The cost to make a will in Florida ranges from under $100 using an online service to roughly $300 to $1,000 for an attorney-drafted will covering a straightforward estate. A full estate plan that bundles a will with a trust, powers of attorney, and health care directives generally runs $2,000 to $5,000, and highly complex situations can reach $10,000 or more. What you should spend depends less on your budget than on your family and assets: Florida has execution rules and homestead restrictions that quietly invalidate a lot of cheap wills.
DIY and Online Wills
Free templates and basic will-creation software are the cheapest route, often under $50. Guided online will platforms sit in the $50 to $250 range and walk you through a questionnaire that produces a state-compliant document.
Watch the billing model. Some services charge a one-time flat fee for a finished will. Others sell a subscription so you can update the document later, typically $19 to $30 per year, and a few charge $20 a month or more for add-on attorney access. Before paying, confirm whether you are buying a document or signing up for a recurring charge.
The real cost of a DIY will in Florida is not the price. It is the risk that the document fails when it matters. Florida does not recognize handwritten (holographic) wills executed by its residents without witnesses, so a signed document sitting in a drawer without the right witnesses is worthless.1Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes Title XLII Probate 732.502 – Execution of Wills
Attorney-Drafted Wills
A Florida attorney will typically charge $300 to $1,000 to draft a will for a straightforward estate: a single person or married couple with one home, standard bank and retirement accounts, and clear beneficiaries.
Fees climb once the picture gets more complicated. Blended families, business ownership, rental properties, or the need for a trust push the range to $1,500 to $3,000. A comprehensive estate plan that pairs a will with a revocable living trust, durable power of attorney, health care surrogate designation, and living will generally lands in the $2,000 to $5,000 bracket. Highly complex estates can run $10,000 or more.
Most Florida attorneys use a flat fee for will drafting. You agree on the price upfront, and it covers the consultation, drafting, revisions, and the execution ceremony. Hourly billing is more common for open-ended work like business succession planning or multi-generational trusts. When comparing quotes, ask directly whether the fee is for the will alone or includes the supporting documents most people also want.
What the Attorney Fee Covers
A flat fee for a will usually includes an initial consultation about your family and goals, drafting the will, one or two rounds of revisions, and supervising the signing so the witness and notary requirements are met. Many attorneys also flag related issues during the process, such as whether asset titling or beneficiary designations need adjusting.
Additional documents like a trust or a business succession plan almost always carry a separate fee unless you negotiated a bundle. Ask before the first meeting so the final invoice does not surprise you.
What Florida Requires for a Valid Will
Paying for a will only pays off if the will is properly executed. Florida is specific, and an improperly signed will gets treated the same as no will at all.
Signing and Witnesses
You must sign the will, or acknowledge a previous signature, in the presence of at least two attesting witnesses. Both witnesses then sign the will while you and the other witness are present.1Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes Title XLII Probate 732.502 – Execution of Wills All three of you need to be in the same room at the same time. If a witness steps out and signs later, the execution is defective. Witnesses do not have to be attorneys, but they should be adults who are not named as beneficiaries.
Self-Proving Affidavit
The self-proving affidavit is optional and worth adding. It is a sworn statement signed by you and the witnesses before a notary confirming that everyone followed the execution steps.2Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes Title XLII Probate 732.503 – Self-Proof of Will Without it, the court may have to track down your witnesses after you die to authenticate the will. With it, the will goes straight into probate. Florida caps notary fees at $10 per notarial act, so this addition costs almost nothing.3Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes Title IX 117.05 – Use of Notary Commission
Homestead: Where Cheap Wills Break
Under Florida law, you cannot freely leave your homestead property to whoever you choose if you are survived by a spouse or a minor child. If minor children survive you, the homestead cannot be devised at all. If only a spouse survives, you can leave the homestead to that spouse but no one else.4Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes Title XLII Probate 732.4015 – Devise of Homestead
A template that tries to leave the family home to someone else while a spouse or minor children exist is invalid on that point, and the property passes under Florida’s default rules instead of your wishes. If your plan involves your home and you have a spouse or minor children, this is one of the strongest reasons to spend for attorney guidance rather than relying on software.
Updates and Codicils Later
A will is not a one-time purchase. Marriage, divorce, a new child, a big change in assets, or a move to Florida from another state are all reasons to revisit the document. Small changes can go through a codicil, which is a formal amendment that must meet the same execution requirements as the original, including two witnesses and ideally a self-proving affidavit.2Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes Title XLII Probate 732.503 – Self-Proof of Will
Attorney fees for revisions or a codicil generally run $100 to $400, depending on the scope of the change. For major life events like a divorce or adding a trust, most attorneys will recommend a new will rather than patching the old one, because a new will explicitly revokes the prior version and removes any question about which document controls.
What Skipping the Will Costs
Dying without a valid will in Florida triggers intestate succession. The state decides who inherits, using a fixed formula that ignores unmarried partners, stepchildren, and close friends entirely.5Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes Title XLII Probate 732.101 – Intestate Estate Even for a surviving spouse, the outcome shifts sharply when either partner has children from a prior relationship: the spouse takes only half instead of the whole estate.6Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes Title XLII Probate 732.102 – Spouse’s Share of Intestate Estate
Probate itself is also expensive. Florida sets presumptively reasonable attorney fees for probate based on the value of the estate:
- $40,000 or less: $1,500
- $40,001 to $70,000: $2,250
- $70,001 to $100,000: $3,000
- $100,001 to $1 million: $3,000 plus 3% of the value above $100,000
On a $500,000 estate that produces $15,000 in attorney fees alone, before personal representative compensation, court costs, or any fees generated by disputes among heirs.7Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes Title XLII Probate 733.6171 – Compensation of Attorney for the Personal Representative Against that, a few hundred dollars for a properly executed will is one of the clearest bargains in estate planning.