10 Things to Ask Before you Hire a Probate Attorney.
Most people hire a probate attorney exactly once, and usually within a few weeks or months of losing someone they love. You are grieving, the mail is filling up with letters from banks and creditors, and a sibling is asking why the house hasn't sold yet. It is not the moment anyone feels like conducting a careful interview.
But the consultation is an interview, and it goes both ways. A good probate attorney expects hard questions and answers them plainly. Here are ten worth asking before you sign anything.
1. How much of your practice is probate?
Plenty of attorneys handle probate occasionally — a real estate lawyer settling a longtime client's estate, or a general practitioner taking a case as a favor. That is not the same as doing this work every day.
Ask what percentage of their caseload is probate and estate litigation. Ask how many estates they open in a typical year. You are listening for a specific number, not “we handle those.”
2. Are you admitted in both Kansas and Missouri?
This matters more in the Kansas City metro than a lot of other places. A parent who lived in Overland Park but owned a rental property in Independence can generate proceedings in two states, under two different probate codes, with two different sets of deadlines.
If your situation touches both sides of the state line, you want an attorney licensed in both — or a clear explanation of who will handle the other half and what that will cost you.
3. Which courts do you appear in regularly?
Probate is intensely local. Johnson County, Jackson County, Clay County, and Wyandotte County each have their own filing preferences, scheduling rhythms, judges, and clerks. An attorney who is in front of your court every month knows how it likes things done, and that saves real time.
Ask which counties they file in most often, and whether they have handled cases in your county.
4. How are your fees calculated?
This deserves a direct answer before anything else happens.
Missouri's probate code sets statutory minimum fees — separately for the personal representative and for the estate's attorney — on a sliding scale tied to the personal property administered plus proceeds of any real estate sold under court order, and courts will generally allow more if it is a time intensive matter. The attorney also tracks their time expended on the case to determine if the hourly fee is higher than the statutory fee. Kansas takes a different approach entirely, allowing compensation that is “just and reasonable,” which is based upon their hourly fees, subject to court approval, rather than a fixed percentage scale.
So the honest answer to “what will this cost” depends on which state you are in, what the estate holds, and whether anyone contests anything. Insist on a written fee agreement that spells out the structure, what is billed hourly, what comes out of the estate rather than your pocket, and what triggers a higher fee.
5. What are the costs beyond your fee?
Attorney fees are one line item. Court filing fees, publication of notice to creditors, appraisals, bond premiums, certified copies, and recording fees are others. None of them are enormous on their own; together they add up, and they surprise people.
Ask for a written estimate of costs outside of attorney's fees, and ask which ones are typically paid from estate assets.
6. Who will actually be handling my file?
You may meet a partner at the consultation and never speak with them again. That is not automatically a problem — an experienced paralegal handling routine filings can keep your costs down — but you deserve to know the arrangement up front.
Ask who your day-to-day contact will be, who reviews the work, and who appears in court.
7. What is the best way to communicate with your office?
Many attorneys still prefer a phone call, even in our age of technology, and others may prefer to communicate via internal case management platforms. Clients like texts, most attorneys avoid them as legal technology hasn't always caught up to this change in communication style. Know up front the best way to communicate with the office to streamline your case.
8. What are the deadlines in my case, and have any already passed?
Probate runs on hard clocks, and a competent attorney should be able to name yours in the first meeting.
In Kansas, a petition to probate a will generally must be filed within six months of death, with only narrow exceptions. Kansas law also provides that creditors generally have no claim against estate property unless a petition is filed within that same window — which can be very good news or very bad news, depending on which side of the claim you are on.
Missouri runs on different clocks. A will generally must be presented for probate within one year of death — or within six months after first publication of the notice of granting of letters, if letters have already been issued.
If someone died eight months ago and the attorney across the desk does not immediately flag the timing, keep looking.
9. Can this estate avoid full probate — or use a simpler track?
Not every estate needs the full formal process. In Missouri, independent administration proceeds with far less court supervision — but only where the will authorizes it or the heirs or devisees consent, so it is not simply something you request. Missouri also has small estate procedures and refusal of letters for modest estates. In Kansas, the court itself decides whether an estate is administered as a simplified or supervised estate, weighing its size, solvency, the relationships among the heirs, and the likely cost. Kansas also has a small estate affidavit, though it covers personal property only and cannot transfer real estate.
An attorney whose first instinct is to open a full supervised administration without discussing the alternatives may be choosing the path that bills best rather than the one that fits. Ask them to explain why the track they recommend is right for your estate.
10. What could go wrong here?
This is the question that separates a salesperson from a counselor.
Ask what they see as the risks in your particular situation. A missing original will. A stepparent and adult children who do not speak. A brother who has been living in the house rent-free since the funeral. Real estate in a third state. A creditor claim nobody expected.
You want an attorney who will tell you plainly where the trouble is likely to come from, what it might cost to deal with, and what you can do now to reduce the odds. An attorney who tells you your case is simple and quick before reviewing a single document is telling you what you want to hear.
One more thing: pay attention to how it feels
Probate takes months, sometimes years. You will be discussing family conflict, money, and grief with this person. Competence matters most, but so does whether you leave the meeting feeling steadier than when you walked in.
If you felt rushed, talked over, or more confused than when you arrived, that is information too.
Thinking about probate in Kansas or Missouri?
At The Probate Law Center, we handle probate administration, probate litigation, guardianships, and conservatorships on both sides of the state line — and we are happy to answer every question on this list before you decide anything.
Fill out our contact form or call (816) 673-3223 to schedule a consultation.
This article is general information about the probate process in Kansas and Missouri, current as of September 2026, and is not legal advice. Deadlines, dollar thresholds, procedures, and fees change and vary depending on the facts of your case and the court where it is filed. Please consult an attorney about your specific situation.