How much do mirror wills cost? Lawyer, online, and free options compared.

If you and your partner have decided on mirror wills, the next question is a practical one: what does it cost? The honest answer is that a pair of mirror wills can cost anywhere from nothing to several thousand dollars, and the price mostly reflects what you are buying, not how good the documents are. A free tool, a paid online service, and a lawyer can all produce two legally valid wills. What changes is how much advice comes with them, how much complexity they can handle, and what happens when your life changes after you sign.

Short answer: for a straightforward couple in the United States, expect $229 to $399 for a pair of wills from a major online service, $750 to $2,000 or more from a lawyer for the pair (often as part of a package with powers of attorney), and $0 if you use a free tool like Farwell's. In Canada, online couples plans run about $80 to $350 CAD, while a lawyer-drafted pair averages about $1,450 CAD across the country and about $1,750 CAD in Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary. The rest of this article breaks down each route, the hidden costs people miss, and how to tell which one fits your situation.

The comparison at a glance

Prices change, and every figure below is a published price or a survey figure checked in November 2026. Confirm the current price before you buy anything.

Route 1: a lawyer

This is the most expensive route and, for some couples, the only right one. You are not really paying for two documents. You are paying for an hour or two of a professional looking at your whole situation and telling you what you actually need.

In the United States, a nationwide 2026 study of 909 law firms put the median price of a simple attorney-drafted will at $625, with the middle half of firms charging $450 to $1,000 for one will. A simple will typically runs $375 to $800. A will package, meaning a will plus a power of attorney and a healthcare directive, has a median of $1,000, with the middle half of firms at $750 to $1,500. A full attorney-prepared estate plan runs $2,000 to $5,000 or more. For a couple, some firms publish couples pricing directly: one New Jersey firm advertises a reciprocal-will package for couples at $1,550, against $950 for an individual will package. Most firms charge a flat fee for wills, so you know the price before work starts, and only about 6 percent of firms bill hourly for these documents.

In Canada, the numbers are higher. A comparison checked November 1, 2026 puts the average lawyer fee for wills and powers of attorney for a couple at about $1,450 across Canada, and about $1,750 in Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary. LegalWills.ca's own guide puts a lawyer-drafted pair at $1,000 to $3,000 or more. In Ontario specifically, a lawyer-drafted pair of mirror wills typically runs about $500 to $1,000 for a straightforward couple, with some firms advertising $999 and others starting around $1,800 for a fuller package that includes powers of attorney.

What the lawyer fee buys, beyond the documents, is judgment. A lawyer will spot the things a questionnaire cannot: that your beneficiary designations override your will, that your blended family needs a trust rather than an outright gift to the survivor, that property in another province or state needs separate treatment, or that your business needs a succession plan your will cannot provide. If any of that applies to you, the lawyer fee is the cheapest part of the exercise. A family fighting over an estate costs far more.

When to pay for a lawyer: children from a prior relationship, a big age gap between partners, one partner with substantially more assets, a business, property in more than one province or state, a disabled beneficiary who needs a trust, or any real chance the survivor's plan could drift from what you agreed. Our companion article on mirror wills vs joint wills explains why a trust inside the mirror wills is usually the right answer in those cases, and why a joint will is not.

Route 2: an online will service

Online services sit in the middle. You answer a guided questionnaire, the service generates the documents, and you print and sign them according to your jurisdiction's rules. You get a polished process and a valid document, but no legal advice. If your situation is straightforward, that is usually enough.

United States, published 2026 list prices for a couple:

• Trust and Will: Will Plan $199 for one person, $299 for a

couple. Trust Plan $499 for one person, $599 for a couple. The Will Plan includes a last will, a living will, a power of attorney, and a HIPAA authorization. Updates after 30 days cost $19 a year for will updates, or $49 a year for the optional membership. Attorney review is a $299 add-on.

• LegalZoom: Basic Will $129 for one person, $229 for a couple.

Pro Will $149 for one person, $249 for a couple, adding a healthcare directive, HIPAA authorization, and financial power of attorney. Premium Will $299 for one person, $399 for a couple, adding a year of attorney consultations and a year of free revisions. Basic Trust $399 for one person, $499 for a couple.

• Rocket Lawyer: membership-based, $149 to $349 a year on annual

billing (about $39.99 a month on monthly billing). Wills, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives are included in the membership, along with attorney questions. It is the cheapest option if you make your documents in one month and cancel, and the most expensive if you keep the subscription running for years just to keep update access.

