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 Washington, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a estate planning / probate in Washington 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 $210 to $420 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 | $1,100 | $2,200 | $3,300 | 2-6 weeks |
| Complex | $3,700 | $7,400 | $12,400 | 1-3 months |
Last verified: June 2026
$210 – $420/ hour
Median: $330/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 Washington. 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 Washington median as professional time — the part that differs between quotes.
At $2,200, the median estate planning / probate cost in Washington runs 13% above the $1,954 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Washington carries 3 rows — simple, $350–$1,100 at $180–$330/hr over 1-2 weeks; moderate, $1,100–$3,300 at $210–$420/hr over 2-6 weeks; complex, $3,700–$12,400 at $300–$570/hr over 1-3 months — on 4 shared citations. Those figures put it in the top quarter of the table.
$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.
Washington ranks 13th 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 $125 — 6% — and only 12 states record a higher median.
Texas ($2,200) and Arizona ($2,150) bracket Washington inside a $50 window — narrow enough that 13th is close to arbitrary.
9 tracked states — New York, Illinois, Texas, Arizona among them — record a median within three percent of Washington'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.
Rate and total point in different directions. Washington attorneys rank 2nd of 46 at $330 an hour, 11 places above where the state lands on total estate planning / probate cost (13th) — on these rows, high rates are not accompanied by high totals.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Washington |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | −$0 |
| 13 | Washington | $2,200 | — |
| 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 |
| 19 | Virginia | $2,150 | −$50 |
The rows within ten percent are lopsided: 14 below Washington against 7 above. $0 up or $50 down moves Washington a row, so a downward revision would cost the state far more places than an equivalent upward one would gain — the 13th position is propped up by a thin estate planning / probate field above it and a crowded one beneath.
Climbing five places would mean passing New Jersey, Rhode Island, New York, Illinois, Texas and adding $100 to the $2,200 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Maine: $50.
$400 short of Hawaii ($2,600), $850 clear of Alabama ($1,350).
The $2,200 median covers only about 7 hours at the $330 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 Washington is indistinguishable from the middle of the table at this precision.
Moving from a simple to a complex estate planning / probate multiplies the Washington total by 11.4, and almost all of that is hours rather than price: 3 hours at $240 becomes 18 hours at $420, so the workload grows 6x while the rate grows only 1.75x. 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 7 hours at $330.
By implied hours Washington falls to 43rd of 46 at 7 hours, 30 places below its 13th 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 6 hours at $330 against the 7 the local estate planning / probate median implies — 1 hour apart.
| Measure | Washington | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $2,200 | 13th |
| Hourly median | $330 | 2nd |
| Implied hours | 7 | 43rd |
| Simple median | $650 | 23rd |
| Complex median | $7,400 | 5th |
$330 an hour puts Washington between Hawaii ($370) and New Jersey ($325) — not the estate planning / probate cost pairing.
No other tracked state records $330 as its median rate, so the figure identifies Washington on its own within this dataset.
$2,200 buys 9 hours at $240, 7 at $330, 5 at $420.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | $370 |
| 2 | Washington | $330 |
| 3 | New Jersey | $325 |
| 4 | New York | $325 |
Rank is not stable across the tiers, and the direction matters. Washington runs 23rd at the simple tier, 13th at moderate, 5th at complex of 46 — it climbs 18 places as the matter gets harder. Straightforward estate planning / probate work is recorded at ordinary prices here; contested work is not.
$650 is 23rd of 46 on a straightforward estate planning / probate, under Vermont ($650) and over Alaska ($600), $25 over the $625 tier midpoint.
$7,400 is 5th of 46 once contested, between Maryland ($7,400) and Connecticut ($7,300), $1,500 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 $1,100 — but there is a clear gap of $400 between the moderate ceiling of $3,300 and the complex floor of $3,700. In Washington the jump into contested work is a step, not a slope.
| Tier | Washington | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $650 | 23rd | $625 | 3 |
| moderate | $2,200 | 13th | $2,075 | 7 |
| complex | $7,400 | 5th | $5,900 | 18 |
$650 drops Washington to 23rd of 46 on straightforward matters, 10 below its moderate position and $25 (4%) over the $625 tier midpoint.
3 implied hours at $240: 43% of the moderate tier's 7, over 1-2 weeks.
Vermont ($650) and Alaska ($600) bracket it — a $50 window.
13 states record a simple-tier median within three percent of $650, denser than the 9 around the moderate row.
$7,400 puts Washington 5th of 46 on contested matters, 8 up on its moderate position, and $1,500 (25%) over the $5,900 tier midpoint.
18 implied hours at $420: 257% of the moderate tier's 7, over 1-3 months.
Maryland ($7,400) and Connecticut ($7,300) bracket it — a $100 window.
5 states sit within three percent of the $7,400 here, against 9 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | Utah | $650 |
| 22 | Vermont | $650 |
| 23 | Washington | $650 |
| 24 | Alaska | $600 |
| 25 | Georgia | $600 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | California | $7,400 |
| 4 | Maryland | $7,400 |
| 5 | Washington | $7,400 |
| 6 | Connecticut | $7,300 |
| 7 | Massachusetts | $7,200 |
Among the 8 matter types tracked in Washington, a estate planning / probate records the smallest median at $2,200, below Real Estate Closing on the line above.
Across practice areas Washington ranges from 1st of 46 for DUI / DWI to 13th for Estate Planning / Probate — a 12-place spread, with its 13th on estate planning / probate inside it.
The spread across practice areas is wide. Divorce runs 34% above its own midpoint, while Estate Planning / Probate runs 6% above its own midpoint — 28 percentage points apart. A single "Washington is expensive" or "Washington is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
The largest tracked median in Washington is 5.2x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
Every one of the 7 matter types tracked for Washington places it in the upper third of its table, which is why the 13th on estate planning / probate is not an outlier.
In percentile terms it sits at the 73th percentile of the 46 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Divorce | $3,800 | $11,450 | $27,500 | 32 | 2nd | +34% | Hawaii |
| Criminal Defense | $4,200 | $11,450 | $33,850 | 32 | 10th | +12% | Vermont |
| DUI / DWI | $4,300 | $9,800 | $19,100 | 30 | 1st | +32% | — |
| Immigration | $2,600 | $6,200 | $14,100 | 19 | 5th | +31% | Vermont |
| Personal Injury | $1,950 | $6,000 | $19,850 | — | — | +15% | — |
| Bankruptcy | $1,700 | $4,100 | $6,350 | 14 | 10th | +14% | Rhode Island |
| Real Estate Closing | $1,200 | $2,800 | $5,450 | 9 | 3rd | +26% | New York |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $650 | $2,200 | $7,400 | 7 | 13th | +6% | Texas |
Simple tier. $650 ÷ $240 = about 3 hours — 4 fewer than the moderate tier's 7, and $1,550 less.
Work against price. $2,200 to $7,400 is a $5,200 step, mostly work: 11 more hours at $330 is $3,630, while moving to $420 across 18 hours adds $1,620. Work carries 69%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Budgeting from Arizona ($2,150) lands $50 under Washington; from Texas ($2,200), $0 over; from the $2,075 table midpoint, $125 out.
Contested against simple. At Washington's own recorded figures, $7,400 buys 11.4 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 Washingtoncourt'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.