By Ronald C. Cantin, Attorney · LSBA #39827 · Pelican Succession Law

The hourly model — how it actually works

Most Louisiana firms still bill successions by the hour. The structure is straightforward: the attorney quotes an hourly rate (typically $250–$450 in Louisiana, higher in New Orleans for senior partners), collects a retainer (commonly $2,500–$7,500), and bills against it. When the retainer is exhausted, the firm asks for a replenishment. Time is tracked in tenths of an hour: a six-minute phone call is billed at 0.1, a 31-minute Petition for Possession review is billed at 0.6, and so on.

On paper this is fair. Every minute the firm spends on your matter, you pay for. Every minute it doesn’t, you don’t. In practice, hourly billing has structural friction. The client cannot easily predict the final cost — the firm honestly cannot either, because successions take longer when heirs are slow to respond, when documents are missing, when a parish clerk requests a correction. Clients ration their questions to keep the bill down, which leads to under-communication. And the attorney’s economic incentive (more hours = more revenue) is structurally misaligned with the client’s (fewer hours = lower bill).

The other thing hourly creates is the surprise invoice. A succession that the client thought would cost $4,000 lands at $7,200 because the title abstractor found an unrecorded mineral lease, the executor missed a deadline, and a third heir had to be located in Texas. None of this is unreasonable on the firm’s part — the work genuinely happened. But for a client who has already grieved, already paid funeral costs, and already taken time off work to handle the estate, the surprise invoice lands hard.

Hourly is the right model when the work itself is genuinely unpredictable. We say more about that below. But for the standard succession — one parish, no contest, modest complexity — hourly mostly transfers scoping risk from the firm to the client.

The flat-fee model — how Pelican does it

Pelican Succession Law charges a flat fee, set at the start of the engagement, after a free consultation in which we look at the death certificate, will (if any), property list, and heir list. The fee depends on matter type — small succession affidavit, independent administration, judicial succession with testament, intestate succession — not on how many hours the file ends up taking us. The price is the price.

This works because we have done a lot of Louisiana successions. We know what an uncomplicated single-parish succession with three heirs and one piece of real estate looks like — we know roughly how many hours it consumes, what the parish filing fees are, where the friction usually shows up. We price the engagement around the median case for that matter type, with a margin for the predictable variance, and we absorb the risk that any particular file goes long. That’s our risk to bear, not yours.

What this changes for the client is small but real. You can call us with a question without watching the clock. You can email a follow-up. You can ask us to walk through the Judgment of Possession with your sister-in-law in Houston. None of this changes the fee, because the fee is flat. The structural alignment of incentives shifts: we want to close your file efficiently and accurately, because every additional hour we spend is on us, not you.

The trade-off is honest: if your matter turns out to be genuinely simpler than the median — one heir, no real estate, just a small bank account — you may be paying slightly above what a strict hourly engagement would produce. We address that with a separate, lower flat fee for small succession affidavit matters specifically. If your matter turns out to be genuinely more complex — contested, multi-parish, litigation arises — we either re-scope at the start (before you sign), or we honor the flat fee for the agreed scope and quote separately for the unanticipated complexity. We don’t surprise-bill.

Side-by-side: flat-fee vs. hourly

Dimension	Hourly-Billing Firm	Pelican Flat-Fee
Typical final cost (standard succession)	$3,500 – $9,000+	Quoted up-front; usually $2,500–$5,500
Hourly rate	$250 – $450/hr	Not applicable
Retainer required	$2,500 – $7,500	None — flat fee only
Billing frequency	Monthly invoices against retainer	One fee, paid at engagement and/or close
Risk of surprise invoice	High — structural to the model	None for agreed scope
Attorney’s economic incentive	More hours = more revenue	Faster, cleaner close = better margin
Client comfort calling/emailing	Often rationed to control bill	Unlimited within the engagement
Cost transparency	Final cost unknown until close	Known before you sign
Typical time-to-close (uncontested)	3 – 9 months	4 – 12 weeks for standard succession
Best fit	Contested, multi-jurisdiction, litigation	Standard Louisiana successions
What’s outside the fee	Everything is billed	Court filing fees, certified copies, recordation

