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 Texas, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a estate planning / probate in Texas costs on average $2,200, typically $1,100-$3,300 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $185 to $365 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 | $1,100 | $2,200 | $3,300 | 2-6 weeks |
| Complex | $3,250 | $6,500 | $10,900 | 1-3 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$185 – $365/ hour
Median: $290/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 Texas. The recorded median total is $2,200, with reported quotes clustering between $1,100 and $3,300. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $310–$925, which leaves roughly $1,275–$1,890 of the Texas median as professional time — the part that differs between quotes.
At $2,200, the median estate planning / probate cost in Texas runs 13% above the $1,954 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Texas carries 3 rows — simple, $300–$1,100 at $155–$290/hr over 1-2 weeks; moderate, $1,100–$3,300 at $185–$365/hr over 2-6 weeks; complex, $3,250–$10,900 at $260–$500/hr over 1-3 months — on 4 shared citations. They put it above the midpoint, short of the top quarter.
$2,200 is a median, not the middle of the band — $1,100 above the $1,100 floor, $1,100 under the $3,300 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 46.
At 12th of 46, Texas sits above the midpoint of the estate planning / probate table: $125 more than the $2,075 median state, or 6%, with 11 states recording a higher median.
Illinois ($2,200) and Washington ($2,200) bracket Texas inside a $0 window — narrow enough that 12th is close to arbitrary.
9 tracked states — New York, Illinois, Washington, Arizona among them — record a median within three percent of Texas's $2,200. 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.
Hourly rate does not explain this state's position. At $290 an hour Texas is only 20th of 46 on rate, yet 12th on total estate planning / probate cost — the totals reflect billed hours accumulating, not an unusually high rate.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Texas |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Massachusetts | $2,350 | +$150 |
| 7 | Connecticut | $2,300 | +$100 |
| 8 | New Jersey | $2,300 | +$100 |
| 9 | Rhode Island | $2,300 | +$100 |
| 10 | New York | $2,250 | +$50 |
| 11 | Illinois | $2,200 | −$0 |
| 12 | Texas | $2,200 | — |
| 13 | Washington | $2,200 | −$0 |
| 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 |
The rows within ten percent are lopsided: 14 below Texas against 7 above. $0 up or $0 down moves Texas a row, so a downward revision would cost the state far more places than an equivalent upward one would gain — the 12th position is propped up by a thin estate planning / probate field above it and a crowded one beneath.
Climbing five places would mean passing Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New York, Illinois and adding $100 to the $2,200 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Washington, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware: $50.
$400 short of Hawaii ($2,600), $850 clear of Alabama ($1,350).
The $2,200 median covers only about 8 hours at the $290 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. The peer median is 7 hours, so 1 more hours of work sit behind the Texas figure than behind the typical state's.
Moving from a simple to a complex estate planning / probate multiplies the Texas total by 10, and almost all of that is hours rather than price: 3 hours at $210 becomes 18 hours at $365, so the workload grows 6x while the rate grows only 1.74x. Complexity here buys attorney time, not a premium hourly rate.
From $1,100 to $3,300 the moderate band is $2,200 wide, close to the $2,050 peer median. End to end that is 8 hours at $290.
By implied hours Texas falls to 14th of 46 at 8 hours, 2 places below its 12th on cost — the estate planning / probate total arriving on less recorded work.
44% up the $1,100–$3,300 band sits the $2,075 table midpoint, buying 7 hours at $290 against the 8 the local estate planning / probate median implies — 1 hour apart.
| Measure | Texas | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $2,200 | 12th |
| Hourly median | $290 | 20th |
| Implied hours | 8 | 14th |
| Simple median | $650 | 20th |
| Complex median | $6,500 | 20th |
$290 an hour puts Texas between Oregon ($295) and Pennsylvania ($285) — not the estate planning / probate cost pairing.
No other tracked state records $290 as its median rate, so the figure identifies Texas on its own within this dataset.
$2,200 buys 10 hours at $210, 8 at $290, 6 at $365.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | Minnesota | $295 |
| 19 | Oregon | $295 |
| 20 | Texas | $290 |
| 21 | Pennsylvania | $285 |
| 22 | Utah | $285 |
The ranking barely moves across tiers — 20th at the simple tier, 12th at moderate, 20th at complex of 46 — so Texas keeps roughly the same relative position whether the estate planning / probate is straightforward or contested.
