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 South Dakota, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a estate planning / probate in South Dakota costs on average $1,550, typically $800-$2,400 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $140 to $280 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 | $500 | $800 | 1-2 weeks |
| Moderate | $800 | $1,550 | $2,400 | 2-6 weeks |
| Complex | $2,500 | $4,950 | $8,300 | 1-3 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$140 – $280/ hour
Median: $220/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 South Dakota. The recorded median total is $1,550, 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 $625–$1,240 of the South Dakota median as professional time — the part that differs between quotes.
At $1,550, the median estate planning / probate cost in South Dakota runs 21% below the $1,954 national average across all 50 states and DC.
South Dakota carries 3 rows — simple, $250–$800 at $120–$220/hr over 1-2 weeks; moderate, $800–$2,400 at $140–$280/hr over 2-6 weeks; complex, $2,500–$8,300 at $200–$380/hr over 1-3 months — on 4 shared citations. Those figures place it in the lower quarter of the table.
$1,550 is a median, not the middle of the band — $750 above the $800 floor, $850 under the $2,400 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 46.
Sorted by median cost, South Dakota is 41st of 46 for a estate planning / probate, placing it in the lowest-cost quarter of the table: $525 and 25% below the $2,075 midpoint, with 5 states recording a lower median still.
In the estate planning / probate table South Dakota falls between North Carolina at $1,500 and North Dakota at $1,600, $50 above the first and $50 below the second.
Within three percent of South Dakota's $1,550 there is no other tracked state at all, so the figure is not part of a cluster and small changes to it would move the state several rows.
Ranked by hourly rate instead of by total, South Dakota does not move: 41st on both measures, at $220 an hour. Rate and total are telling the same story here.
| Rank | State | Median | Against South Dakota |
|---|---|---|---|
| 35 | New Mexico | $1,750 | +$200 |
| 36 | Nebraska | $1,650 | +$100 |
| 37 | Idaho | $1,600 | +$50 |
| 38 | Kentucky | $1,600 | +$50 |
| 39 | Louisiana | $1,600 | +$50 |
| 40 | North Dakota | $1,600 | +$50 |
| 41 | South Dakota | $1,550 | — |
| 42 | North Carolina | $1,500 | −$50 |
| 43 | Oklahoma | $1,500 | −$50 |
| 44 | South Carolina | $1,500 | −$50 |
| 45 | Arkansas | $1,400 | −$150 |
| 46 | Alabama | $1,350 | −$200 |
$50 up or $50 down moves South Dakota a row. A ten percent revision to the underlying figure would cross 9 rows in total — 5 up, 4 down — so the rank reads better as a band than as a precise place.
Climbing five places would mean passing Nebraska, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Dakota and adding $100 to the $1,550 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Arkansas, Alabama: $200.
$1,050 short of Hawaii ($2,600), $200 clear of Alabama ($1,350).
The $1,550 median covers only about 7 hours at the $220 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 South Dakota is indistinguishable from the middle of the table at this precision.
Moving from a simple to a complex estate planning / probate multiplies the South Dakota total by 9.9, and almost all of that is hours rather than price: 3 hours at $160 becomes 18 hours at $280, so the workload grows 6x while the rate grows only 1.75x. Complexity here buys attorney time, not a premium hourly rate.
The South 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 $220.
A third ordering: by implied hours South Dakota is 28th of 46 at 7 hours, 13 places above its cost rank of 41st 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 $220 against the 7 the local estate planning / probate median implies — 2 hours apart.
| Measure | South Dakota | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $1,550 | 41st |
| Hourly median | $220 | 41st |
| Implied hours | 7 | 28th |
| Simple median | $500 | 37th |
| Complex median | $4,950 | 38th |
$220 an hour puts South Dakota between South Carolina ($220) and Louisiana ($215) — not the estate planning / probate cost pairing.
New Mexico, South Carolina record the same $220: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$1,550 buys 10 hours at $160, 7 at $220, 6 at $280.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 39 | New Mexico | $220 |
| 40 | South Carolina | $220 |
| 41 | South Dakota | $220 |
| 42 | Louisiana | $215 |
| 43 | Oklahoma | $205 |
The ranking barely moves across tiers — 37th at the simple tier, 41st at moderate, 38th at complex of 46 — so South Dakota keeps roughly the same relative position whether the estate planning / probate is straightforward or contested.
