How Much Does it Cost? The answer is, it depends.

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This is either a simple will for an individual or a husband and wife leaving everything to each other outright. You are not concerned about protecting your assets from creditors or tax planning.

It can also be a simple revocable trust without any asset protection or tax planning. The purpose of this would be simply avoiding probate.

Let's add kids to the mix. It's your first marriage and your children are either minors that require trusts and guardianship provisions, or adult children who you want to protect from creditors or divorce. You may have enough assets that you are worried about creditors or your children's spouses inheriting what you leave them. Perhaps you want to have some control over what happens to your money once you are gone.

It's your second marriage and one or both of you have children from your first marriage you'd like to include. Your spouse isn't a U.S. citizen. You would like to provide for someone other than your spouse or children. You are planning for someone with special needs. You'd like to maximize the use of your lifetime exemption amount and create a bypass or credit shelter trust. You'd like to use life insurance to create an irrevocable trust. You want to put your beach house in a trust. You have real estate in another state. Oh and it's a community property state. You get the picture.