Flat Fees from $299

Deeds, Trusts & Estates

• Additional deeds

  $199

  The will plan and both trust plans each include one deed. For a second or third property, every further deed is $199 plus recording.

• Deed revocation or amendment

  $250

  Revoking or correcting a deed already on record.

• Simple will

  $299

  Names who inherits and how the property is divided, nominates a guardian for minor children, and holds a minor’s share in trust until 25, 30 and 35 rather than handing it over at 18. Signed with a self-proving affidavit, so the will is admitted to probate without tracking down the witnesses. One person, straightforward gifts.

• Durable power of attorney

  $350

  The document that keeps your family out of guardianship court. Includes the Florida powers that must be separately initialed to work at all.

• Health-care surrogate, living will and HIPAA release

  $350

  Per person. Who decides, what you want at the end, and the release that lets your agent get the records.

• Declaration of Domicile

  $350 · $499 couple

  The sworn statement, recorded in your county, that Florida is your permanent home. It is the first document a former state's residency audit asks for, and the property appraiser accepts it as a second proof of residency. We confirm that you qualify, draft it for your county, e-record it and send you a certified copy. You sign under oath before a notary, which Florida lets you do from home. One person $350. A couple is $499, and that is two separate declarations rather than one, because each spouse swears only to their own domicile and the facts can differ between them. The notary and the recording are additional and charged per document.

• Lady bird deed

  $399 · $449 joint

  Passes the home to your family at death with no probate, and you keep full control and your homestead protection while you live. One owner $399, joint owners $449. Drafted with the homestead language Florida requires. A quitclaim, warranty or life-estate deed is $399.

• Deed to trust

  $550

  A deed moving a property into a trust that already exists. Includes a review of the trust, so the deed names the correct trustees and carries the powers the trust gives them.

• Secure Will Estate Plan

  $1,200 individual · $1,950 couple

  Five documents, designed together and signed together, plus a lady bird deed on your home so the house passes outside probate. The will, the durable power of attorney, the designation of health-care surrogate, the living will and the HIPAA authorization. The will carries survivorship and contingent takers, recitals that survive a later marriage or a new child, death-tax apportionment, and a trust for a minor’s share. We review your beneficiary designations, check the homestead, and guide the signing with a self-proving affidavit.

• Revocable trust, drafted alone

  $2,400 individual · $3,200 couple

  The trust document on its own, for someone whose will, power of attorney and health-care documents are already in place. Drafted with a graduated payout, holding each beneficiary’s share and releasing it at the ages you set. No will, no power of attorney, no health-care documents, no funding and no deed. A deed moving a property into the trust is $550.

• Complete Trust Plan

  $3,200 individual · $4,500 couple

  Everything in the Secure Will Estate Plan, with the revocable living trust drafted for your family, a pour-over will with a self-proving affidavit as the backup, one deed moving your Florida homestead into the trust, funding instructions and help retitling accounts, beneficiary designations coordinated with the trust, and instructions for your successor trustee. The trust pays out on a graduated schedule, holding each share and releasing it at the ages you set rather than handing it over at once. For blended families, out-of-state property, more than one property, and anyone who wants the family to skip probate entirely.

• Special needs provisions added to a plan

  From $4,000

  A third-party special needs trust written into your will or trust plan, so a disabled beneficiary’s share supports them without costing them SSI or Medicaid. Money left to them outright usually does. A first-party trust, funded with the beneficiary’s own money, starts at $7,000.

• Special needs trust

  From $4,000

  Supports a disabled beneficiary without costing them SSI or Medicaid. A third-party trust, funded with your money, from $4,000. A first-party trust, funded with the beneficiary’s own money, from $7,000, because the payback and drafting rules are stricter. Built into a trust plan rather than standing alone, the third-party version is from $4,000 added to the plan.

• Protected Trust Plan

  $4,700 individual · $6,000 couple

  Everything in the Complete Trust Plan, and then each share stays in trust for that person’s life instead of being paid out at an age. A creditor, a divorcing spouse or a bankruptcy trustee reaches a distribution the trustee actually makes, and not the trust itself, so an inheritance survives a lawsuit, a divorce or a child who is not good with money. One fee covers every beneficiary, however many there are. The fee includes the meeting where we design each share, because who serves as trustee, what the trustee may pay for, and when your child takes control are your decisions rather than ours.

• Trust review and restatement

  Quoted at consult

  An existing trust, often drafted years ago or in another state, read in full and rewritten as one clean document rather than patched with another amendment. No number is posted for this one, because the work starts with reading a document somebody else wrote and the time that takes moves with what is in it. You get the fee in writing at the consult.

Probate & Trust Administration

Routine estates get a flat fee. Larger estates are estimated at the consult.

• Disposition without administration

  From $1,500

  The smallest estates, where the assets are exempt or do not exceed the funeral and final medical expenses. The petition and the order releasing the asset.

• Summary administration

  From $2,500

  Estates under $150,000 of non-exempt assets, or where the death was more than two years ago. The petition, the orders and the transfer of the assets, usually without a personal representative.

• Formal administration, routine estate

  From $3,500

  The full court process with a personal representative appointed. Letters of administration, notice to creditors and the claims period, the inventory, the accounting and the distribution. Larger estates estimated at the consult.

• Ancillary administration

  From $3,500

  A second Florida probate for someone who lived in another state and owned Florida property. Quoted after we see the home-state estate.

• Trust administration after a death

  Flat fee, quoted at consult

  Settling a trust after the person who made it dies. The notice of trust, notices to beneficiaries, the accounting and the distribution.

Asset Protection, Planning Ahead

Protection you can only buy early. Florida looks back five years at what you gave away, so the trust that shelters the house and the savings has to be signed long before anyone needs care, and the titling work that puts assets out of a creditor’s reach has to be done before a claim arises.

• Medicaid asset protection trust

  From $6,000

  Irrevocable, and only effective when signed more than five years before an application. A plan-ahead tool, not a rescue. Typically $6,000 to $8,500.

• Asset protection review and plan

  Quoted at consult

  An exemption audit and a titling review, because most of Florida’s protection is already yours if things are titled correctly. Homestead, tenancy by the entireties, annuities and life insurance, retirement accounts and the head-of-family wage exemption, checked one by one and corrected where the title is wrong. Timing decides most of it, because a transfer made after a claim arises can be undone, which is why this is work to do early. The quote depends on how many assets and entities there are.

Medicaid in a Crisis

Someone is already in a facility, or will be within months. The five-year trust is out of reach by then, and the work turns to the steps Florida still allows on the way in. Scope moves with the assets, the income and how close the care is.

• Spousal refusal letter

  $500

  Where the spouse at home declines to make their assets available.

• Qualified income (Miller) trust

  $750

  Required whenever income is over Florida’s cap. The trust document and getting the account opened.

• Medicaid application

  From $3,500

  Clean or already spent down. The eligibility analysis, the verification packet, the filing, and answering the agency requests that follow.

• Crisis Medicaid, single applicant

  From $9,000

  Someone is already in a facility, or will be within months. The work starts with five years of bank statements, because Florida reviews all sixty months, and every gift, every name added to an account or a deed and every family loan has to be found and dated before anything is filed. What follows is usually several documents rather than one. Depending on the file that can include a qualified income trust (a small trust that holds the income over Florida’s cap so the applicant still qualifies), a caregiver agreement where a family member has genuinely been providing the care, a promissory note that covers the months Florida will not pay for after a past gift, and a lady bird deed so the home passes outside probate. The application is filed at the end of that work rather than at the start. Nursing-home care in Florida runs about $11,000 to $12,000 a month while all of this is happening, which is why the order and the speed of the steps matter as much as the paperwork. Typically $9,000 to $12,000, quoted in writing at the consult.

• Crisis Medicaid, married couple

  Quoted at consult

  One spouse needs care and the other is staying home. Florida already protects the spouse at home, and the work is making the most of that protection, which is why the fee is graduated by countable assets rather than posted at one figure. Assets are pooled and title is irrelevant, so moving accounts into the at-home spouse’s name shelters nothing by itself. Income is the opposite, because it follows the name on the check and the at-home spouse’s income is never counted against the applicant, which is the asymmetry the planning runs on. The engagement covers the same five-year review of statements, the documents the file needs, and rewriting the at-home spouse’s own will and powers of attorney, because if that spouse dies first under an old will the assets come back to the applicant and eligibility is lost.

Irrevocable Trusts

• Irrevocable trusts

  Quoted at consult

  Dynasty, directed, spousal lifetime access and life insurance trusts. These are estate and tax tools rather than long-term-care tools, and the scope moves with the structure and what goes into it. The quote depends on the number of trusts and the assets they hold.

Business & Tax

• Business and tax structuring

  Quoted at consult

  Entity choice and formation, operating and buy-sell agreements, succession, and the tax planning that decides the result years before anybody signs. A written flat-fee quote at the consult, before any work begins.

Litigation & Disputes

Quoted per matter at the consult. No flat fee is posted for litigation.

• Tax controversy

  Hourly, quoted per matter

  IRS audits and appeals, collection due process hearings, trust fund recovery penalty defense, and Tax Court.

• Business and partnership disputes

  Hourly or contingency

  Shareholder, member and partner disputes, business divorce, buyouts, and claims against a partner who took money.

• Trust and probate disputes

  Hourly or contingency

  Will contests, undue influence, trustee removal, breach of fiduciary duty, and contested accountings.