$650 is 20th of 46 on a straightforward estate planning / probate, under Rhode Island ($650) and over Utah ($650), $25 over the $625 tier midpoint.
$6,500 is 20th of 46 once contested, between Vermont ($6,550) and Florida ($5,950), $600 off the $5,900 tier midpoint.
The three bands are continuous in Texas: the simple tier reaches $1,100 where the moderate tier starts at $1,100, and the moderate tier reaches $3,300 where the complex tier starts at $3,250. A single quoted figure can therefore belong to two different tiers, and the tier label — not the number — is what identifies which.
| Tier | Texas | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $650 | 20th | $625 | 3 |
| moderate | $2,200 | 12th | $2,075 | 8 |
| complex | $6,500 | 20th | $5,900 | 18 |
$650 drops Texas to 20th of 46 on straightforward matters, 8 below its moderate position and $25 (4%) over the $625 tier midpoint.
3 implied hours at $210: 38% of the moderate tier's 8, over 1-2 weeks.
Rhode Island ($650) and Utah ($650) bracket it — a $0 window.
13 states record a simple-tier median within three percent of $650, denser than the 9 around the moderate row.
$6,500 drops Texas to 20th of 46 on contested matters, 8 below its moderate position and $600 (10%) over the $5,900 tier midpoint.
18 implied hours at $365: 225% of the moderate tier's 8, over 1-3 months.
Vermont ($6,550) and Florida ($5,950) bracket it — a $600 window.
4 states sit within three percent of the $6,500 here, against 9 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | Pennsylvania | $650 |
| 19 | Rhode Island | $650 |
| 20 | Texas | $650 |
| 21 | Utah | $650 |
| 22 | Vermont | $650 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | Alaska | $6,550 |
| 19 | Vermont | $6,550 |
| 20 | Texas | $6,500 |
| 21 | Florida | $5,950 |
| 22 | Illinois | $5,950 |
Among the 8 matter types tracked in Texas, a estate planning / probate records the smallest median at $2,200, below Real Estate Closing on the line above.
Across practice areas Texas ranges from 12th of 46 for Estate Planning / Probate to 24th for Real Estate Closing — a 12-place spread, with its 12th on estate planning / probate inside it.
The spread across practice areas is wide. Immigration runs 17% above its own midpoint, while Personal Injury runs 9% below its own midpoint — 26 percentage points apart. A single "Texas is expensive" or "Texas is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
The largest tracked median in Texas 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 8 matter types rank Texas in the upper third, 0 in the lower, 4 between; estate planning / probate is 12th.
In percentile terms it sits at the 76th percentile of the 46 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,700 | $10,950 | $32,250 | 35 | 16th | +7% | Arizona |
| Divorce | $3,000 | $8,900 | $25,250 | 28 | 24th | +4% | Nevada |
| DUI / DWI | $3,400 | $7,800 | $16,600 | 27 | 22nd | +5% | Illinois |
| Immigration | $1,900 | $5,550 | $10,850 | 19 | 15th | +17% | Utah |
| Personal Injury | $1,600 | $4,750 | $14,950 | — | 21st | −9% | Iowa |
| Bankruptcy | $1,500 | $3,950 | $4,800 | 15 | 13th | +10% | New Hampshire |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,050 | $2,200 | $4,700 | 8 | 24th | −1% | Illinois |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $650 | $2,200 | $6,500 | 8 | 12th | +6% | Illinois |
Simple tier. $650 ÷ $210 = about 3 hours — 5 fewer than the moderate tier's 8, and $1,550 less.
Work against price. $2,200 to $6,500 is a $4,300 step, mostly work: 10 more hours at $290 is $2,900, while moving to $365 across 18 hours adds $1,350. Work carries 68%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Washington ($2,200) is $0 light, Illinois ($2,200) is $0 heavy — but the $2,075 table midpoint is out by $125, 125x the neighbour error.
Contested against simple. At Texas's own recorded figures, $6,500 buys 10 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 Texascourt'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.