Reed & Mansfield Probate Fees & Cost Savings

Our Fees are based on the gross value of real estate minus the mortgage owed. Most of our competitors fees are based on the gross value of real estate regardless of if there is a mortgage owing as that is what the statutory attorneys' fee schedule allows. (In addition, for the occasional probate which takes places years after the death, we can use historical values to lower the value of the estate and save you money.)

At Reed & Mansfield we try to be transparent and upfront about our probate fees. We have provided a guide and our fees below. If your case is more complex please contact us if you have any questions or for a free, no obligation consultation.

When you work with Reed & Mansfield you work directly with an attorney, not office staff.

Important Note: For purposes of deciding which probate (Set Aside, Summary or General) is allowed, the Court will value real estate at the gross value minus amount of mortgage owed and will accept date of death values if asked to.

(No Real Estate or Contests)

We do not provide assistance with these estates as a lawyer is typically not needed. The Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, 702-386-1070 can help you with an estate in this category if you meet their financial guidelines and the probate is in Clark County, home of Las Vegas. For more information please see Types of Probate in Nevada.

(Or Estates Under $25,000 That Hold Real Estate or a Timeshare or Involve a Trust and Pour Over Will)

For estates under $100,000. This can include real estate. Real estate is valued at its value minus any mortgage for the purpose of deciding which probate procedure can be used.

Reed & Mansfield Fee:

$2,150 (All government fees included) if no one contests the proposed distribution.
This fee includes all Nevada costs, except a real estate transfer tax, if it applies. Such included fees are up to $296.50 for the filing fee and up to $42 for recording real estate, if applicable, with the County Recorder, along with smaller court costs.

  • Exception: More than One Item of Real Estate:
    Usually if there is more than one item of real estate, the estate will have a net value over $100,000. However, occasionally we have the situation of mutliple timeshares or multiple vacant lots in rural Nevada that together are worth less than $100,000. In such a case there will be an additional charge of $100 for each additional item of vacant land and an additional charge of $200 for each additional timeshare, and if an Affidavit of Death of Joint Tenant must be filed there will be an additional charge of $200 for each Affidavit of Death of Joint Tenant that must be filed.  
  • Exception: Nye County
    $2,200 (All government fees included)
    We either have to drive to Pahrump or Tonopah for a court hearing or appear by Court Call which costs $68. Accordingly, our Set-Aside fee for Nye County is $2,168. The other counties in Nevada allow us to use regular phones to answer any Court questions, if necessary, in uncontested probates.
  • Exception: Estates over $100,000 with a Pour Over Will and a Trust:
    $3,000 Plus All Costs and 1% of assets over $300,000
    The Set-Aside Procedure for Estates of unlimited size involving a Pour Over Will and Trust is explained in the Set-Aside Without Administration section. In this case our fee is $3,000 plus 1% of assets over $300,000, plus costs which include a filing fee in the range of roughly $300-$550 depending on the size of the estate and the cost of a Notice to Creditors which depending on the County will be in the range of $70 to $300 plus recording fees of about $40 for each item of real estate transferred to a new owner during the process.
  • Note on How Long this process takes in Clark County, NV (includes Las Vegas metro area): Wait times for probate hearings in Las Vegas are in early 2024 take about 3-4 months. However, in many cases Set-Asides (estates under $100,000 or estates involving a Pour Over Will into a Trust) can be handled by stipulation and submitted to the Court for the judge to sign an agreed upon order in a process that only takes a couple/few weeks.
     

Do You Really Want to Probate a Nevada Timeshare?

If someone wants the timeshare it is worth probating. However, in many cases no one wants the timeshare, but the personal representatives or their lawyer handling the estate are worried that there might eventually be liability for non-payment of the annual maintenance fees. In such a case, especially if the timeshare is fully paid, I believe it is more economical in the long run to simply let the timeshare company foreclose on the timeshare eventually for non-payment of the annual fees. 

For more information on this type of probate please see types of Nevada probate.

Potential Additional Fees

At Reed & Mansfield we like to be transparent about possible additional fees. View a list of potential fees and their associated costs below:

If, for example, Mom and Dad owned the property as joint tenants, and Dad died first and nothing was done to clean up title and then Mom dies, it will be necessary to file an Affidavit of Death of Joint Tenant to transfer Dad's half to Mom's estate and then to do the probate on Mom's estate. We charge $200 for each Affidavit of Death of Joint Tenants and this includes the County Recorder's $42 filing fee.

If there is more than 1 parcel of real estate there is a $200 charge per additional parcel.

