The cost of legal stuff

[milletpuff]

We had a meeting with a queer family lawyer today to talk about a second parent adoption (haha, we are not even preg yet!), and other legal stuff like durable power of attorney for healthcare, will, etc. that we have been wanting to put into place as a couple lately anyway.

She quoted $1500 for the adoption (includes the preliminary stuff that I can't recall by name right now, but the documents to protect the baby/our wishes before there is an official baby to adopt), and $1800-$2000 to do the other docs (will, DPOA for finances and health care, burial directive, and a few other that I also forget)

Have any of you done these docs through a lawyer, or yourselves? Do these costs seem in line?

Thanks!

[2happymamas]

That is about right, although a little less than what we paid.

We paid about 1250 for legal documents prior to her even being born. 2 wills and set up of trust fund, healthcare POA, financial POA, HIPPA, POA for unborn child, and I think something else.

The adoption was $2823

133 filing fee
70 punitive father affidavit
20 amendment to birth certificiate
2000 attorney fees
600 for homestudy

HTH!

[heart-n-bones]

Sounds about right to me. We paid 250 for the donor agreement (we used a known donor). We will pay 1800 for attorney fees for the second parent adoption (plus miscellaneous filing fees). And if the judge requires a home study, that will be about 500. An attorney friend did our will, DPOA's and such for free as a wedding gift, so I can't tell you how much that runs.

[megincl]

Sounds just about the same as ours, too.

Props to you for looking into this so far in advance. It is super smart!

[chicagoml]

this really makes me want to move

....to a state that's a little gay-friendlier than TN. I haven't had an official legal consultation but have asked a few attorney friends about second parent adoption. Apparently there's nothing on the books here but no one thinks it looks like a feasible option.

[lexbeach]

I would ask some local queer parents if I were you, because it really does vary by location since not all states makes you jump through the same hoops.

We didn't do anything before the birth. We actually didn't do anything until our twins were 3 years old. We didn't have the money. Luckily, everything was fine (and "domestic partner" benefits got the boys covered by dw's health insurance). I had heard from some people that it would cost at least $1,000 to do the adoption, but when I asked on a local queer parenting listserve, I found out that we could actually do it ourselves for FREE! We ended up hiring a lawyer anyway because my parents offered to pay for it, and it cost us $750 for BOTH kids in lawyer fees (the actual adoption didn't cost anything).

We are planning to do our two youngest kids' adoptions ourselves, since we can just look over the paperwork from last time and change the names and dates.

I guess all the other paperwork could feel important if you have unsupportive families or live in a very anti-gay area (i.e. where you'd need legal documents to allow both of you to be in the room with your baby in the hospital or something like that). But for us, it really wasn't necessary. We knew that my family would never try to take our babies away from dw if something happened to me, and all of the local hospitals, etc. never questioned the relationship between dw and the kids.

Good luck ttc!

Lex

[giggleblue]

that price seems about right. we are in the same process at the moment. unfortunately, we can't say that my mom wouldn't fight dp tooth and nail for the baby should something happen to me, so we are trying to secure our family as much as possible.

[Romana]

The estate planning costs sound about right to me.

[milletpuff]

Thanks! Very helpful, I'm glad to know those are in the ballpark.

[simcon]

I think our adoption was around $3000 (gotta start the process again!), but I just wanted to add in--don't forget that you can claim the credit on your taxes (so save all the receipts, etc!)