Cost of setting up trust

[MPMD]

Did a search and couldn't find the info sorry if I'm missing it.

For those who did trusts for their estate/families what was your cost?

I am setting up something that appears to me to be as simple as possible and I'm getting quote about $3000.

Basically one kid, control of all money goes to one person and custody goes to that person and spouse. No fancy rules.

Reasonable?

[djohnflatfeecfp]

MPMD - Here is a recent thread on Trusts/Wills and Estate Planning.  https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/forums/topic/estate-planningtrustwill/

My advice is to meet with a few different Estate Planning Attorneys and make sure this is their specialty.  The price seems a bit high based on your description, but the devil is in the details, including how expensive your area is.  Akron is rather affordable so it seems a bit high to me.

[Craigy]

That could be reasonable or that could be expensive.

Sounds like you could accomplish that with a 1 page will.  But I suspect it's a little more complicated.

Depends on how much you tinker with it, too.  Unlike physicians, attorneys charge by the hour.    :lol:

[q-school]

MPMD wrote:

Did a search and couldn’t find the info sorry if I’m missing it.

For those who did trusts for their estate/families what was your cost?

I am setting up something that appears to me to be as simple as possible and I’m getting quote about $3000.

Basically one kid, control of all money goes to one person and custody goes to that person and spouse. No fancy rules.

Reasonable?

Click to expand...

in the ballpark for us.  we have done three

it's theoretically not just the trust but also healthcare power of attorney, financial power of attorney, advance directives, etc.

they spent about three hours with us covering a bunch of scenarios.  what if there's another kid not currently known (hopefully wife would have fessed up by now but never know).  what if another kid is born, do you want the will to cover or create a new will.   what if new kid has special needs.  who gets kids if both go?  who gets control of money?  you see all the posts about trusts being created with specific disbursement instructions.  we specified how much my sister would be allowed to have access to--can she retire if suddenly she goes from two kids to four?  do they need a bigger house?  they need some money for vacations and increase in family expenses.   we didn't think it was fair to stuff several million away and not let the sister have access to any.  at the same time, in some ways, the kids become part of their family and i don't know about how they divvy up the expenses.  obviously ymmv this are very personal decisions.  my sister is not financially savvy and i think she couldn't handle making decisions about several million dollars.  so we have arrangements for someone else to manage money.  on another thread, we talked about taxes for money kept in trusts.  money in trusts is generally considered for financial aid considerations.

as the kids get older, the instructions for the trust evolved.

although at the end of the day the form is templated, the good lawyers (imo) take time to explain things and walk you through the options.

you then need to transfer the titles and benificiary and stuff like that.  annoying.

or i could have overpaid.  i usually get suckered like that.

 

[MPMD]

thank you all for responses, not sure i missed that earlier thread but appreciate the link.

i figure if we both died our life insurance would pay out ($3M me, $2M her) so even $3k doesn't seem nuts for a document to manage that amount of money.

[DoubleMDs]

Ours was $1500 for about the same complexity as yours. But you live in a higher COL area, which shouldn't matter for this, but I'm sure it does.

[Bam]

Ours cost about 2k and included things similar to what q-school described with regard to health care directives, power of attorney, etc.

[Hank]

It's not just the initial cost of setting up the trust.  It's about making sure that you change beneficiary designations and title assets correctly so that your trust actually is effective.

It's about a balance between reviewing your trust with major changes in tax law and life changes, versus being roped into annual recurring fees that add little value.  There's the cost of having an institutional trustee charge asset under management fees versus the cost of a family or friend trustee running off with assets and screwing over some or all of the beneficiaries.

I hate to say it, but client trust funds and misappropriation of trust assets are two of the big, big areas where lawyers get into professional misconduct.  If some or all of your trust assets are stolen, you may have only so much recourse to an errors and omissions policy or whatever assets a lawyer or trustee with a gambling or substance abuse problem may have left.

Sorry to be all doom and gloom, but the true total costs of a trust can be quite high.  Then again, the costs of not having a good will and trust can be quite high too.

[Dr. Mom]

Sounds reasonable.  Pick an estate attorney who is a tax specialist also.  Picking an attorney that you can use over the years as your situation changes will be invaluable.