Estate Planning Attorney vs. LDP - Arizona Probate, LLC

Before hiring an expensive estate planning attorney to assist with your informal probate or to prepare estate planning documents such as wills, trusts, or POAs, read this blog post. It could save you thousands of dollars.

Did you know that the state of Arizona has created a program to help the general public access certain legal services without paying expensive attorney fees? Since 2003, the Arizona Supreme Court has administered the legal document preparer program; their role includes the adoption of rules regarding the minimum qualifications and the certification of applicants who are interested in becoming an Arizona Certified Legal Document Preparer (AZCLDP).

AZCLDPs can:

Prepare legal documents without the supervision of an attorney.
Provide general legal information.
Provide general, factual information pertaining to legal rights, procedures, or options available to a person in a legal matter.
File and arrange for service of documents.

All the above services can be provided to someone who is not represented by an attorney. Unfortunately, many Arizonans are unaware of the money saving services available from AZCLDPs. The lack of affordable legal services is a nationwide problem. In the Arizona Supreme Court Task Force on the Delivery of Legal Services’ October 04, 2019 Report and Recommendations, they quote the findings of the American Bar Association Commission on the Future of Legal Services’ 2016 report: “[d]espite sustained efforts to expand the public access to legal services, significant unmet needs persist’ and that . . . ‘[t]he majority of moderate-income individuals, do not receive the legal help they need.”

According to Legal Dive/Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions, the average rate for a non-litigation partner attorney in Phoenix, Arizona was $470 per hour in 2022. Some estate planning law firms base their fees for trust administrations by taking a percentage of the value of the estate, which can lead to an enormous fee for bigger estates. Prior to the creation of AZCLDPs, the paralegal profession was created to help lower legal costs. Today, attorneys delegate much of their workload to paralegals so they can charge lower rates for their services, but even paralegal services are often beyond what the average person can afford. According to NALA’s 2020 National Utilization and Compensation Study, the average rate charged by attorneys for paralegal services in the Southwest was $149 per hour.

So, if you find yourself in need of an informal probate or estate planning documents, take the time to determine whether these services require an estate planning attorney, or if an AZCLDP could provide them at a much lower cost. AZCLDPs are often able to perform services in a more timely manner as well since attorneys often have very large caseloads. If you need estate planning or estate administration/probate services, please check out my clearly defined rates on my Services page. Also see my About page to review my background and qualifications.

The information on this website is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice.