Boland Law Group, PLLC

Estate Planning & Private Client Services

Schedule of Services and Fees

Scottsdale, Arizona · Effective 2026

Every matter is handled directly by LL.M. partners, from first consultation through funding and post-signing maintenance. No associate hand-off, no support-staff drafting.

Flat fees, fixed in writing Hourly against a retainer when open-ended Third-party costs passed through at cost

Core Estate Planning

2026 minimum flat fees, set by gross estate

The gross estate is the measure for every tier: the total fair market value of everything you own or control at death, including real property, financial and retirement accounts, business interests, and life insurance you own, before debts, expenses, and deductions are applied.

Every core plan includes

  • Revocable living trust
  • Pour-over will
  • General durable power of attorney
  • Health care power of attorney
  • Mental health care power of attorney
  • Living will
  • HIPAA authorization (federal law)
  • Certificate of trust
  • Age-gated shares for children and grandchildren, held in trust to the ages you choose
  • Assignment of personal property
  • Special warranty deed into the trust
  • Written funding instructions

Foundations

Estates up to $5 million

Probate avoidance, incapacity protection, and beneficiary structure, before federal transfer tax becomes a planning pressure.

Core estate planning Single $5,000
Married, by marital architecture
A Trust Only Survivor's Trust $5,500
A Trust Only Blended Family $5,850
A/C Disclaimer $5,750
A/B Non-Tax / Blended Family $6,000
A/B QTIP / CS $6,500

Foundations for Sizable Wealth

Over $5 million to $15 million

This band is not exemption planning; with a $15 million exemption, few estates here will owe federal estate tax. It is foundational planning for more sizable wealth. The architecture is chosen for control, for creditor and remarriage protection, for the full community-property basis step-up, for business interests, life insurance, and liquidity, and for optionality against a future, smaller exemption. The real design question is who should hold the decision after the first death: the survivor, the fiduciary, or the document itself.

Core estate planning Single $6,000
Married, by marital architecture
A Trust Only Survivor's Trust $6,500
A Trust Only Blended Family $6,850
A/C Disclaimer $6,750
A/B Non-Tax / Blended Family $7,000
A/B QTIP / CS $7,500
A/B/C Non-Clayton $8,750
A/B/C Clayton, w/ or w/o GST Subs $9,750–$12,750

Exemption & GST Architecture

Over $15 million to $30 million

This is where exemption architecture lives. Transfers above the exemption face the 40% federal rate, and the GST exemption cannot be ported between spouses: it is captured at the first death or it is lost. Exempt and non-exempt sub-trusts are the standard of care at this level; the reverse-QTIP election, reserved to our Reverse Clayton, preserves the first spouse's GST exemption across the marital share as well.

Core estate planning Single $6,000
Married, by marital architecture
A/B/C Clayton w/ GST Subs $12,750+
A/B/C Reverse Clayton w/ GST Subs $15,000+

Engagements at this level frequently add lifetime strategies: irrevocable life insurance trusts, spousal lifetime access trusts, structured gifting programs, and entity and valuation planning. These are quoted separately or handled hourly.

Beyond the Combined Exemption

Over $30 million to $45 million

$30 million is the 2026 combined married exemption. Above it, every marginal dollar faces the 40% federal rate even with perfect exemption capture, so the core plan becomes the platform for the lifetime strategies that do the real work: exemption gifting, valuation and entity planning, and insurance to carry the liquidity. Only the GST architectures are offered at this level.

Core estate planning Single $10,000+
Married, by marital architecture
A/B/C Clayton w/ GST Subs $18,750+
A/B/C Reverse Clayton w/ GST Subs $22,500+

Family Office Scale

Above $45 million

At this scale the plan is infrastructure. The core instruments are built to coordinate with entity, valuation, and gifting architecture that will run for decades and across generations, and the reverse-QTIP election is the standard of care. Every engagement here is individually scoped; the figures below are the floor.

Core estate planning Single $15,000+
Married, by marital architecture
A/B/C Clayton w/ GST Subs $25,000+
A/B/C Reverse Clayton w/ GST Subs $30,000+

Component Trusts & Add-Ons

Any tier
Separate Property Spousal Trust $2,900 / ea
Community Property Pour-Over Trust $1,500 / ea
Sub-trusts Continuing descendant's trusts that run for a beneficiary's lifetime; age-gated shares are included in every core plan $600 / ea
Disinheriting / reduction provisions $600 / ea
Additional Arizona deed into trust Per property $350
Full funding service beyond the included deed Account retitling, entity interests, beneficiary designations Quoted

A note for blended families

Blended families carry elevated risk. Without the right structure, the surviving spouse can amend the plan after the first death and redirect assets away from, or fully disinherit, the first spouse's children. Two instruments answer that risk, and choosing between them is real design work: a bypass share that becomes irrevocable at the first death and can sprinkle income among the survivor and the children, or a QTIP marital share that pays the survivor all income for life while the document, not the survivor, controls where the remainder goes. Estate size, the age gap, and income needs decide which is the standard of care. Where either spouse holds separate property, a Separate Property Spousal Trust for that spouse, with a Community Property Pour-Over Trust for what is owned together, keeps each spouse's own property under that spouse's control.

