How Do I Prepare to Meet an Estates Lawyer?

What Actually Happens in a First Estates Consultation

A first meeting with an estates lawyer runs 30 to 90 minutes and follows a predictable arc: your goal, your family and asset picture, the legal issues the lawyer spots, and then fees and next steps. The single biggest determinant of value is preparation. A client who arrives with an asset list, a family tree with full legal names, prior wills, and provisional answers to the core decisions can often complete a will instruction meeting in one sitting; an unprepared client pays for the same hour and leaves with homework. Many firms in both Canada and the US offer free or reduced-fee initial consultations for probate and dispute matters, while planning consultations are commonly folded into a flat package fee.

The agenda differs by purpose. Will-package meetings are decision meetings: executor, guardians, beneficiary splits, and whether trusts are needed. Probate meetings are paperwork meetings: original will, death certificate, and date-of-death values drive everything. Dispute consultations are merit assessments: grounds, evidence, deadlines, and cost-benefit. Executor-guidance meetings are scoping meetings: full administration versus limited help. Knowing which meeting you're walking into — and preparing for that meeting specifically — is the whole game.

What Estates Lawyers Charge in Canada and the US

Estate planning is the flat-fee corner of law. Simple will packages (will, power of attorney or financial durable power, and health directive) commonly run a few hundred dollars per person to roughly $1,000–$3,000 for a couple, rising with trusts, business interests, or blended-family structures. Probate and estate administration are usually billed hourly (often $250–$600+ depending on market and seniority) or as a quoted fee; a few US states permit statutory percentage fees for probate work, and Canadian courts allow executor compensation — distinct from legal fees — often benchmarked around a percentage of estate value. Estate administration legal fees are normally paid from the estate itself, not by the executor personally.

Contingency fees are rare in estates work: they appear occasionally in dependant-relief or will-challenge claims with clear financial recovery, but most estate litigation is billed hourly with a retainer. Whatever the model, get it in writing. A proper retainer letter states the scope of work, the fee basis, the retainer amount, and who does the work — and asking for it is not rude, it is standard. If a firm cannot explain its fee structure clearly in the first meeting, that is itself useful information.

Decisions to Make Before the Meeting — and Signing Rules to Ask About

Three decisions belong to you alone, and making them (even provisionally) before the meeting is the highest-leverage preparation possible: who will be your executor and backup executor; who should be guardian of any minor children; and how the estate should be divided among beneficiaries. Lawyers add enormous value on the trade-offs — whether a chosen executor can realistically handle the job, whether a beneficiary needs a trust rather than an outright gift — but they cannot make the choices, and undecided clients pay for decision-making time at legal rates. Add a ranked question list: first consultations run out of time before they run out of questions.

Finally, ask about execution logistics. The pandemic permanently changed signing rules: Ontario, British Columbia, and several other Canadian provinces now permanently allow remote witnessing of wills by video (typically requiring a lawyer or licensee as a witness), and a growing group of US states — including electronic-will adopters under the Uniform Electronic Wills Act — permit electronic or remotely witnessed wills, while many states still require traditional in-person witnessing by two witnesses. Whether your documents can be signed over video or must be executed in the office affects scheduling, travel, and how quickly the plan becomes legally effective, so confirm your jurisdiction's rules at the first meeting.

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