What Does Estate Planning Cost in Arkansas?

Major life events like marriage, divorce, or having a child often require updating your estate plan. Some providers require purchasing an entirely new plan, while others offer amendments. Attorney amendments in Arkansas typically cost $1,156 to $2,312 for major changes.

Online services have lower upfront costs ($30-$600) compared to attorneys in Arkansas (around $289/hour for trusts). However, total lifetime cost depends on subscription fees, amendment charges, and how often life events require updates. This calculator compares the full cost across providers.

Many online estate planning services charge annual subscription fees ranging from $0 to $240/year. These subscriptions may include document access, minor amendments, or attorney consultations depending on the provider and tier.

Trusts cost more upfront than wills but can save money long-term by avoiding probate. In Arkansas, an attorney-prepared trust typically costs $2,890 to $4,335, while a will costs $942 to $1,884. Wills require probate, which adds about $28,415 in costs for heirs on a $500,000 estate. See a detailed breakdown with the Arkansas trust cost calculator.

Probate on a $500,000 estate in Arkansas costs about $28,415 — roughly 6% of estate value — including attorney fees, executor fees, court costs, and publication costs.Ark. Code §§ 28-48-108(a) (executor compensation — just and reasonable, capped at 10% first $1K / 5% next $4K / 3% balance of personal property fully administered), 28-48-108(d)(2)-(3) (attorney fee schedule — 6-tier, 5% to 2%, on total market value reportable in circuit court; court adjusts if excessive or insufficient), 28-41-101 (small estate affidavit — $100K / 45 days / real property counts toward the cap / homestead and statutory allowances excluded), 28-50-101 (creditor claims — 6 months from first publication; (h) 2 years from first publication for known or reasonably ascertainable creditors; (d) 5-year absolute bar), 28-48-201 (bond — court "may require"; mandatory on written demand under (b)(1)), 28-48-206 (court may increase, decrease, or dispense with bond for good cause), 28-40-111(a)(1)(A) (mandatory publication of notice of appointment), 28-1-112 (notice requirements), 28-40-119 (court admits will and grants letters), 28-1-106 (probate referee and clerk), 28-52-103(a) (PR must file verified accounts with the court), 28-49-110 (PR-prepared inventory). Bond sections rewritten by Act 326 of 2023 (HB1448, 94th GA): § 28-48-201 "shall take" stricken and "may require" added, § 28-48-203 (sureties) repealed, and § 28-48-206's will-direction / FDIC-fiduciary / distributee-waiver dispensations stricken. Verified 2026-07-14. The official Arkansas Code (lexisnexis.com/hottopics/arcode/) is JS/Lexis-walled, so every section above was read from the codified "Arkansas Code of 1987 (2024)" edition on law.justia.com (e.g. law.justia.com/codes/arkansas/title-28/subtitle-4/chapter-48/subchapter-2/section-28-48-206/), cross-checked against the enacted Act 326 of 2023 PDF from the official source (arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPDocument?path=%2FACTS%2F2023R%2FPublic%2FACT326.pdf). Because act PDFs render stricken text identically to enacted text, every Act 326 change above was confirmed against the codified section, not the act alone. CURRENCY (2026-07-14): no act of any session enacted after the codified edition's currency date amends any cited section. Confirmed two ways against the Legislature's own site: (1) arkleg's official "Code Sections Amended" index for Title 28 (arkleg.state.ar.us/Acts/CodeSectionsAmended) for the 2024 Fiscal, 2024 Second Extraordinary, 2025 Regular, 2026 Fiscal, and 2026 First Extraordinary sessions — the only 2025 Title 28 amendments are ch. 65 guardianship (Acts 713, 518, 315), § 28-8-102 / §§ 28-40-110(c), -112, -121 (Act 692, missing-person legal-death procedure), §§ 28-69-802/-803 (Act 308), and new ch. 78 Uniform Trust Decanting Act (Act 680); (2) a full-text scan of every enacted public act of all five of those sessions (1,026 acts in 2025R plus 177 + 6 + 175 + 3) downloaded from arkleg and converted with pdftotext — the strings 28-48-108, 28-48-201, 28-48-206, 28-50-101, 28-40-111, 28-40-119, 28-1-106, 28-52-103, and 28-41-101 appear in exactly one act (Act 713 of 2025), and there only as a cross-reference to § 28-48-201 et seq. inside the guardian-bond section § 28-65-215(d), not as an amendment.Verified Jul 14, 2026 Estates with a trust can bypass probate entirely, potentially saving heirs thousands of dollars. Estimate probate fees with the Arkansas probate calculator.