Keeping the Plan Current

Amendments & restatements

Trust amendment One only, minor changes, our instruments only $1,500+
Trust restatement Priced by architecture and gross estate Core plan minimums

When a Flat Fee Is Not Appropriate

2026 hourly rates

Open-ended, contested, or high-volume matters are billed hourly against a retainer.

Robert W. Boland, Jr. J.D., LL.M. $700 / hr
Steven A. Bloom J.D., M.B.A., LL.M. $650 / hr
Grant M. Boland J.D., LL.M. $460 / hr
Staff $75–$150 / hr

The 2026 Landscape

The figures we plan around

Federal transfer tax

Estate, gift & GST exemption, per individual$15,000,000
Combined, married couple$30,000,000
Inflation indexing begins2027
Top transfer tax rate40%
Annual gift exclusion, per recipient$19,000
With gift-splitting$38,000
Annual exclusion, non-citizen spouse$194,000

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act set the unified exemption permanently at these amounts.

Arizona advantages

  • No state estate tax, inheritance tax, or gift tax.
  • Community property state: a full, double basis step-up on community property at the first spouse's death.
  • Beneficiary (transfer-on-death) deeds are recognized.
  • The Arizona Trust Code permits nonjudicial settlement agreements, decanting, and modification.
  • No domestic asset protection trust statute, so self-settled creditor protection is structured through entities or another jurisdiction.

Reading the Architecture

The same letters, different machines

The plan names above are not a menu of templates. Each is a different instrument, distinguished by what happens at the first death and, more importantly, by who holds the decision. Choosing the right hands is half the design.

A Survivor's / marital share Remains revocable by, and under the control of, the surviving spouse.
B Credit shelter (bypass) Irrevocable at the first death. Captures the first spouse's exemption; its growth stays outside the survivor's taxable estate.
C QTIP marital share Elected on the Form 706. All income to the surviving spouse for life, as the marital deduction requires; the document, not the survivor, controls where the remainder goes.

Formula funding: the document decides. Disclaimer: the survivor decides. Clayton election: the fiduciary decides.

A Trust Only (Survivor's Trust)
One continuing trust. The simplest architecture, relying on portability of the federal exemption, suited to first marriages with aligned beneficiaries.
A Trust Only (Blended Family)
The same chassis, hardened. Protective provisions secure each spouse's children where a fully amendable plan would leave them exposed.
A/C (Disclaimer)
Everything passes to the survivor's trust, and the survivor holds a nine-month window after the first death to execute a qualified disclaimer. What is disclaimed drops into the credit shelter trust; it does not become a QTIP, and no marital election is in play. The price of the flexibility is strict: the survivor must not have accepted the benefits of the disclaimed share before disclaiming, may not hold a power of appointment over it, and may direct distributions from it only under an ascertainable standard. The nine-month deadline does not extend.
A/B (Non-Tax / Blended Family)
Here the B share is a control instrument rather than a tax instrument. It becomes irrevocable at the first death, locking the agreed disposition, and unlike a QTIP it can pay income at the trustee's discretion, or sprinkle it among the survivor and the children, rather than mandating all of it to the survivor. The core protection for blended families.
A/B (QTIP / CS)
The decedent's share is drafted to serve either as a credit shelter trust or to receive the QTIP election, with the choice set by the tax and basis picture at the first death rather than guessed at signing.
A/B/C (Non-Clayton)
Three shares fixed by formula at death. The document decides: maximum certainty, minimum post-mortem discretion. Preferred where the couple wants nothing left to later judgment.
A/B/C (Clayton)
The decedent's share passes to a QTIP-able trust, and the fiduciary elects on the Form 706 how much remains marital; whatever is not elected drops into the bypass. Against the disclaimer, Clayton buys time and cleaner hands: the 706 is due nine months after death with an automatic six-month filing extension, the decision belongs to an independent fiduciary rather than a grieving survivor, there is no acceptance-of-benefits risk, and the survivor may hold powers over the bypass that a disclaimer-funded trust forbids.
A/B/C (Clayton w/ GST Subs)
Adds exempt and non-exempt sub-trusts to the Clayton architecture. The share that drops to the bypass is divided, and the exempt sub-trust is funded to a zero inclusion ratio so it can run for grandchildren and beyond free of GST tax. There is no reverse-QTIP election here: the first spouse's GST exemption is allocated through the bypass share.
A/B/C (Reverse Clayton w/ GST Subs)
Our most advanced and most flexible instrument. The Clayton architecture is paired with the reverse-QTIP election, which keeps the first spouse as the transferor of the marital share for GST purposes: the GST exemption, which cannot be ported, is preserved at the first death across both the bypass and the marital shares. Because the election applies to a trust as a whole, the marital share is severed into exempt and non-exempt sub-trusts. The most drafting-intensive plan we write, priced accordingly.

Core estate planning figures are minimum flat fees. The final fee for every engagement is fixed in a written engagement letter before work begins. Third-party costs, including appraisals, valuations, court and recording fees, corporate trustee fees, and accounting, are passed through at cost.

This schedule is provided for general information and does not constitute legal or tax advice, nor does it create an attorney-client relationship. All fees, figures, and terms set forth herein are estimates only, are subject to the firm's sole discretion, and may be modified, adjusted, or withdrawn at any time without notice. No fee is binding unless and until set forth in a signed engagement letter.