A $10 additional charge is applied per person / entity unless the client obtains from these additional people a re-assignment of their interest and waiver of notice which we will write up. People who must be given notice include those people named as beneficiaries in the will if there is a will and all people who would inherit in the absence of a will even if there is a will.

If a minor (person under 18) is to inherit money this makes matters more complicated and there may be an additional charge. Contact us for details.

In the vast majority of set aside probates, no publication is required. The only reason a publication would be required in a probate set aside would be if a person dies without a will and all of the people who inherit in the absence of a will cannot be located (so that they can be given notice of the proceeding by regular mail) or if the person dies with a will but one or more will beneficiary cannot be located so as to be given notice by regular mail. In these case, we will expect our client to pay in addition to the flat fee the cost of publication.

In Clark County, Nevada, which includes Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, and Boulder City, publication costs only $70.

For more information on Set Aside Without Administration view Types of Nevada Probate.

Money Saving Tips & Specific Circumstances

Occasionally a husband dies with a house, possibly the marital home, titled only in the husband's name. Now a probate will be necessary to transfer title to the surviving wife (and possibly children). Nevada is a community property state and we may be able to argue that the house is community property in which case even though the house is only in the husband's name, the wife already owns half and therefore we reduce the value of the probate estate which saves money.

Nevada law allows the probate court to defeat the claims of most unsecured creditors or heirs in order to provide support for minor children or widows or widowers. For example, if a man died owing huge hospital and doctor bills, but had a small bank account in his name only, and left a wife, we would ask the court to allow the wife to have his bank account rather than the hospital and doctors. In our experience Nevada courts automatically prefer the surviving spouse or minor children over creditors if the estate is worth not more than $100,000, even without showing that the surviving spouse or the minor children need the money. (But, ironically, if the estate is worth $100,001 or more, then the preference for the surviving spouse or minor children disappears.)

Advance Payment In Full is Required For a Set Aside Without Administration procedure.

Why?
For the Set Aside Without Administration, we file a Petition and hopefully about 2 months later we get a court order transferring all of the property. If the order involves the transfer of real estate, we record the order and give the recorded order to our client; if the transfer involves financial accounts, we get certified copies of the order and give them to our client. This completes our work. For the $2000 fee which is very low, we do not want the accounting bother of not being able to close our file until we get the rest of our fee. If the client wants the fee and costs to come out of a financial account being collected, we will consider doing the extra work of providing that the court order place the financial account in our trust account and then we will disburse the funds but we will charge an extra $200 for doing this.

This is intermediate in complexity as compared to the under $100,000 case and the over $300,000 case.

Reed & Mansfield Fee:

Note: In most cases we will advance all costs and you will not have to pay anything out of pocket until the probate is finished. Call to discuss.

$4,000 + 2% any amount over $100,000*

*If the case is uncontested and there are no unusual complications, our fee will be $4,000 and 2% of any amount over $100,000 without regard to debts of the estate except that the value of real estate is reduced by any mortgage, something most probate attorneys will NOT do. Also, most probate attorneys charge 3% on the second $100,000 of estate value whereas we only charge 2%.

We will explore every possibility to see if we can legally get the value of the estate under $100,000 to use the cheaper Set Aside Without Administration Proceeding. Costs are additional.

Note on How Long this process takes in Clark County, NV (includes Las Vegas metro area): Wait times for probate hearings in Las Vegas are in early 2024 take about 3-4 months. However, in many cases the initial Petition for Summary Administration (estates under $300,000 or estates involving a Pour Over Will into a Trust) can be handled by stipulation and submitted to the Court for the judge to sign an agreed upon order in a process that only takes a couple/few weeks.

 

Potential Additional Costs

At Reed Mansfield we appreciate when people are upfront about potential fees and we like to extend the same courtesy. Please view the potential additional fees below.

The Clark County filing fee is:

  • $296 for estates over $20,000 and under $300,000

Expect $70 in publication costs in Clark County, more in other counties (if the law requires that we give notice to people who addresses you do not know, there will be a second publication fee).

If the probate is in Clark County (which includes the greater Las Vegas area) e-filing fees are typically about $20.

It is typically $18 to file a will and about $80 for two filings concerning each item of real estate.

If real estate in Nevada is owned, for example, by Mom and Dad as joint tenants and Dad died first and his name was never taken off the title and then you hire us to do the probate we will charge an additional $200 to get Dad's name of the title. This will apply to each item of real we have to do this for. The $200 fee includes the $42 filing fee for the County Recorder.

