You’ve searched trust costs. You’ve seen everything from $300 online kits to $8,000 attorney packages. You have no idea why the numbers vary so much, or which one actually protects your family in Georgia.
Here is the honest answer. A trust in Georgia costs anywhere from under $500 to $8,000 or more. Price tracks how much of the work actually gets done, not how much work gets promised. The $500 option is usually the most expensive choice in the long run. It creates a plan on paper without creating one in reality.
This post covers three things. What you get at each price tier. What’s missing from the cheap ones. And the single step that separates a working plan from a binder full of paper.
A Trust Isn’t One Document. It’s Five Pieces.
Most people think “a trust” is a single document. It isn’t. A complete Georgia trust-based plan has five pieces that have to work together:
- The trust instrument. The document that creates the trust. It spells out who gets what, and when.
- A pour-over will. Catches any asset you forgot to put in the trust. Sends it to the trust at death.
- A durable financial power of attorney. Names who manages your money if you can’t.
- An advance healthcare directive. Names who makes medical decisions for you if you can’t.
- Asset re-titling. Your home deed, bank accounts, investments, and LLCs get retitled into the trust’s name. This is the step that actually makes the trust avoid probate.
A trust without the last four is a document, not a plan. Most of the price difference between tiers comes down to how many of these pieces you actually get, and how much of the fifth one is done for you.
The Three Price Tiers, and Which One Gets the Work Done
Tier 1: DIY Online Templates ($150 to $500)
LegalZoom, Trust & Will, and Rocket Lawyer sell trust templates. You fill out a questionnaire. The software generates a document. You print it, sign it, and file it.
What you get: A trust document that is legally valid in Georgia.
What you don’t get: Asset re-titling. The trust is empty. Your home is still in your personal name. Your bank accounts are still in your personal name. When you pass away, the trust holds nothing. Your family goes through probate for every asset that was supposed to be in the trust.
When this makes sense: If you rent, have under $100,000 in assets, no children, and simple beneficiary wishes, a reputable DIY kit plus the State Bar of Georgia’s free power-of-attorney forms is usually enough. The missing re-titling step doesn’t matter much when there’s little to re-title.
Tier 2: Attorney-Drafted Document ($2,000 to $3,500)
A Georgia attorney drafts the trust instrument for your specific situation. The document is cleaner, more tailored, and accounts for Georgia-specific rules. You often get a pour-over will and basic powers of attorney alongside it.
What you get: A properly drafted trust and the companion documents.
What you don’t get: Asset re-titling. Most document-only attorneys hand you a binder, explain what “funding” means, and send you home to do the re-titling yourself.
When this makes sense: When you’re willing and able to handle the re-titling yourself. If you understand what funding is, have the time to coordinate with title companies and banks, and want to save $2,000 to $4,000, this path can work. Most people don’t realize the funding step is required until years later, when it’s too late.
Tier 3: Complete Plan With Funding ($5,000 to $8,000+)
A complete revocable living trust plan includes all five pieces. The trust document. The pour-over will. Both powers of attorney. And the re-titling of every asset into the trust. The re-titling is the piece that costs the most and matters the most.
What you get: A plan where the trust actually owns what it says it owns. Your home deed is recorded in the trust’s name. Your bank and investment accounts are retitled. Your LLC operating agreements are updated to match. The plan works the day you sign it.
What you pay for: The last step. The re-titling. It takes weeks of back-and-forth with title companies, banks, brokerages, and sometimes the county clerk’s office. That’s the work most attorneys skip at the lower tiers.
When this makes sense: For most Georgia families with a home, retirement accounts, and anyone they care about inheriting. You pay once, and the plan works the moment you sign it.
Georgia Living Trust Cost Calculator
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$550 each — rentals, land, cabins.
$1,100 per state — we coordinate with local counsel.
$1,250 each — includes operating agreement update.
County recording fees are extra. We confirm your exact quote in your Design Meeting with our Attorney.
What's Actually Included
The full breakdown of what you get at The Hive Law — and what the same services cost at firms that unbundle them.
