Premium Tool
Probate Cost & Timeline Estimator
for your state’s rules.
Enter your state and what your estate is worth. The tool checks your state's small-estate threshold, tells you whether full probate likely applies, and shows the typical timeline and cost. Once you have Premium, your work saves in this browser first and syncs to your account.
What’s included
- Your state's small-estate threshold and whether your estate clears it
- The simplified procedure that may replace full probate, with the statute behind it
- Typical timeline and cost figures for formal probate in your state
- A Probate Snapshot to download as PDF or Word, print, or copy
A planning estimate from your state's published thresholds, not legal advice.
The short answer
Probate cost and time depend on your state. The cost turns on court fees, whether attorney involvement is customary there, and the estate's size; the timeline turns on the court's calendar and how fast the paperwork comes together. Full administration commonly runs months. Small-estate procedures, where the estate qualifies, run far shorter. The estimator on this page applies your state's actual rules to both.
Reviewed August 2026 · Fees, forms, and timelines are set state by state. · Sources: Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute
Check whether you need probate at all →Probate, explained in plain words →
About this tool
What Probate Cost & Timeline Estimator helps you do
Compare the details you enter with MORTL's dated state threshold, cost, and timeline information for a preliminary estimate. Confirm current court rules before acting. Probate isn’t one thing. Some estates skip it, some get a short form, some take a year. See which one you’re looking at. Court procedure changes, so confirm the current rules before you file anything or hand anything out.
Confirm your state rules →