Cedar & Vale Estate Law is a demonstration build by Orabeam. The firm is fictional; no attorney–client relationship is created here. Every statute, court fee and statistic on this page is real and cited.
Texas has one of the cheapest, fastest probate systems in the country. For a lot of estates here, a properly drafted will costs less over a lifetime than the trust someone tried to sell you. Run your own numbers below — the calculator will say so when that’s the answer.
Free to use · Nothing to submit · Every figure traceable to a statute or a published fee schedule
Where these numbers come from
These are industry and government figures, not client results. Cedar & Vale is a demonstration firm and has no clients, no case history and no outcomes to report.
Roughly 95% of Texas estates qualify for independent administration under Tex. Est. Code § 401.001 — the court appoints the executor, and then largely gets out of the way. No annual accountings, no court approval for ordinary transactions, no surety bond when the will waives it. It is the reason Texas probate costs a fraction of what probate costs in California or Florida, and the reason the national scare statistics about probate do not transfer here.
“Avoid probate” is a national marketing slogan that happens to be poor advice in Texas roughly as often as it is good advice.
If your will names an independent executor, you get § 401.001 treatment. Without a will, the court must first determine your heirs under chapter 202 and appoint an attorney ad litem for unknown heirs — Travis County requires a $525 ad litem deposit at filing. Independent administration is still available under § 401.003, but only if every distributee agrees.
Land held in your own name outside Texas has to be probated again, in that state, with local counsel. This is the single largest avoidable cost in most estates — and it is the case where a trust nearly always pays for itself. The calculator prices it explicitly.
Section 352.002 permits 5% of cash received and 5% of cash paid out, capped at 5% of the gross estate. Cash on hand at death and cash paid to beneficiaries are excluded from the base under § 352.002(b), so the real figure is usually well below the cap — and family members serving as executor frequently waive it entirely. The calculator makes it a toggle rather than assuming the worst case.
Adjust the inputs. Both columns update instantly, itemised, with the authority for each line. Nothing is sent anywhere — the whole model runs in your browser, and you can inspect it in the console at window.CVEstate.model.
Flat fees, quoted in writing before any work starts. The ranges below are typical Travis County market bands from published sources — this demonstration firm has no fee schedule of its own to publish.
For most Texas families with in-state assets, this is the right answer — provided the will names an independent executor and waives bond. That one clause is worth more than most trusts.
Right when there’s real property outside Texas, when privacy genuinely matters, or when incapacity planning is the real concern. We will tell you when it isn’t right — and the calculator above already does.
Someone has died and the work has to be done. Independent administration where it’s available, muniment of title where the estate qualifies, heirship determination where there was no will.
Fee-band sourcing
What you own, where it is, who you want to receive it, and who you trust to be in charge. Most of this call is us listening. If your situation doesn’t need us, we say so on that call rather than after you’ve paid.
One number, in writing, covering the whole engagement. No hourly billing on a planning matter, no surprise line items, no charge for the phone calls in between.
Drafts to review with plain-English annotations explaining what each document does. Signing happens with a notary and witnesses present — a self-proving affidavit is what lets your will be probated without dragging your witnesses into court years later.
An unfunded trust avoids nothing. Deeds get prepared and recorded, accounts get retitled, beneficiary designations get checked against the plan. This step is included, not sold separately.
Often, no. Texas independent administration under § 401.001 is inexpensive and fast enough that a trust frequently costs more over a lifetime than it saves. The clear exceptions: real property in another state, a genuine need for privacy, blended-family structures, or planning for incapacity rather than death. Run the calculator above — it will tell you which side of that line you’re on.
Your property passes under the intestacy rules in the Estates Code, which may not match what you would have chosen — particularly in blended families and for community property. Before anything can be distributed, the court has to determine who your heirs are under chapter 202, which means an attorney ad litem appointed to represent unknown heirs and a $525 ad litem deposit in Travis County. It is slower and more expensive than the will it replaces.
An independent administration is typically 6–12 months, and 4–8 months for a simple estate. A dependent, court-supervised administration — the path when there is no will and the distributees don’t all agree — can run for years, with court approval required for essentially every transaction and mandatory annual accountings.
From the Travis County Clerk’s published schedule, current for 2026: $360 to file an application to probate a will and issue letters testamentary; $2 for issuance of the letters; $360 for a muniment of title or a small estate affidavit; $525 deposit for an attorney ad litem where one is required; $5 per certified copy. Constable fees for service of citation are added on top and are not itemised publicly.
Sometimes — and the honest failure mode is worth knowing. Online wills routinely omit the independent-executor appointment and the bond waiver. Both are single clauses. Without them, an estate that would have qualified for § 401.001 treatment can fall into dependent administration, where the attorney fee roughly triples and a surety bond premium is payable every year the estate stays open. The $200 will can cost several thousand dollars later.
No — and here the demonstration has to be straight with you. Cedar & Vale is a demonstration firm built by Orabeam to show what a real one’s site would look like. It has no clients, no case history and no reviews. Rather than invent testimonials, those sections are left out entirely. Real firm data goes here at build
No charge, no obligation, and no pitch for a product you don’t need. If the calculator already answered your question, say so on the call and we’ll keep it short.
Takes under a minute. We’ll come back with two or three times that work.