,200 buys 9.5 matters at the $550 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 North Dakotacourt'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.