When hourly is still the right choice

We are not going to pretend flat-fee is universally superior. There are matters where hourly billing is structurally the right model, and a firm that flat-fees these is either pricing in enormous risk (you pay for it) or underwriting losses (which usually means corners get cut). The honest list:

• Contested successions with active litigation. When heirs are filing competing petitions, when the validity of a testament is being challenged, when forced-heirship claims are being asserted, the scope is genuinely unknowable. Hourly is honest in that environment. A firm that flat-fees a contested litigation matter is almost certainly going to under-serve it.
• Multi-jurisdictional or international estates. If the decedent owned property in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and a condo in Italy, you need coordination among ancillary probate counsel in each jurisdiction. The transaction costs are real and unpredictable. Hourly.
• High-net-worth estates with active tax planning. If the estate is subject to federal estate tax, has closely-held business interests requiring valuation, or has irrevocable trust structures needing administration, you want a firm that bills the work as it unfolds.
• Specialized litigation: tutorship of minors, interdictions, removal of executors. These are court-driven proceedings where scope expands and contracts based on opposing counsel’s tactics.

In each of these cases, what we do at Pelican is the same thing we wish every firm did: tell you up-front. If your matter is going to be one of these, we say so during the consultation. We may refer you to a litigation firm we trust. We may take the matter and convert to hourly with full disclosure. What we don’t do is take a flat fee on a matter we know is going to spiral.

When flat-fee is right for you — a decision framework

Flat fee is the right model if you can answer yes to most of these:

• The decedent died in Louisiana, or owned Louisiana real estate.
• The heirs are identified, alive, and in agreement about who they are.
• No one is contesting the will (or there’s no will and intestate succession applies cleanly).
• The estate is contained to one or two parishes, with no out-of-state probate required.
• The estate is not subject to federal estate tax (under the $13.99M 2026 federal exemption).
• You want a known total cost before you sign anything.

If that’s you — and statistically it’s about 85% of Louisiana successions — flat-fee is structurally better. You get cost certainty, you get an attorney whose incentives match yours, and you get to ask questions without watching a meter.

What Pelican actually charges

We publish flat-fee ranges publicly. Small succession affidavits, judicial successions with and without testament, intestate successions, and ancillary Louisiana proceedings each have their own band, scoped by complexity at the consultation. See our pricing page for the current published ranges, what’s included, and what is billed separately (parish filing fees, certified copies, recordation, etc.).

Frequently asked questions

What is included in Pelican’s flat fee?

The flat fee covers all attorney time on the engagement: initial consultation, drafting the Petition for Possession or Petition for Probate, drafting the Affidavit of Death and Heirship, drafting the Detailed Descriptive List, coordination with the parish clerk, drafting and submitting the Judgment of Possession, and reasonable client communication throughout. Court filing fees, certified copies of the death certificate, and recordation costs at the parish are passed through at cost and disclosed in writing at engagement.

What is NOT included in the flat fee?

Anything outside the scope agreed at engagement — primarily: contested litigation, ancillary probate in another state, federal estate tax return preparation, post-judgment real estate sale work, trust administration, and any work for individual heirs separate from the estate (e.g., personal tax advice for an heir). If any of these become necessary, we re-scope in writing before doing the work.

Can a flat-fee firm really handle a complex case?

For complexity that is predictable at the start — multiple parishes, mineral rights, a testament with unusual bequests, out-of-state heirs — yes, and the fee is scoped to reflect it. For complexity that is genuinely unpredictable — live litigation, removal proceedings — flat fee is the wrong model and we say so. We don’t take matters on a flat fee that we know belong on hourly.

What if my matter starts simple and gets complicated?

If unanticipated complexity arises mid-engagement — a previously unknown heir surfaces, a creditor disputes the descriptive list, a co-heir withdraws consent — we stop, explain the change, and offer you a written re-scope: either an amended flat fee for the new scope, or a conversion to hourly with full disclosure of the rate and expected range. You decide whether to proceed before we do the additional work.

Is there any retainer or up-front cost?

We typically collect a portion of the flat fee at engagement and the balance at the Judgment of Possession, with parish filing costs collected separately at the time of filing. There is no replenishing retainer and no monthly billing cycle. We also discuss payment plan options at the consultation for clients who need them.