How much does probate cost in Virginia?
2 Aug 2026
Virginia taxes probate rather than charging a flat fee — 10 cents per $100 of the estate, plus a possible local third. Nothing is taxed at or below $15,000.
No percentage is fixed for the attorney or for the personal representative. Both are allowed by a commissioner of accounts — a lawyer the circuit court appoints to examine fiduciary accounts — as reasonable compensation, described in the Code as a commission on receipts or otherwise. The clerk’s own charge for appointing and qualifying you is small, $20.00 to $30.00 on a three-band scale. The creditors’ notice is optional, and a representative who in good faith does not publish is not liable to anyone for that choice. The bond is set at the full value of the personal estate, but the security behind it is usually waived.
Va. Code §58.1-1712 — Code of Virginia, published by the Virginia Division of Legislative Automated Systems · Verified 2 Aug 2026
Informational only, not legal advice. Figures verified on the date stamped. Details: /disclaimer/
Work it out on your own number
Virginia taxes probate rather than charging a flat fee — 10 cents per $100 of the estate, plus a possible local third. It is one of the few states whose court cost is a formula on the estate value, so the calculator can work it to the dollar.
| Estates of $15,000 or less | no tax at all |
| State probate tax | $0.10 per $100 of value, or fraction of $100 |
| Local probate tax, if your county or city imposes it | one third of the state tax |
| Recording the list of heirs or affidavit of real estate, if charged | $25.00 |
| Qualification fee — estates of $5,000 or less | no fee |
| Qualification fee — estates not exceeding $50,000 | $20.00 |
| Qualification fee — estates not exceeding $100,000 | $25.00 |
| Qualification fee — estates exceeding $100,000 | $30.00 |
| Attorney | reasonable, allowed on the account |
| Personal representative | reasonable, allowed on the account |
Worked through, at the full one-third local tax: an estate of $100,000.00 pays $100.00 in state tax and $33.33 locally — $133.33 in all. An estate of $400,000.00 pays $533.33. An estate of $750,000.00 pays $1,000.00. Above $100,000 add the $30.00 qualification fee.
The statute taxes every $100 or fraction of $100, so the count rounds up: an estate of $100,050 is taxed on 1,001 units, not 1,000. Where the estate exceeds $15,000 a return must be filed with the clerk when the will is offered for probate or administration is sought, stating the value of the real estate and the estimated value of the personal property at the date of death.
The local third is permissive: a county or city may impose it, and most do. Where your locality has not, take the state column alone. Neither professional fee can be computed from an estate value in Virginia, because no percentage exists to compute.
What each part costs
Every row is one figure, one source, one date. Where Virginia fixes no price, the row says so instead of guessing.
| Fee | Amount or formula | Set by | Source | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attorney feeCounsel employed on the estate’s behalf | No statutory scheduleVirginia publishes no percentage and no schedule for the estate’s attorney, and the review is not done by a judge. Every qualified fiduciary in Virginia accounts to a commissioner of accounts — a lawyer appointed by the circuit court to examine fiduciary accounts — and it is the commissioner who, in stating and settling the account, allows the fiduciary any reasonable expenses incurred. Legal fees paid to an attorney employed on the estate’s behalf are allowed at that stage as an expense of administration, and what is reasonable is the commissioner’s judgement on the account rather than a figure fixed anywhere in the Code. Many Virginia commissioners publish their own guideline schedules setting out rates they will allow without further explanation, and those schedules differ from one circuit to the next. They are not law, and this page prints none of them. | The commissioner of accounts, on the account | Va. Code §64.2-1208(A) Credit line ends at 2012 c. 614; the 2026 act did not touch this section | 10 Aug 2026 |
| Personal representativeExecutor or administrator | A commission on receipts, rate not fixedThe commissioner of accounts allows the fiduciary reasonable compensation, and the Code describes its usual shape without fixing its size: a commission on receipts, or otherwise. That phrase is the whole of Virginia’s statutory guidance on how a personal representative is paid — the form is named, the rate is not. Where the fiduciary renders services in connection with real estate owned by the beneficiary, compensation may also be allowed for those services and measured against the income from or the value of that real estate. One firm rule exists, and it protects professional fiduciaries rather than families: where the compensation of an institutional fiduciary is specified in the will or trust by reference to a standard published fee schedule, the commissioner shall not reduce it below the amount specified, unless there is sufficient proof that the testator was not competent when the instrument was executed, or that the compensation is excessive against what institutional fiduciaries generally receive in similar situations. An individual personal representative gets no equivalent protection. | The commissioner of accounts, on the account | Va. Code §64.2-1208(A) and (B) Last amended 2012 c. 614 | 10 Aug 2026 |