• Nolo Quicken WillMaker: $149 flat for a full estate plan

package, will plus trust plus powers of attorney, covering up to five family members. No per-person charge, which makes it unusually cheap for a couple.

• FreeWill: $0 for a will, power of attorney, and healthcare

directive in the US. FreeWill is funded by nonprofit partners, which is why the price is zero. The trade-off is a narrower feature set and no attorney review.

Canada, published 2026 prices in Canadian dollars:

• LegalWills.ca: a will is $49.95 CAD, and a couple pays $79.95

CAD for two wills with a mirror will tool that copies your choices into your partner's will. The Premium package, which adds power of attorney and a living will, is $99.95 CAD for one person and $149.95 CAD for a couple. A lifetime membership for updates costs $109.90 CAD in total.

• Willful: $129 for one will, $258 for two. The Premium plan,

which adds powers of attorney and an estate inventory, is $199 for one person and $349 for a couple. No couples discount on wills alone.

• Epilogue: $139 for one will, $269 for a couple, or $329 with

incapacity documents.

• FormalWill: $79 for a Premium Will Plus bundle, $158 for two

bundles. No couples plan.

A note on what "couple pricing" actually means: most services charge the second will at a discount, not free, and the discount is usually $100 in the US or about 40 percent in Canada. The exception is a service like Farwell's free tool or FreeWill, where the pair costs nothing at all.

Route 3: free

Two genuinely free options exist, and neither is a trial or a teaser.

Farwell's mirror wills tool is free: two mirrored wills for couples, available in Canada except Quebec and in the United States except Louisiana. If your situation is straightforward, shared children or no children, matching wishes, no trust needed, the tool covers it. It does not include powers of attorney or a living will, and it does not give legal advice. What it does that the paid services do not is solve the problem after the wills are signed: Farwell delivers your will, messages, files, and passwords to the people you choose, triggered by check-ins, after you go silent. A will in a drawer helps nobody, and the delivery piece is the part most couples never sort out.

FreeWill is free in the US and includes a power of attorney and a healthcare directive alongside the will. It is funded by nonprofit partners who benefit when people leave charitable gifts, so the price is genuinely zero, not a first-year discount.

The honest question about a free tool is not whether the document is valid. A properly completed and witnessed will from a free tool is as valid as one from a $300 service. The question is whether your situation fits inside what the tool can do. If it does, paying for the same document in a prettier wrapper buys you nothing.

The costs nobody puts in the headline

The sticker price is rarely the total price. Four costs catch people out:

Updates. Your life will change. A new child, a move, a remarriage, a falling-out, a house purchase. Some services include a year of unlimited updates and then charge an annual fee: Trust and Will charges $19 a year for will updates, $49 a year for its membership. LegalWills.ca charges $14.95 for a year of updates after the first year, or $109.90 for a lifetime membership. A lawyer will charge for a new will or a codicil, often a few hundred dollars, though many firms discount updates for existing clients. Whatever route you choose, ask what an update costs before you buy, because a will you cannot afford to update becomes a stale will.

Signing and witnessing. A will is not valid until it is signed the way your jurisdiction requires, usually with two witnesses who are not beneficiaries, and in some places a notary. Online services generally do not arrange witnesses or notarization for you. Notary fees are small, typically $10 to $25 per signature in the US, but the cost is your time and coordination, and a will signed wrong is a will that fails. Some provinces and states now allow remote witnessing or electronic signing, and the rules changed recently, so check what applies where you live rather than assuming.

Storage. A will your family cannot find is the same as no will at all. Lawyers often store the original for free or for a small annual fee. Online services offer digital storage, sometimes free, sometimes as part of a subscription. A home safe costs $50 to $200 once. A safe deposit box costs $50 to $200 a year and can be frozen at death, which is a real problem. Our article on where to store your will ranks every option by whether your family can actually get to it when they need it.

Probate. This is the big one, and it is not a cost of making a will at all. It is a cost of dying with a will that was never properly executed, or with assets that pass outside the will. Probate fees, court costs, and executor time run into the thousands in most jurisdictions, and a contested will costs far more. The cheapest will in the world is expensive if it does not survive probate. That is the real argument for paying a lawyer when your situation is complex: not the paper, but the certainty that the paper holds up.

What drives the price up

Five things push a mirror wills job from the simple tier into the expensive tier:

1. A blended family. Children from prior relationships,

stepchildren, or a second marriage. The survivor-rewrites problem we covered in mirror wills vs joint wills usually needs a trust, and a trust needs a lawyer.