$500 is 37th of 46 on a straightforward estate planning / probate, under North Carolina ($500) and over Tennessee ($500), $125 under the $625 tier midpoint.
$4,950 is 38th of 46 once contested, between North Dakota ($5,200) and North Carolina ($4,800), $950 off the $5,900 tier midpoint.
The lower two bands run into each other — the simple tier tops out at $800 against a moderate floor of $800 — but there is a clear gap of $100 between the moderate ceiling of $2,400 and the complex floor of $2,500. In South Dakota the jump into contested work is a step, not a slope.
| Tier | South Dakota | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $500 | 37th | $625 | 3 |
| moderate | $1,550 | 41st | $2,075 | 7 |
| complex | $4,950 | 38th | $5,900 | 18 |
$500 puts South Dakota 37th of 46 on straightforward matters, 4 up on its moderate position, and $125 (20%) under the $625 tier midpoint.
3 implied hours at $160: 43% of the moderate tier's 7, over 1-2 weeks.
North Carolina ($500) and Tennessee ($500) bracket it — a $0 window.
4 states record a simple-tier median within three percent of $500, denser than the 0 around the moderate row.
$4,950 puts South Dakota 38th of 46 on contested matters, 3 up on its moderate position, and $950 (16%) under the $5,900 tier midpoint.
18 implied hours at $280: 257% of the moderate tier's 7, over 1-3 months.
North Dakota ($5,200) and North Carolina ($4,800) bracket it — a $400 window.
Nothing else sits within three percent of the $4,950 here, against 0 at the moderate tier.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 35 | Iowa | $500 |
| 36 | North Carolina | $500 |
| 37 | South Dakota | $500 |
| 38 | Tennessee | $500 |
| 39 | Alabama | $450 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 36 | Nebraska | $5,200 |
| 37 | North Dakota | $5,200 |
| 38 | South Dakota | $4,950 |
| 39 | North Carolina | $4,800 |
| 40 | Louisiana | $4,700 |
Among the 8 matter types tracked in South Dakota, a estate planning / probate records the smallest median at $1,550, below Real Estate Closing on the line above.
Across practice areas South Dakota ranges from 40th of 46 for Real Estate Closing to 47th for Criminal Defense — a 7-place spread, with its 41st on estate planning / probate inside it.
South Dakota is not equally priced in every practice area. Measured against each matter's own midpoint, Immigration runs 17% below its own midpoint while Personal Injury runs 30% below its own midpoint — a 13-point spread between the extremes.
The largest tracked median in South Dakota is 4.9x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
All 7 tracked matter types place South Dakota in the lower third of their tables, the estate planning / probate figure included.
In percentile terms it sits at the 11th percentile of the 46 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $2,750 | $7,650 | $24,000 | 32 | 47th | −25% | Oklahoma |
| Divorce | $2,400 | $6,950 | $18,450 | 29 | 46th | −19% | Kentucky |
| DUI / DWI | $2,950 | $6,000 | $13,050 | 27 | 43rd | −19% | West Virginia |
| Immigration | $1,450 | $3,950 | $8,100 | 18 | 42nd | −17% | South Carolina |
| Personal Injury | $1,150 | $3,650 | $11,550 | — | — | −30% | — |
| Bankruptcy | $1,300 | $2,550 | $3,650 | 13 | 44th | −29% | Louisiana |
| Real Estate Closing | $800 | $1,700 | $3,800 | 9 | 40th | −24% | Kansas |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $500 | $1,550 | $4,950 | 7 | 41st | −25% | North Dakota |
Simple tier. $500 ÷ $160 = about 3 hours — 4 fewer than the moderate tier's 7, and $1,050 less.
Work against price. $1,550 to $4,950 is a $3,400 step, mostly work: 11 more hours at $220 is $2,420, while moving to $280 across 18 hours adds $1,080. Work carries 69%.
Borrowing the wrong row. North Carolina ($1,500) is $50 light, North Dakota ($1,600) is $50 heavy — but the $2,075 table midpoint is out by $525, 11x the neighbour error.
Contested against simple. At South Dakota's own recorded figures, $4,950 buys 9.9 matters at the $500 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 South 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.