Rates & Pricing

Estate Planning

Estate Planning Pricing at a Glance

*“Two Independent Plans” applies when spouses retain Sero Law together but require materially different estate plans. The fee is two individual package prices less a 10% joint-engagement discount.

Recording charges and other governmental or third-party expenses are additional.

Will-Based Estate Planning

Individual Will Plan — $1,250

A Will-Based Estate Plan provides the foundational documents most clients need to direct the disposition of property at death and provide for financial and healthcare decision-making during incapacity.

Included in the Individual Will Plan

• Last Will and Testament
• Durable Financial Power of Attorney
• Advance Directive for Health Care
• Estate-planning consultation
• Review of beneficiaries and fiduciary selections
• Draft preparation
• Reasonable revisions
• Final document preparation
• Execution assistance

When appropriate to the client's circumstances, the Will may incorporate provisions addressing minor beneficiaries, testamentary trusts, guardianship nominations, survivorship requirements, and other customary estate-planning provisions without automatically converting the engagement to hourly billing.

Why the Package Costs Less

The same documents purchased separately are priced as follows:

The à-la-carte cost is exactly 10% greater than the package price.

Coordinated Couple Will Plan — $1,500

Spouses whose estate plans are substantially reciprocal create efficiencies that do not exist when two unrelated individual plans are prepared separately.

The coordinated couple package therefore costs only $250 more than the individual package.

Included

• Two coordinated Wills
• Two Durable Financial Powers of Attorney
• Two Advance Directives for Health Care
• Coordinated consultation and planning
• Beneficiary and fiduciary review
• Draft preparation
• Reasonable revisions
• Finalization
• Execution assistance

What Does “Coordinated” Mean?

The reduced couple rate assumes that the spouses' estate-planning objectives are sufficiently compatible that the plans can reasonably be developed through a common planning process.

That does not mean every provision must be identical.

It does mean that the plans must share enough of their overall structure, beneficiaries, fiduciary planning, and dispositive objectives to produce meaningful efficiencies in consultation and drafting.

When spouses require materially independent estate plans, the appropriate fee is:

$1,250 × 2 = $2,500

Less the 10% joint-engagement discount: $250

Two Independent Will Plans: $2,250

Trust-Based Estate Planning

Individual Trust Plan — $2,200

A Trust-Based Estate Plan is designed for clients whose objectives are better served through a revocable trust structure.

Included

• Revocable Living Trust
• Pour-Over Will
• Durable Financial Power of Attorney
• Advance Directive for Health Care
• Certification of Trust
• Assignment or Deed of Gift of tangible personal property
• Trust-funding review and written guidance
• One Quitclaim Deed transferring appropriate Tennessee real property to the trust
• Estate-planning consultation
• Draft preparation
• Reasonable revisions
• Finalization
• Execution assistance

À-La-Carte Comparison

Again, purchasing the component services separately costs exactly 10% more than purchasing the package.

Coordinated Couple Trust Plan — $2,450

For spouses whose trust planning can be accomplished through a coordinated structure, the couple package is:

$2,450

The package includes:

• Coordinated Revocable Living Trust or other appropriate standard revocable trust structure
• Two Pour-Over Wills
• Two Durable Financial Powers of Attorney
• Two Advance Directives for Health Care
• Certification of Trust
• Appropriate assignment of tangible personal property
• Trust-funding review and written guidance
• One Quitclaim Deed
• Coordinated consultation and planning
• Draft preparation
• Reasonable revisions
• Finalization
• Execution assistance

The coordinated couple price is a $250 step-up from the $2,200 individual Trust Plan.

Tennessee Community Property Trusts

For qualifying married couples, Sero Law may recommend consideration of a Tennessee Community Property Trust rather than a conventional Revocable Living Trust.

Selecting a Community Property Trust does not, by itself, increase the flat fee.

Coordinated Couple Community Property Trust Plan — $2,450

The appropriate trust structure should be selected because of the client's circumstances and planning objectives—not because one trust is sold as a more expensive “upgrade.”

If additional documents, additional real-property transfers, unusual ownership structures, tax analysis, or other work beyond the standard package is required, that additional work may be priced separately.

Independent Trust Plans for Spouses

When spouses require materially different trust structures, the coordinated $2,450 package does not apply.

Instead:

$2,200 × 2 = $4,400

Less the 10% joint-engagement discount: $440

Two Independent Trust Plans: $3,960

Estate Planning À-La-Carte Pricing

Clients who do not require a complete package may purchase individual estate-planning services when appropriate.

Applicable recording charges and third-party expenses are additional.

When Estate Planning Requires More Than the Published Flat Fee

Most conventional estate plans should fit comfortably within the published packages.

Some do not.

Examples may include:

• Highly complex blended-family planning
• Significant business interests requiring extensive analysis
• Multiple trusts or specialized subtrusts
• Special-needs planning
• Asset-protection planning
• Irrevocable trusts
• Significant tax-planning issues
• Extensive restructuring of asset ownership
• Unusual beneficiary restrictions
• Complex real-property ownership
• Corrective title work
• Extensive review or modification of existing trusts
• Substantial changes in planning instructions after drafting begins
• Business succession planning integrated with the estate plan
• Other circumstances requiring materially greater legal analysis or drafting than contemplated by the standard package

When we identify such an issue before engagement, we will explain why the standard package does not appropriately reflect the work required and provide the proposed alternative fee arrangement in writing.

