A basic estate plan usually consists of Wills, typically one for each spouse, a Power of Attorney, again one for each spouse, a Durable Power of Attorney and the Healthcare Proxy, one for each spouse.

The costs varies significantly between what the attorney’s charges for this. It can be anywhere from a few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars and it would be important to ask the attorney ahead of time what their fees are and ask for a Fee Agreement.

There is also where you can do more advanced estate planning that includes a variety of different forms of trusts that are usually not considered a part of the basic estate plan. Trusts the variety include Revocable and Irrevocable Trusts, some trusts are very simple, some are much more complicated depending on the specifics of what you are looking to do, but can costs significantly more than a simple estate plan.

Some of the advantages of trusts, there are certain types that will help you avoid probate; which can save you ultimately time, stress and the costs of going to probate court. There are also types that can protect you for certain types of nursing home care and for avoiding taxes along with a variety of other reasons to set up a trust.