Pricing
A first conversation is free. Beyond that, our fee schedule is still being finalised, so rather than print a number we have not committed to, this page explains how each service is priced and what we will never do.
This industry has a poor reputation for pricing and it earned it. The usual pattern is a percentage nobody explained, taken out of an estate at the end, by which point the family has no practical way to argue about it. We are not going to do that.
Four commitments hold whatever the final schedule says. They are not conditional on which service you use.
You see the figure before you agree
Every fee is written down and explained before you sign anything. If we cannot tell you what something will cost, we will tell you that instead of guessing at it.
No percentage of an estate without saying so
Where a fee is a share of what is recovered, we say the percentage out loud, in writing, before any work starts. We never take a share of an estate quietly.
We never hold estate funds
Money does not pass through us. Where property is recovered it goes from the Treasury or the buyer to you, not to an account of ours that you then have to chase.
The first conversation is free
However long it takes, and with no obligation afterwards. If the answer is that you need a probate attorney rather than us, that is a free answer too.
Service by service
The basis is settled. The figure is not, and it is marked as such rather than filled in with something plausible.
A price, not a fee
We buy directly, as the purchaser, so there is no commission and nothing is taken out of what you receive. You get a figure in writing with the closing costs set out beside it, before you agree to anything. If the figure is not good enough, say no. That costs you nothing and we will not ask twice.
A flat fee for a defined piece of work
Everything written on this site is free to read and stays free. If you want us to do something specific, we agree what that is first and quote one figure for it. No hourly billing that grows while you wait, and no percentage of the estate.
A flat fee for an agreed scope
Research is quoted against a scope you approve first: which records we search, which lines of the family we follow, and what you are handed at the end. We do not take a share of what any heir eventually inherits.
A capped percentage, and nothing if nothing is recovered
Pennsylvania caps a recovery fee at 15% of what is returned (72 P.S. § 1301.11(g)), and charging any fee at all requires a Certificate of Finder Registration from the PA Treasurer (72 P.S. § 1301.11a). Our own cap will be published here, at or below the statutory one, before we take a single case on that basis.
You can tell us what happened, which county the person lived in, and what is worrying you most, and we will tell you what Pennsylvania requires and what your options look like. That is free, however long it takes, and nothing about it obliges you to use us afterwards.
Three things you should expect from it:
Some of what an estate costs never reaches us at all. The Register of Wills charges a filing fee that varies by county and by the size of the estate. Advertising the grant is paid to the newspaper and the county legal journal. Certified copies, recording a deed and any appraisal are billed by whoever provides them. Inheritance tax is paid to the Commonwealth. Where a cost is set by someone else we will say so rather than wrap it into a fee of ours.
If you want to know what something would cost before this page is finished, ask us. Tell us what you need and we will give you a figure for it, or tell you plainly that it is not work we take on.
Tell us who died, which county they lived in, and what is worrying you most. If the answer is that you need a probate attorney rather than us, we will say so.
Free, and there is no obligation afterwards.