Depending upon the matter, that may be a customized flat fee or representation at the standard $250 hourly rate.

Business Law

Business Pricing at a Glance

Government filing fees, registered-agent charges, taxes, accounting services, recording fees, and other third-party expenses are additional unless expressly included in the written engagement agreement.

LLC Formation

Formation is more than submitting a form to the Secretary of State.

Sero Law's formation services are intended to establish the entity correctly while helping the client understand the basic ownership and management decisions being made at formation.

Single-Member Tennessee LLC Formation — $750

A standard formation includes:

• Initial formation consultation
• Entity and management-structure discussion
• Preparation of Articles of Organization
• Filing coordination
• EIN assistance
• Basic organizational consent or resolutions
• Initial company-record guidance
• Startup compliance checklist

Government filing fees are additional.

Multi-Member Tennessee LLC Formation — $1,000

The multi-member formation service includes the foregoing services together with the additional initial analysis necessary to identify:

• Members and ownership percentages
• Initial capital contributions
• Member-managed versus manager-managed structure
• Initial voting structure
• Other information necessary to establish the company's ownership and governance framework

The Operating Agreement is a separate substantive legal service unless the client selects one of the formation packages described below.

Operating Agreements

An Operating Agreement should not be treated as a commodity document.

For a multi-member LLC, the Operating Agreement may become the most important agreement governing the owners' legal and financial relationship.

It can determine who controls the company, who receives distributions, what happens when additional capital is needed, whether an owner can sell an interest, what happens when an owner dies or becomes disabled, how disputes are resolved, and how an owner ultimately exits the business.

For that reason, Sero Law uses different flat-fee levels based upon the actual governance work required.

Single-Member Operating Agreement — $1,000

A standard single-member agreement may address:

• Ownership
• Management authority
• Capital contributions
• Distributions
• Company formalities
• Succession
• Incapacity
• Indemnification
• Dissolution
• Continuity of management

Standard Multi-Member Operating Agreement — $3,500

Designed for a conventional closely held LLC with relatively straightforward ownership and economics.

A standard agreement may address:

• Ownership percentages
• Capital contributions
• Management structure
• Voting rights
• Reserved decisions
• Profit and loss allocations
• Distributions
• Additional capital
• Transfer restrictions
• Admission of new members
• Withdrawal
• Death or incapacity
• Divorce or bankruptcy concerns
• Buyout provisions
• Basic valuation provisions
• Deadlock procedures
• Indemnification
• Dissolution and winding up

Comprehensive Multi-Member Operating Agreement — $5,000

The comprehensive level is appropriate when the owners require more substantial planning and customization.

Examples may include:

• Detailed management-control provisions
• Significant majority/minority-owner protections
• Customized voting thresholds
• Sophisticated transfer restrictions
• Detailed rights of first refusal
• More substantial buyout provisions
• Customized valuation mechanisms
• Management succession
• Detailed death and disability planning
• Significant owner-specific rights
• Greater coordination with estate or succession planning
• More substantial negotiation among the prospective members

Complex or Investor-Level Operating Agreements — Starting at $7,500

Some LLC structures simply cannot responsibly be reduced to a standardized document price.

Examples include:

• Multiple classes of membership
• Preferred returns
• Distribution waterfalls
• Outside investors
• Extensive investor protections
• Complex capital-call provisions
• Significant minority protections
• Complex tax allocations
• Institutional financing requirements
• Highly customized management-control arrangements
• Significant intellectual-property arrangements
• Heavily negotiated agreements

These matters begin at $7,500 and may require a customized project fee or hourly representation.

Business Formation Packages

Clients who need both entity formation and substantive governance documents can combine the services at a reduced package price.

Government filing fees remain additional.

Contract Drafting

NDA / Confidentiality Agreement — $750

For a conventional confidentiality arrangement with a reasonably defined business purpose.

Independent Contractor Agreement — $1,250

For a standard contractor relationship requiring customized provisions concerning services, compensation, independent-contractor status, confidentiality, intellectual property where appropriate, termination, risk allocation, and related matters.

Standard Services Agreement — $1,500

For businesses needing a reusable agreement governing the provision or purchase of services.

Other Custom Commercial Contracts — Starting at $1,500

The fee depends upon the transaction, complexity of the business terms, allocation of risk, and degree of customization required.

Unless otherwise stated in the engagement agreement, flat-fee contract drafting assumes that the principal business terms have already been reasonably determined and does not include unlimited negotiations with another party or opposing counsel.

Contract Review

Standard Contract Review — $750

For a reasonably conventional agreement of manageable length and complexity.

The engagement generally includes:

• Attorney review
• Identification of material legal and business risks
• Consultation concerning significant provisions
• Recommendations within the agreed scope

Contract Review + Written Redline — Starting at $1,250

For clients who want Sero Law not only to identify issues but to prepare proposed revisions to the agreement.

