Q: What can I expect to pay for an hourly fee for updating a will and trust?
A:
It is hard to say. Most estate planning will do this at a flat rate if they do it all. The reason they may not want to update (meaning drafting an amendment or a codicil) is that they believe that they will be held responsible for the rest of the contents of of the document even if you they are only modifying one provision and they do not want to spend the time necessary to become familiar enough with the 20 page document or it would not be worth it for you to do so. In the end it would be cheaper for you to get an entirely new documents from them, rather than paying them to become an expert on yours.
Those attorneys that will do flat fees and draft amendments or codicils for you current docs would be somewhere in the $150-$500 range depending on what changes are needed.
I hope the explanation helps.
Wes
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