1. A trust. A testamentary trust, a trust for minor children,

or a life interest for the survivor adds drafting time and cost, typically $1,000 to $3,500 on top of the wills in the US.

1. Property in more than one jurisdiction. A cottage in

another province, a condo in another state, property abroad. Each jurisdiction has its own rules, and a will that works in one place may need a second will or a separate plan elsewhere.

1. A business. Shares, a partnership, a professional

corporation. A will alone does not transfer a business cleanly, and the tax and succession issues need advice.

1. Tax planning. In Canada, the deemed disposition at death

can create a large tax bill. In the US, the federal estate tax exemption for 2026 is $15 million per person, so most couples never owe it, but state estate taxes and capital gains rules still matter. If your estate is large enough for tax to be a real question, that question alone justifies a lawyer.

If none of these apply, you are in the straightforward tier, and the free or low-cost routes are a reasonable choice.

How to choose

Use the free tool if your wishes match your partner's, you have shared children or no children, you own property in one jurisdiction, and you have no business or trust needs. Make the wills at farwellapp.com/last-will-reciprocal, sign them properly, and then do the part that matters most: make sure someone can find them. Read you just signed your will, here is the one step most people skip for that checklist.

Use a paid online service if you want powers of attorney and a healthcare directive in the same package, you want a polished guided process, or you want an update subscription so you can revise the documents yourself over the years. Compare the couples price, not the individual price, and check what updates cost after year one.

Use a lawyer if any of the five price drivers above apply, or if you are unsure whether they apply. One consultation can tell you which tier you are in, and many firms offer a fixed-fee first meeting. If the lawyer tells you your situation is simple, you can still use a free tool with confidence. That consultation is the cheapest insurance in estate planning.

Avoid a DIY will kit unless you genuinely understand your jurisdiction's execution requirements and your estate is very simple. The forms are cheap, $15 to $40, and the error rate is the problem: wrong witnesses, ambiguous gifts, a revocation clause that does not do what you think. A kit saves $100 and risks the whole estate.

The step after the price: making sure anyone can find them

Cost is the question couples ask first, and it is the least important part of the job. A $0 pair of mirror wills that your family can find, open, and act on beats a $2,000 pair sitting in a locked drawer that nobody knows about. The will itself is a document. The plan is the document, plus the delivery.

So once you have chosen a route and signed, do the rest. Decide where to store your will using the test that matters, whether your family can actually get to it. Understand what a will covers, and what it doesn't, because the passwords, the accounts, and the personal messages your family will need are not in the will and never will be. And make sure someone knows the wills exist in the first place.

That delivery piece is what Farwell was built for: your will, messages, files, and passwords, delivered to the people you choose, triggered by check-ins, after you go silent. The wills themselves are free. The plan around them is the part worth getting right.

This article is for general information only and is not legal advice. Will requirements, signing and witnessing rules, and probate fees vary by province and state, and prices change. Check the current price with the provider before you buy, and talk to a licensed estate lawyer in your jurisdiction before choosing a will structure, especially if you have children from a prior relationship, own property in more than one province or state, or are considering a trust.

About the author: David Yang is the Founder of Farwell. Farwell delivers your will, messages, files, and passwords to the people you choose, triggered by check-ins, after you go silent. Couples can make free mirror wills at farwellapp.com/last-will-reciprocal.

Sources and further reading: LegalTemplates 2026 nationwide study of 909 law firms, via Clear Money Guide, "How Much Does Estate Planning Cost? $0 to $5,000 in 2026"; Meet Neptune, "How Much Does an Estate Planning Attorney Cost in 2026?" and "How Much Does a Will Cost in 2026?"; LegalClarity, "How Much Do Lawyers Charge for a Will: Flat vs. Hourly"; The Pricer, "How Much Does Estate Planning Cost?"; BestMoney, "Best Online Will Makers of 2026"; Real Cost Report, "DIY Estate Planning Platforms Compared: Real 2026 Costs for Trust and Will vs LegalZoom vs Nolo"; The Modern Wallet, "Best Online Will Makers 2026"; LegalWills.ca, "Compare Online Will Services" and "Couple's Will: Writing Wills as a couple in Canada" (checked November 1, 2026); Ontario lawyer mirror will pricing as published by Diamond and Diamond, Solvine Law, Shaikh Law, and LegalClarity's Ontario cost guide, all accessed November 2026. Prices change; check the source before relying on a figure.