Estate Planning · Probate · Elder Law
Your affairs,
in order.
Flat-fee estate planning from attorneys who have settled a thousand Virginia estates. Fees published below, as they have been since 2015.
Or telephone the office: (804) 555-0158
Thirty minutes, by telephone or in person, at no charge — and you leave with a fixed fee in writing.
1,000+
Virginia estates settled
40+
combined years at the trusts bar
2015
fees published continuously since
4.9
Google rating across 187 reviews
Practice
Six things, done exactly.
We do not handle divorces, car accidents, or criminal matters. We plan estates and settle them — narrowly, deliberately, and at fees you can read before you call.
Wills & Revocable Trusts
A will or revocable living trust, drafted for Virginia law and actually funded — because a trust that never received your assets is an expensive stack of paper.
Flat fee from $1,200 individual · $1,950 couple02Probate & Estate Administration
We handle the court, you handle the family. Qualification, inventory, the Commissioner of Accounts, creditor claims, and the final accounting — carried, not just supervised.
From $3,500 · scoped in writing at the first meeting03Powers of Attorney & Advance Directives
The two documents every Virginia adult should have signed by Friday: a durable power of attorney a bank will actually honor, and an advance medical directive your family can actually follow.
Flat fee from $35004Elder Law & Incapacity Planning
Planning for the years that need a plan most: long-term care costs, Medicaid's five-year look-back, and keeping a person's dignity intact while their independence changes.
From $1,500 · scoped after the first family meeting05Special-Needs Trusts
Providing for a child or family member with a disability — without disqualifying them from the SSI and Medicaid benefits their care depends on.
From $2,400 · first-party and third-party trusts06Business Succession Planning
Getting a family business from one generation to the next — or to a worthy buyer — without the transition becoming the estate fight your competitors read about.
From $2,800 · coordinated with your CPA“Most estate plans fail at the funding stage. Ours don’t — because we do the retitling with you.”
— Eleanor Merritt, on why the firm’s trust fee includes the deed
Schedule of Fees
Published continuously since 2015
Quoted in writing before work begins. No engagement has ever been billed above its quote.
- Introductory consultationNo charge
thirty minutes, by telephone or in person
- Will package — individual$1,200
will, power of attorney, advance directive
- Will package — married couple$1,950
reciprocal plans, both spouses
- Revocable trust package — individual$2,950
trust, pour-over will, deed & funding
- Revocable trust package — married couple$3,950
joint or separate trusts as suited
- Powers of attorney & advance directive$350
standalone, per person
- Probate & estate administrationfrom $3,500
scoped in writing at the first meeting
- Elder law & incapacity planningfrom $1,500
following the family meeting
- Special-needs trustfrom $2,400
third-party; first-party quoted on facts
- Business succession planfrom $2,800
coordinated with your CPA
- 1.Fees are flat and quoted in writing before any work begins; they include drafting, revisions, execution, and the telephone calls in between. No engagement has ever been billed above its quote.
- 2.Contested or court-supervised matters that cannot responsibly be flat-fee'd are billed at $375 per hour (Ms. Merritt) or $325 per hour (Ms. Bell), estimated in advance and reconciled monthly.
- 3.This schedule has been published continuously since 2015. Prior clients are grandfathered at the schedule in force at their engagement for reviews and updates.
Unusual for the profession, we know. Schedule the free half hour and hear which line applies to you.
Process
Four meetings, in plain English, and it is done.
I.
The introductory call
Thirty minutes, no charge, no intake questionnaire the length of a mortgage application. You describe the situation; we tell you honestly whether you need us, which documents fit, and exactly what the fee will be. Some callers learn they need an hour of guidance, not an engagement; we tell them that, too.
II.
The design meeting
The real conversation: family, assets, intentions, and the questions you have been putting off. Sixty to ninety minutes at the Franklin Street office or by video. You will not sign anything at this meeting; decisions made slowly tend to be decisions made once.
III.
Drafts, in plain English
Complete documents with a summary letter that says what each one does in words your family could read aloud. Take two weeks if you need them. Call with questions; the calls are included, and Dana answers on the second ring.
IV.
Signing — and the last mile
Execution with witnesses and notary, done properly. Then the part most firms skip: deeds recorded, accounts retitled, designations confirmed in writing. Your plan is finished when the funding is finished, and we say so in a closing letter.
Counsel
Two attorneys. No associates to train on your file.
Eleanor Merritt
Partner — wills, trusts & tax
Twenty-five years of trusts and estates practice in Richmond: long enough to have drafted wills for three generations of the same family, and to know the document is the easy part. The hard part is the conversation, and she is good at those.
Full biography
Joanna Bell
Partner — probate & estate administration
Twelve years as a bank estate and trust officer before she ever drafted a plan of her own. It made her a particular kind of planner: one who drafts for the person who will actually have to carry the plan out.
Full biographyCorrespondence
What clients put in writing.
“We put this off for eleven years because we expected to be sold something. Instead Ms. Merritt told us halfway through the first meeting that we did not need the more expensive option we came in asking for. The fee on the website was the fee on the invoice.”
Margaret C.
Bon Air · Revocable trust package
“When my brother died without a will, I was named administrator of an estate I did not understand. Joanna Bell walked me through qualification at John Marshall like she had done it a thousand times, which I gather she has. I did the grieving; she did the rest.”
Rev. James H.
Church Hill, Richmond · Estate administration
“I am an engineer and I read everything, which has annoyed previous lawyers. Merritt & Bell sent drafts so clear I almost did not need my highlighter, and answered fourteen emailed questions without once mentioning additional fees. The signing took forty minutes.”
Priya S.
Glen Allen · Wills & POA package
4.9 stars across 187 Google reviews. Reviews describe particular engagements; results vary with facts.
Where we practice
Richmond, and an hour's drive around it.
One office on Franklin Street; ten localities where we qualify executors, record deeds, and make house calls. If your courthouse is on this list, we know its clerk's counter.
About each communityWhy do you publish your fees? No other firm around here does.
Because the number-one reason people avoid estate planning is fear of an unknowable bill, and we would rather remove the fear than profit from it. Publishing the schedule keeps us honest, saves everyone an awkward first conversation, and, candidly, brings us clients other firms lose in the lobby. It has been on the website since 2015 and no engagement has ever been billed above its quote.
What happens at the free introductory call?
Thirty minutes by telephone or in person. You describe your situation in ordinary words; we tell you which documents fit, what the flat fee would be, and whether you need a lawyer at all — some callers need an hour of guidance or a beneficiary form, not an engagement, and we say so. No pressure, no follow-up sequence, no 'do you have a moment to decide today.'
What happens if I die without a will in Virginia?
Virginia's intestacy statutes decide for you. Married with children from your current marriage only: everything to your spouse. Children from a prior relationship: your spouse takes one-third, your children two-thirds: a result that surprises nearly everyone it happens to. An administrator must qualify with a bond, no guardian nomination exists for minor children, and the Commissioner of Accounts process runs at full formality. The statute is a plan; it is simply nobody's plan.
Will my family avoid probate if I have a trust?
If the trust is funded, yes, for everything the trust holds, and 'if' is the operative word. A trust only avoids probate for assets actually retitled into it, which is why our trust fee includes the deed, the retitling, and written confirmation of every designation. A beautiful unfunded trust is the most common expensive failure in this field. Ours are funded before we close the file.
Put your affairs in order this season.
Thirty minutes on the telephone, no charge, and you will know exactly which documents you need and exactly what they cost. That is the whole commitment.
Or telephone the office: (804) 555-0158