Living Trust Cost Calculator: RLT, ILIT, and Irrevocable Trusts

A revocable living trust costs $1,500 to $5,000 attorney-drafted for typical facts, $5,000 to $10,000+ in California and other high-cost metros, or $499–$599 through Trust & Will online (or $139 through Nolo WillMaker Plus). Irrevocable trusts run higher because they're more technical: ILIT $2,500 to $4,000, Medicaid Asset Protection Trust $3,000 to $6,000, dynasty trust $5,000 to $10,000+. Add $500 to $2,000 for trust funding (deed recording, retitling accounts).

A will is enough for most households. You need a revocable living trust when at least one of three facts applies: you own real estate in more than one state (a trust avoids ancillary probate in each state), you want to avoid probate entirely for privacy or speed, or you have a special-needs dependent (paired with a Third-Party Special Needs Trust). A living trust does NOT reduce estate tax — that requires an irrevocable trust. See our estate planning calculator for a specific recommendation.

A revocable living trust (RLT) can be changed or dissolved by you at any time; you retain full control. Its only purpose is probate avoidance — the assets stay in your taxable estate. An irrevocable trust transfers ownership out of your control (mostly) and can serve tax or asset-protection goals: an ILIT removes life insurance from the taxable estate, a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust shields assets from a future spend-down (5-year lookback applies), and a dynasty trust transfers wealth across generations without generation-skipping tax. Irrevocable trusts require attorney-drafted documents.

Setting up a living trust follows five steps: (1) consult an estate planning attorney, or choose a DIY/online service, and gather a full list of your assets; (2) draft the trust document and name your successor trustee; (3) sign and notarize the trust, since witness requirements vary by state; (4) fund the trust by retitling deeds and financial accounts into the trust's name; and (5) update beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance, which pass outside the trust regardless of funding. A pour-over will (see living trust vs. will) catches any asset you forget to retitle in step 4, but it still goes through probate before reaching the trust. Funding it correctly the first time is what actually avoids probate.

Timeline depends on complexity and whether you use an attorney or an online service. Attorney-drafted trusts take longer: plan on several weeks of back-and-forth as you gather your asset list, review drafts, and schedule signing. Online DIY services can produce a signed-ready trust document in a single sitting. Either path still requires funding afterward (retitling deeds and financial accounts), which takes additional time and isn't included in either estimate.

Trust funding — retitling deeds and accounts into the trust — costs $500 to $2,000 additional on top of drafting. Each real-estate deed runs $200 to $500 attorney-recorded (or $50 to $150 DIY), and retitling brokerage/bank accounts runs $300 to $1,500 depending on how many institutions are involved. Trust funding is where most DIY living trusts fail — an unfunded trust provides zero probate protection because the assets are still in your name at death. Not every asset belongs in the trust either; our best estate planning software roundup lists the specific assets that should stay out.

A revocable living trust does NOT protect assets from Medicaid because you still control them — they count as your assets for the spend-down analysis. Only a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust (MAPT) — a specific type of irrevocable trust — can shield assets, and only if you funded it more than 5 years before applying for Medicaid (the federal 5-year lookback under 42 U.S.C. §1396p). Attorney cost is $3,000 to $6,000. DIY is not appropriate for MAPTs.

Yes, for a revocable living trust with straightforward facts. Trust & Will ($499 individual, $599 couple), LegalZoom Living Trust (~$279), and Nolo Quicken WillMaker Plus ($139, includes RLT template) all produce valid RLTs. These packages draft the trust document itself; funding it (retitling deeds and financial accounts into the trust's name) is typically left to you afterward, regardless of price tier, unless the service explicitly advertises funding assistance. Online is not appropriate for irrevocable trusts (ILIT, MAPT, dynasty), Medicaid planning, blended families with complex distributions, business interests, or cross-state property. Attorney-drafted becomes worth it when the facts stop fitting a fill-in-the-blank template. See what's bundled in each online trust package before choosing one.

A revocable living trust has no mandatory annual fee and needs no separate tax return while you're alive — it's a grantor trust, so it uses your own Social Security number and is reported on your personal Form 1040, unlike an irrevocable trust, which must file its own Form 1041. Ongoing costs are occasional rather than annual: retitling any asset you acquire after the trust is signed (a new house, a refinanced property, a new brokerage account) costs the same $200–$500 per deed or $300–$1,500 per account as the original funding step. An amendment to update beneficiaries or add a provision typically runs $300–$1,000 with an attorney. If you name a corporate trustee instead of a family member, expect an annual fee of roughly 0.5%–1.5% of trust assets — a cost most families avoid by serving as their own trustee while they're able.

Your successor trustee should be someone, or an institution, you trust to manage the trust competently and carry out your instructions after you're gone or incapacitated. Most people name an adult child or another trusted family member or friend as their first choice. For complex estates, contentious family situations, or when no individual is a good fit, a corporate or professional trustee is the alternative, at the roughly 0.5%–1.5% annual fee noted above. Whoever you choose, confirm they're willing to serve before you sign the trust.

It depends on what probate would otherwise cost your estate. In California, a $750,000 estate faces roughly $36,000 in combined attorney and executor probate fees under Cal. Prob. Code §10810/§10800 — a $1,500–$5,000 trust (or $599 online) pays for itself many times over. For a smaller estate that would qualify for a state's simplified small-estate probate procedure, the trust's main benefit disappears and a will is the better spend. See is a living trust worth it for the full break-even math by state.

The main downside is that a revocable living trust does nothing for estate tax or creditor protection, since the assets stay legally yours and remain in your taxable estate while you're alive. The second downside is the funding burden: the trust provides zero probate benefit until you actually retitle deeds and financial accounts into it, a $500 to $2,000 step people routinely skip after paying for the document itself. It also adds an upfront cost, $1,500 to $10,000 or more depending on complexity and state, that a will-only plan doesn't carry. None of these apply to an irrevocable trust, which trades your control for the tax or asset-protection benefit a revocable trust can't provide.

There is no U.S. federal or state "7-year rule" that applies to a revocable or irrevocable living trust. The phrase comes from UK inheritance-tax law, where a gift outside a trust generally falls out of the estate after 7 years, and it doesn't carry over to U.S. trust or estate-tax rules. The lookback period that does apply to a U.S. trust is Medicaid's 5-year lookback on transfers into a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust, a different rule for a different purpose.

The primary disadvantage is losing ownership and control of the policy, because an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) cannot be altered or canceled, unlike a revocable living trust. Attorney-drafted ILIT setup also costs $2,500 to $4,000. Ongoing administration requires the trustee to send Crummey notices to beneficiaries each time a premium payment is made so the gift qualifies for the annual gift-tax exclusion. People who manage trust administration on their own often miss this compliance step. Finally, transferring an existing policy pulls the proceeds back into your taxable estate under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) section 2035(a) if you die within three years of the transfer.

The cleanest method is to have a new policy issued directly in the name of an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT). Under the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) section 2035(a) three-year lookback rule, transferring an existing policy leaves the proceeds in your taxable estate if you die within three years. The trustee must pay the ongoing premiums instead of you and send Crummey notices to beneficiaries for each payment so it qualifies as a tax-free gift. DIY estate-planning software is not appropriate for an ILIT. An attorney must draft the trust, which typically costs $2,500 to $4,000.