Negotiations, multiple rounds of counterproposals, substantial restructuring, or continued exchanges with another party or opposing counsel are ordinarily billed at:

unless a separate project fee is established.

Buy-Sell Agreements

Starting at $2,500

A Buy-Sell Agreement can govern what happens to an owner's interest upon death, disability, retirement, termination of employment, bankruptcy, divorce, voluntary departure, or another triggering event.

Depending upon the engagement, planning may include:

• Triggering events
• Purchase rights and obligations
• Valuation methodology
• Payment terms
• Funding mechanisms
• Insurance coordination
• Transfer restrictions
• Integration with the Operating Agreement
• Estate-planning coordination

Complex or highly customized buy-sell planning may require a higher project fee or hourly arrangement.

Business Succession Planning

Starting at $5,000

Business succession is not merely the preparation of a document. It involves determining how ownership, control, management, and economic value will transition when an owner retires, becomes incapacitated, dies, or otherwise leaves the business.

A succession-planning engagement may involve:

• Ownership succession
• Management succession
• Buy-sell planning
• Estate-plan integration
• Death and incapacity planning
• Family succession
• Key-person considerations
• Coordination with existing Operating Agreements
• Coordination with accountants, financial advisers, insurance professionals, or other advisers
• Development of an implementation plan

Additional trusts, entity restructurings, transaction documents, tax work, or other implementation documents may be separately priced.

Joint Ventures & Strategic Alliances

Starting at $3,500

A conventional joint venture or strategic-alliance engagement may address:

• Purpose and scope of the venture
• Contributions of the parties
• Ownership
• Management
• Decision-making authority
• Revenue and expense allocation
• Intellectual property
• Exclusivity
• Confidentiality
• Termination
• Dispute resolution
• Exit rights

Development ventures, investment structures, multi-entity arrangements, substantial capital commitments, complex governance, or heavily negotiated transactions may require a higher project fee.

Complex Governance & Investor Agreements

Starting at $5,000

Customized governance arrangements involving significant control rights, investor protections, management agreements, preferred economics, substantial capital commitments, or multiple interconnected agreements are individually scoped.

Depending upon complexity, the matter may be handled through a project-specific flat fee or at the standard $250 hourly rate.

When a Business Matter Does Not Qualify for the Published Flat Fee

Flat fees work best when the scope of the legal project can be reasonably identified at the beginning of the engagement.

Business matters can sometimes appear straightforward initially but involve circumstances that materially change the amount or complexity of the legal work required.

Examples include:

• Significant negotiations among owners
• Material disputes between prospective members
• Unresolved business terms
• Multiple rounds of third-party negotiations
• Complex financing
• Outside investors
• Multiple classes of ownership
• Significant tax issues
• Existing defective organizational documents
• Corporate cleanup or corrective work
• Complex intellectual-property ownership
• Regulatory issues
• Extensive due diligence
• Multiple related entities
• Substantial restructuring
• Unusual contractual risk
• Transactions requiring multiple interdependent agreements

If Sero Law determines before engagement that a matter does not reasonably qualify for a published flat fee, we will explain the reason in writing.

The matter may then be offered at a customized project fee or at the standard $250 hourly rate.

When hourly representation is used, Sero Law may require an advance retainer equal to the published flat fee that would otherwise ordinarily apply to the service, with fees charged against that retainer as provided in the written engagement agreement.

A Note About “Starting At” Prices

A price identified as “Starting at” reflects the minimum fee for a matter falling within the ordinary scope of that service.

Before representation begins, Sero Law will evaluate the anticipated scope and identify the applicable fee in the engagement agreement.

The purpose of publishing starting prices is to provide meaningful cost information—not to suggest that materially different legal projects should carry the same fee simply because they share the same general label.

Costs and Third-Party Expenses

Unless specifically included in a written engagement agreement, attorney fees do not include third-party expenses such as:

• Court filing fees
• Secretary of State fees
• County recording charges
• Service-of-process expenses
• Certified copies
• Title reports
• Appraisals
• Expert fees
• Accounting fees
• Tax preparation
• Registered-agent fees
• Other governmental or third-party charges

Clients will be informed of known material third-party costs when reasonably practicable.

The Written Engagement Agreement Controls

The rates published on this page are intended to make Sero Law's general pricing practices transparent.

They do not create an attorney-client relationship, constitute an offer to perform a particular matter for a particular price, or override the terms of a written engagement agreement.

Every legal matter is evaluated individually.

When your matter qualifies for one of our published flat-fee services, the engagement agreement will identify the flat fee and define the work included within it.

When the circumstances require a different arrangement, Sero Law will explain the reason and proposed fee structure in writing before the engagement.

Unless otherwise agreed in writing, legal work outside a defined flat-fee engagement is billed at Sero Law's standard attorney rate of:

Our objective is straightforward: define the work, explain the price, and make sure you understand both before we begin.

Sero Law PLLC Sowing Clarity. Growing Confidence.