A trust pays for itself immediately.
Probate fees are set by state law and paid out of your estate before a dollar reaches your family. Put your own numbers in and the arithmetic answers itself.
taken by probate before your family sees anything
- Attorney fees
- $23,000
- Executor fees
- $23,000
- Court and administration
- ~$3,500
a one-time fee to set up your trust
- Set up, once
- $1,499
- Your family keeps
- $48,001
Probate figures follow each state’s statutory fee schedule (California Probate Code §10810, New York SCPA §2307, Florida §733.6171), applied to the full estate value, plus typical court and administration costs. Texas assumes independent administration. Illustrative only; not legal, tax, or financial advice.
Your life doesn’t stand still. Your trust needs to keep up.
Every year brings new accounts, new property and new people, and each one is a chance for an asset to end up outside the trust you already paid for, increasing your exposure.
Figures below are for the $1,000,000 estate set above.
The highest-velocity decade: equity vesting, an investment property, a second child, a business interest forming. More trust-relevant events happen now than at any other point.
- Equity vesting
- Investment property purchased
- Second child born
- Business stake acquired
- Rental property
- IRA rollover
- Spouse income change
Left alone, by age 45 roughly $552,750 of what you own could be sitting outside your trust, exposed to $31,163 in probate fees. Your life kept moving. Your trust didn’t.
- Life events per year
- Exposure with no updates
- Exposure with an annual review
See the numbers
| Age | Life events / yr | No updates | Annual review |
|---|---|---|---|
| 35 | 3.2 | $0 | $3,310 |
| 40 | 3.0 | $18,873 | $3,310 |
| 45 | 2.5 | $31,163 | $3,310 |
| 50 | 2.0 | $43,791 | $3,310 |
| 55 | 1.5 | $52,062 | $3,310 |
At $399 a year, keeping the trust current costs less per quarter than a dental cleaning, and it keeps $552,750 out of probate as your life keeps moving.
The life-event model is a planning assumption, not a forecast: it assumes 55% of newly acquired assets stay outside an un-reviewed trust, and prices that slippage at the same statutory probate rates used above. Retirement accounts and other beneficiary-designated assets are excluded. Illustrative only; not legal, tax, or financial advice.
Thirty years of state tax, or none at all.
An irrevocable trust sitused in South Dakota pays no state income tax on what it earns. Hold the same portfolio in a typical taxing state and 5% of every year’s gain leaves, along with everything that slice would have compounded into.
- In a South Dakota trust
- Held in an average-tax state
See the numbers
| Years from today | In a South Dakota trust | Held in an average-tax state | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | $1,610,510 | $1,574,239 | $36,271 |
| 10 | $2,593,742 | $2,478,228 | $115,515 |
| 15 | $4,177,248 | $3,901,322 | $275,926 |
| 20 | $6,727,500 | $6,141,612 | $585,888 |
| 25 | $10,834,706 | $9,668,364 | $1,166,342 |
| 30 | $17,449,402 | $15,220,313 | $2,229,090 |
Assumes 10% annual growth net of federal taxes, with each year’s gain taxed at a 5% national-average state rate on investment income. That is the same model behind the figures on our home page. That average spans a wide range: California tops out near 13.3% and New York near 10.9%, while Florida, Texas and South Dakota levy nothing at all, so your own figure could be far larger than this or zero. Unlike the probate fees above, this section is not keyed to the state you selected. An irrevocable trust is a permanent decision and a different instrument from the revocable trust priced above, though Veros sets up both for $1,499. State tax treatment depends on your residence and on how the trust is administered. Illustrative only; not legal, tax, or financial advice.