| Court costProbate tax plus qualification fee | $0.10 per $100, plus a possible local thirdVirginia taxes probate rather than charging for it, and the tax dwarfs the fee. A tax is imposed on the probate of every will and on every grant of administration at 10 cents for every $100 of the value of the estate, or fraction of $100 — and it does not apply at all to estates of $15,000 or less. On top of the state tax, the governing body of any county and the council of any city may impose a local probate tax equal to one third of the state tax, and may charge $25.00 for recording the list of heirs or the affidavit of real estate. Where the estate exceeds $15,000 a return must be filed with the clerk at the time the will is offered for probate or the grant of administration is sought. The clerk’s own fee for appointing and qualifying a personal representative runs on three bands: $20.00 for estates not exceeding $50,000, $25.00 for estates not exceeding $100,000, and $30.00 for estates exceeding $100,000, with no fee at all for estates of $5,000 or less. | State tax, an optional local tax, and statutory clerk fees | Va. Code §58.1-1712, §58.1-1714 and §58.1-1718, read with §17.1-275(A)(2), (3), (8), (9) and (38) | 2 Aug 2026 |
| Newspaper publicationNotice to creditors | Optional — and no rate is fixedOptional, and the law says so plainly: the representative may publish but is not liable for choosing not to. If you publish, the newspaper sets the rate. The section is new — §64.2-508.1 was enacted in 2026. Where the option is taken, the notice runs once a week for two consecutive weeks, not the usual three, in a newspaper of general circulation in the city or county where the representative qualified, and at the same time a copy must be personally delivered or sent by first class mail to the last known address of everyone with a disputed claim who is actually known or can be found with reasonable diligence. The deadline the notice must state is the later of at least six months from first publication, or 90 days after the representative mails or delivers a copy to that claimant — so the bar date differs from creditor to creditor. Within 30 days of completing publication the representative files an affidavit with the clerk proving it. The consequence of using the section is a cap rather than a bar: where a claim is not timely presented, the liability of the representative and any surety is limited to the assets still in hand. | The newspaper, if you choose to publish | Va. Code §64.2-508.1(B), (C), (D) and (F), read with §8.01-324 2026 c. 382; §8.01-324 sets who may publish, not what they may charge | 9 Aug 2026 |
| BondPersonal representative’s bond | Full value of the personal estate — security usually waived
|
Statute for the amount; the court or clerk for the security | Va. Code §64.2-504 and §64.2-505, read with §64.2-1411(A) and (C) §64.2-1411 last amended 2025 c. 148 | 2 Aug 2026 |
Amount and security are two different things, and most Virginia summaries collapse them. The bond is always sized at the full value of the personal estate. Whether anyone has to stand behind it is a separate question, and in ordinary family estates the answer is usually no.
Any description of Virginia creditor notice written before 2026 describes the old regime. Section 64.2-508.1 is new law from the 2026 session, and it made publication optional, set a two-week schedule, and put an express no-liability rule on the decision not to publish.
How the Virginia sources are linked. The Division of Legislative Automated Systems publishes the Code of Virginia with a clean address for each section, so every source above opens the exact section we read.
What can change the bill — allowances, waivers and one-off charges
- Recording the will and the qualification papers, charged by length — $18.00 for ten pages or fewer, $32.00 for eleven to thirty pages, $52.00 for thirty-one pages or more.
- Recording the list of heirs or the affidavit of real estate — up to $25.00, where your county or city charges it.
- Lodging a will with the clerk for safekeeping — $5.00. Annexing the seal of the court — $2.00. Copies — $0.50 a page.
- Qualifying with no surety on a small asset estate — the clerk issues a Qualification Certificate for Small Asset Estate where the assets coming to the fiduciary do not exceed $35,000.00. It is usable once and carries the clerk’s impression seal; assets in a safe deposit box are not counted.
- You may not have to pay at all. Where the estate is $15,000.00 or less, no probate tax is imposed — and where it is $5,000.00 or less, no qualification fee is charged either.
- A person who has to move for security to be required on a bond may be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs out of the estate.
- Publishing is free to read. Any notice published under §8.01-324 must be posted on the newspaper’s own website and on a searchable statewide repository maintained jointly by Virginia newspapers, accessible to the public at no charge.
Va. Code §17.1-275(A)(2), (3), (8), (9) and (38); §58.1-1712; §64.2-1411(A) and (C); §64.2-505; §8.01-324(G) — Code of Virginia · Verified 2 Aug 2026
What changes YOUR number in Virginia
- Your account is reviewed by a lawyer, not a judge
- Virginia is alone in this database in routing fiduciary accounts through a commissioner of accounts — a lawyer the circuit court appoints for that purpose. The commissioner states and settles the account and allows reasonable expenses and compensation. Many commissioners publish local guideline schedules of the rates they will allow without further explanation, and those schedules differ from circuit to circuit. They are not law, and no figure from any of them appears on this page.
- A commission on receipts — the form is named, the rate is not
- The Code says the fiduciary is allowed reasonable compensation in the form of a commission on receipts or otherwise. That is the whole of the statutory guidance on size. Where the fiduciary does work connected with real estate owned by the beneficiary, compensation may also be allowed for that work and measured against the income from or the value of that real estate.
- The one hard rule protects banks, not families
- Where an institutional fiduciary’s compensation is specified in the will or trust by reference to a standard published fee schedule, the commissioner shall not reduce it below the specified amount, absent proof that the testator was not competent when the instrument was executed or that the compensation is excessive against what institutional fiduciaries generally receive. An individual executor has no equivalent floor.