- Custom Trust Documents (5 documents) $4,000
- Document Walk-Through Call $350
- Trust Funding Session $750
- Funding Checkup $350
- Successor Trustee Orientation Call $500
- Professional Coordination Call $500
- Surviving Spouse Transition Call $750
- Post-Signing Checklist $97
You save $3,797 compared to buying these services separately.
Why $5,000+ Isn’t as Much as It Sounds
The drafting is 20% of the work. The other 80% is the funding, which means coordinating with title companies, banks, brokerages, and the county clerk’s office. Per asset. That’s weeks of phone calls, paperwork, and follow-up. It’s also the step that turns a drafted document into a plan that actually avoids probate.
If you skip that work upfront, you or your family pay for it later. On an average Georgia estate, probate runs nine to eighteen months and costs $12,000 to $20,000 in court fees, executor fees, and attorney fees. The DIY template didn’t save you money. It deferred the bill, and raised it.
Why $3,500 Pays For Itself
Here's what your family pays and waits if you skip the trust.
Simple Estate
$13,700
Average probate cost
14 months
Average timeline
House, investment and retirement accounts, cars.
Complex Estate
$27,200
Average probate cost
23 months
Average timeline
Blended family, rentals, out-of-state property, business, family conflict, or special-needs children.
A $3,500 trust costs about 1/4 of the simplest probate — and 1/8 of the most common one.
Worried about nursing home costs?
Some families need an extra layer of protection called an Irrevocable Trust. It’s designed for people who are thinking ahead to nursing home care or Medicaid planning.
Adding it to your base plan is a flat $3,000 on top of the $3,500 package, for a total of $6,500.
You don’t need to decide this on your own. During your Design Meeting with our Attorney, we’ll walk through your situation and tell you whether you need it.
Learn more about Medicaid Asset Protection Trust costs in Georgia →
The Hidden Cost of a DIY Trust
Here is the pattern we see when a DIY trust fails.
A family buys a template online for a few hundred dollars. They sign the document. They file it in a drawer. They never move the home deed into the trust. They never retitle the bank accounts.
Years later, someone passes away. The family opens the drawer. The trust is sitting there, empty.
The home is still in the deceased person’s name. So is every bank account. Georgia probate court doesn’t care what you meant to do. It only sees what’s actually titled where. The family goes through full probate anyway. Nine to eighteen months. $12,000 to $20,000 in fees on an average estate.
The DIY template wasn’t the cost of the trust. The probate bill was the cost of the trust.
Most DIY providers hand you a legally valid document and send you home. The document is not the problem. The funding step is the problem.
Funding means retitling your home, your bank accounts, and your investment accounts into the name of the trust. If you don’t do this step — and most people don’t — the trust holds nothing when you pass. Your family goes through probate anyway, for every asset you meant to protect.
What The Hive Law Charges
The Hive Law builds complete Georgia estate plans for one flat fee: $3,500. That covers the trust, the pour-over will, both powers of attorney, and the re-titling of every asset. No hourly billing. No surprise invoices.
Your exact price is set in the Family Protection Audit. In the audit, we price your plan in a single number based on what you tell us about your assets, your family, and your goals. You leave the audit with a quote, not a sales pitch.
The audit fee is $500, credited toward your plan when you move forward.
Ongoing Costs After Setup
Most families pay nothing to maintain a Georgia living trust after it’s signed. As long as you’re alive and of sound mind, you manage your own assets, file your own taxes, and update the trust when life changes — same as before.
Where costs can show up:
- Small updates — changing a beneficiary, swapping a successor trustee — typically $0 if it’s a minor amendment, $300–$500 if it requires a restatement.
- New assets years later — if you buy a rental property down the road and want it in the trust, that’s a new deed ($550 in Georgia, $1,100 per state if out of state).
- Corporate trustees — rare. Only needed for complex estates or when no family member can serve. Typically 0.5%–1.5% of assets per year.
Last updated: April 22, 2026