If a minor (person under 18) is to inherit, we may increase the fee--talk to us about that. Please contact us for more information.

In the typical summary administration case, assets are collected and when all the assets are collected and liability is determined, then we petition the Court for a Final Distribution.

It occasionally happens that through no one's fault it takes a really long time to do everything necessary to close the estate. In such a case, we petition the Court for a Partial Distribution of assets, and then go back in the end and Petition for a Final Distribution. We reserve the right to charge $1,000 for each Partial Distribution. We will typically not charge this fee if the total probate fee is $5,000 or larger.

Money Savings With Reed & Mansfield

  • Our fee is calculated on the value of real estate minus the mortgage
    For example, if the estate consists only of a house worth $310,000 with a $200,000 mortgage, we  would charge $4,200 as a fee but the lawyer working for the statutory lawyer's fee would charge $9,200.
  • Or even better, if the estate consists only of a house worth $310,000 with a $210,000 mortgage, we could handle it as a Set-Aside Without Administration for total fees and costs of $2,100 but a lawyer working for the statututory fee would charge $9,200 plus costs of about $450.
  • Out of State Administrator
    In this proceeding, if the administrator is out of state there will have to be a Nevada co-administrator. (If there is a Will, the Will appoints an Executor and the Executor, even if resident outside of Nevada, can serve w/o a Nevada resident Co-Executor. But if there is no Will, then the person handling the estate is an Administrator and if that person, usually a family member, is not resident in Nevada, he or she will have to work with a Nevada resident Co-Administrator.) If desired, we can find a local person to be the Nevada resident Co-Administrator if the out of state administrator is willing to do the typical work of an Administrator. We would typically expect you to pay such person $500. Some other lawyers will appoint a friend as Nevada resident Co-Administrator for a very large fee. See Executor, Administrator & Personal Representative for typical fees.

View more information and additional money saving tips view Summary Administration on our Types of Nevada probate page.

This is a fairly complex procedure with a number of expenses. Most attorneys charge by the hour for an estate in this category. We realize that the idea of hourly billing is scary to most people who worry that that hourly billing encourages slow work. We will be happy to discuss a flat rate for this category of probate.

Determining A Flat Rate

To give you a flat rate we would have to discuss with you all of the estate assets, the heirs, the creditors, etc. Our flat rate would be good assuming that there were no will contests or contests with creditors etc.

Note: In most cases we will advance all costs and you will not have to pay anything out of pocket until the probate is finished. Call to discuss.

Our flat rate is generally calculated based on the following:

  • $4,000 for the first $100,000 of the estate
  • and 2% of the estate over that for the next $900,000
  • and then 1/2% for any value over of the estate over $1,000,000

without regard to debts of the estate except that the value of real estate is reduced by any mortgage. This rate is less than the statutory attorneys' fee set forth in N.R.S. 150.060(4) and can be dramatically less because under N.R.S. 150.060(6) the statutory attorneys' fee is based on the full value real estate even if there is a big mortgage.

Example Fee Scenario

For example, assume the estate consists only of an $800,000 house with a $500,000 mortgage.

Reed & Mansfield Fee:

The fee we would charge you would be $4,000 plus $4000 or $8,000*.

Statutory Attorney's Fee:

The statutory attorney's fee would be $19,000* based on $800,000.

*Neither of these two fees includes costs of about $800.

Again, we believe based on the foregoing we can truthfully claim we are affordable, discount, low-cost, high quality probate attorneys. (Note: For both Summary and General Administration, our fee is $4,000 for the first $100,000, and 2% on the balance.)

Additional Expenses May Include:

The following is a list of potential expenses that you may incur (this is may not be an exhaustive list). Please contact us with any questions.

  • $557 filing fee in Clark County and roughly the same in other Nevada Counties.

  • $140-$160 In Publication fees in Clark County (home to Las Vegas), but often higher in other counties.
  • Additional E-Filing Fees of about $35 give or take if the probate is in Clark County which includes the greater Las Vegas area.

Because of the expense of probate we recommend the use of a trust rather than a will for estate planning. Notably, we currently offer a trust package for only $950, please call the number below for details if you are interested.

For more information on General Administration including an anticipated timeframe please see Types of Nevada Probate.

Note About Fees

The fees quoted here are fees for uncontested probates and probates in which we are not seeking to defeat Creditors' Claims. If the probate is contested or if you want to defeat creditors' claims such as money due on mortgages etc., or if the personal representative will not be able to secure the cooperation of all Will Beneficiaries or Heirs, please contact us to discuss the details and we can provide a price.