The Estate Planning Guide Est. 2026

Estate Planning by State: Find Your State's Guide

By The Estate Planning Guide Editorial Team Researched against primary sources

Published June 30, 2026 4 min read

Quick answer

Estate planning is mostly governed by state law, so the right answer genuinely changes depending on where you live — probate can be cheap in one state and cost tens of thousands in another, wills have different signing rules, and some states have their own estate tax while most don't. This page collects our state-specific guides. They are built one state at a time, starting with the four largest: California (statutory probate fees set on gross estate value), Texas (independent administration, no statutory attorney fee percentage), Florida (constitutional homestead rules), and New York (Surrogate's Court fee schedule). Pick your state below for cost figures, statutes, and citations.

Educational guides — not legal advice. Estate law varies by state and changes. Confirm details with a licensed attorney in your state.

Why your state matters so much

Estate planning is mostly state law, and the differences are bigger than most people expect:

  • Probate cost can run from a few thousand dollars (Texas) to tens of thousands (California, New York) for the same size estate.
  • Wills have different signing rules — some states accept handwritten wills, others don’t; some use notarized self-proving affidavits, others don’t.
  • Taxes vary — most states have no estate or inheritance tax, but a handful (like New York) do.
  • Probate-avoidance tools differ — some states have transfer-on-death deeds, others use Lady Bird deeds or rely on trusts.

That’s why generic advice only gets you so far. Below are our state-specific guides, written for where you actually live.

Build-now states

We’re starting with the four largest states, each with a full cluster of guides.

California

California sets probate compensation by statute and computes it on the gross value of the estate before deduction of encumbrances (Cal. Prob. Code §10810), on both the attorney and the executor scale. A funded trust removes the assets retitled into it from that computation.

Texas

Texas has one of the cheapest probate systems in the country thanks to independent administration — so, unlike California, most Texans don’t need a trust at all.

Florida

Florida’s constitutional homestead protection shapes everything — it can even override your will — and the state has no income or estate tax.

New York

New York probate runs through Surrogate’s Court with statutory executor commissions plus attorney fees — expensive enough that many New Yorkers use a living trust. It also has its own estate tax.

Georgia

Georgia has no state death tax and moderately priced probate, plus a distinctive Year’s Support rule that can move estate property to a surviving spouse or minor children ahead of creditors — often without full administration.

North Carolina

North Carolina has no state death tax, but probate runs through the Clerk of Superior Court with an unusual 0.4% court cost on the gross estate (capped at $6,000). It’s also one of the states that recognizes handwritten wills.

Arizona

Arizona is one of the easiest states to plan in — no state death tax, cheap informal probate, and a beneficiary deed plus high small-estate limits that let many families skip probate without a trust. It’s also a community-property state.

Michigan

Michigan has no state death tax, but every probate estate pays a mandatory inventory fee scaled to its value. Michigan is the classic Lady Bird deed state — an enhanced life estate deed that passes a home outside probate (and Medicaid estate recovery) for a few hundred dollars.

Compare specific topics across states

Prefer to compare one topic across many states? These hubs break down a single question state by state:

More states coming

We’re adding states in batches — Washington, Colorado, Ohio, and others are next. If your state isn’t here yet, the national guides cover the concepts that apply everywhere, and the topic-by-state hubs above already include many more states.

Educational information only — not legal, tax, or financial advice. Estate law varies substantially by state and changes over time. Consult a licensed attorney in your state. Sources: state probate codes and statutes cited within each state guide.

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