Wills, trusts and probate · Providence, Rhode Island
Two attorneys and one assistant on the East Side of Providence. Our fees are written on this page.
Admitted in Rhode Island. This is the only kind of law we practice, and we have been doing it here since 2009.
Whichever one brought you here, you do not need to know the right words yet.
The two situations need different first moves, so we have written them out separately. Neither one starts with paperwork you have to gather.
Nothing has happened yet
You want the house, the accounts and, if the children are small, who raises them, decided on paper by you while you are well. Most families need four documents, not forty.
The first move A forty minute meeting, here or at your kitchen table. Bring nothing. You leave knowing which documents you need and what the whole thing costs.
See what each one costs
It already happened
There is a will, or there is not. There is a house, a bank account, a car nobody can sell. And you are probably the one everybody is looking at.
The first move Call us. We will tell you on the phone whether this estate has to go through probate at all. A fair number of them do not, and that call is free.
What probate involvesAlmost everything we do has a flat fee. You know the number before we open a file, and it does not move because the drafting took us longer than we thought it would.
Most people need the first one and nothing else. A trust only earns its price if you own property in more than one state, or you want the house to pass without the court being involved at all. Which of these you are is the first thing we work out in the meeting, before you have paid us anything.
Where most people start
The will itself, a durable power of attorney and a health care proxy. Drafted, read through with you out loud, then signed and witnessed here. This is the whole plan for most households, and there is no version of it that costs more.
Two wills, two powers of attorney, two health care proxies. Couples usually want the same thing, and there is no reason to bill it twice.
Adding a spouse, creating a life estate, moving a house into a trust. Recorded at the city clerk, with the stamped copy mailed to you.
For a family with a house and money in more than one place. The fee includes moving the deed and the accounts into the trust, which is the step people skip and the reason trusts fail.
Probate is quoted after the first meeting, because it depends on what is in the estate and on whether anybody is arguing. Nobody should have to call blind, though, so what we have actually charged for a straightforward Providence estate, one house and a couple of accounts with nobody objecting, is written here too. You get your own number in writing before we file a single page, and if the work turns out to be smaller than we thought, the number comes down. The call that tells you whether the estate needs probate at all costs nothing.
What it has usually run $3,500–$7,500 A reference, not a quote. Yours is written down after the first meeting.
Nothing here happens by surprise, and you never sign anything the first time you read it.
We ask what you own and who you want to have it. You do not need to bring documents, and you do not need to have decided anything before you come.
The documents come to you on paper, in the mail, with the passages that decide something marked in the margin. Read them at your own table, not ours.
We go through every page and you ask whatever you want, twice if you need to. People change something at this meeting almost every time. That is what it is for.
Witnesses and a notary, here in the office. You leave with the originals in a folder, and a copy stays in our safe with your name on the tab.
Five weeks is what it usually takes when nothing is pressing. If somebody is ill, or a surgery is scheduled, or a flight is booked, say so on the phone and we will compress it. That happens often and it is not an imposition.
In Rhode Island, probate is handled by the city or town where the person lived, not by a state court. For Providence that means the probate court at City Hall, a short walk from this office. It is paperwork and waiting, not a trial. Nobody is cross examined.
The work belongs to the executor, and it is mostly this:
The order shifts with the estate and some of it happens at the same time. Nobody expects you to arrive knowing any of it.
Nearly everything that comes through this office is really about a house. Usually one that has been in the family longer than anyone can remember, and that nobody has thought about in writing since the day it was bought.
What we do not doOur practice is limited to wills, trusts, powers of attorney and probate. No litigation, no closings for people we do not represent, no injury cases. If that is what you need, ask us anyway and we will give you two names.
There are three of us. That is the whole argument. Nothing gets handed to an associate you have never met, because there is no associate.
Claire has drafted wills and handled probate since 2009, all of it in Rhode Island. She grew up in East Providence, still reads every draft with a pencil, and takes most of the first calls.
Sophea came to estate work from a legal aid office, where she spent four years explaining documents to people who had every reason to distrust them. She does most of our trust drafting.
Denise runs the office. She is the one who calls you back, she knows where every file is, and she will tell you plainly if we are not the right people for what you need.
Nobody is born knowing these. Asking twice is normal here, and it is free.
If you have none of it, come anyway. Half of our first meetings start with somebody saying they have no idea where anything is, and that is a normal place to start.
In their words
She explained the difference between a will and a trust twice, and never once made me feel slow about it.
My father died in March and I had no idea what I was supposed to do first. Denise called me back the same afternoon. Nobody rushed me off the phone.
The fee was the fee. It was the same number at the end as it was at the beginning, which I did not expect.
We meet at hospitals, rehabs and kitchen tables when somebody cannot travel, anywhere from Woonsocket down to the beaches. There is no charge for the trip.
The office1140 Wickenden Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02903. Street level, one step at the door, and there is a small lot behind the building off Governor Street. Do not use the bakery's four spaces. They will tow you.
HoursMonday to Thursday, nine to five. Friday, nine to one. Evening appointments on Tuesdays for people who cannot leave work.
Telephone(401) 555-0164A person picks it up. If nobody does, leave the message and Denise calls back the same day.
Emailoffice@botelhochhim.comPlease do not send anything urgent by email. Call instead.