- The bond amount and the security behind it are different questions
- The bond is always at least the full value of the personal estate, plus the value of real estate the will lets the representative sell or take rents from. Whether anyone has to guarantee that bond is decided separately, and security must be required except where all the beneficiaries or distributees are themselves the representatives, or where the will waives security for an executor it nominates. Anyone with a pecuniary interest can still move for security, and may have their attorney fees paid out of the estate for asking.
- The creditor clock is a later-of test, so it differs per creditor
- Where notice is published, a claim must be presented by the later of at least six months from first publication or 90 days after the representative mails or delivers a copy to that claimant. A creditor written to late therefore has longer than one written to early. Missing the date caps the representative’s exposure to the assets still in hand rather than extinguishing the claim, and a legatee already paid can be sued to refund for up to five years.
- Every $100 or fraction of $100
- The probate tax counts units of $100 and rounds the count up, so an estate of $100,050 is taxed on 1,001 units. On an estate of $400,000 with the full local third the total is $533.33; on $750,000 it is $1,000.00.
Virginia has two routes, and the smaller one asks for no paperwork at all
Virginia has two simplified routes; the dollar test above covers the small-asset affidavit at $75,000.00; the second turns on the size of a single asset rather than the whole estate. Neither reaches real property. A small asset means any debt owed to the decedent, or any asset belonging or presently distributable to the decedent other than real property, worth no more than $75,000.00 at the date of death — bank, savings, credit union and brokerage accounts, securities, deposits, tax refunds, overpayments, items of tangible personal property, and instruments evidencing a debt, obligation, stock or chose in action.
- The affidavit route, $75,000. The decedent’s entire personal probate estate, wherever located, must not have exceeded $75,000.00 at the date of death; at least 60 days must have passed; no application for a personal representative may be pending or granted anywhere; and the will, if there was one, must have been duly probated.
- The affidavit is made by all of the known successors on a form prepared by the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia, and names one designated successor to receive payment on behalf of them all. That person then owes the others a fiduciary duty to pass the money on.
- The no-affidavit route, $35,000. Where a single small asset is worth $35,000.00 or less, anyone holding it may pay or deliver it to a successor with no affidavit whatever, provided 60 days have passed since the death and no personal representative is pending or appointed. No other state in this database releases an asset on nothing at all.
- The 60-day wait applies to both routes.
- Neither route touches real property. Virginia real property passes by the list of heirs or the affidavit of real estate under §64.2-509 and §64.2-510, which is a different mechanism entirely.
The figure $35,000 appears three times in Virginia for three unrelated purposes — the no-affidavit release above, qualifying without surety, and the Qualification Certificate for Small Asset Estate. They are separate rules and satisfying one does not satisfy another.
Va. Code §64.2-600, §64.2-601(A) and §64.2-602(A) — Code of Virginia · Verified 2 Aug 2026 · §64.2-601 last amended 2026 c. 40
Check your own estate against the Virginia route →
Three tools, in the order most people need them
Virginia probate cost questions
How much does an executor get paid in Virginia?
There is no percentage in the Code. The commissioner of accounts allows reasonable compensation, described as a commission on receipts or otherwise, when the account is stated and settled. Many commissioners publish local guideline rates they will allow without further explanation, and those differ from circuit to circuit, but they are not law. Where the fiduciary does work connected with real estate owned by the beneficiary, compensation may also be allowed for that work.
Does Virginia set probate attorney fees by statute?
No. Legal fees paid to an attorney employed on the estate’s behalf are allowed as a reasonable expense of administration when the commissioner of accounts settles the account. The Code fixes no schedule and no percentage. Virginia is unusual in that the reviewer is a lawyer appointed by the circuit court rather than a judge.
What does it cost to file for probate in Virginia?
Virginia taxes probate rather than charging a flat fee: ten cents for every hundred dollars of the estate, or fraction of a hundred, with nothing taxed at or below fifteen thousand dollars. Your county or city may add a local tax equal to one third of the state tax. The clerk also charges a qualification fee of twenty, twenty-five or thirty dollars depending on the size of the estate, and nothing at all at or below five thousand dollars. On an estate of four hundred thousand dollars with the full local third, the tax is five hundred and thirty-three dollars and thirty-three cents.
Does an executor need a bond in Virginia?
Yes, and it is set at the full value of the personal estate, plus the value of any real estate the will lets you sell or take rents from. Whether anyone has to stand behind the bond is a separate question. Security must be required except where all the beneficiaries or distributees are themselves the representatives, or where the will waives security for an executor it names. Anyone with a pecuniary interest can still ask the court to require security, and may be awarded their attorney fees out of the estate for asking.
Does Virginia have a small estate affidavit?
Two routes. Where the whole personal probate estate did not exceed seventy-five thousand dollars at the date of death, all the known successors sign an affidavit on the Supreme Court of Virginia form naming one of them to collect on behalf of all. Where a single asset is worth thirty-five thousand dollars or less, whoever holds it may simply pay or deliver it to a successor with no affidavit at all. Both need sixty days to have passed since the death, and neither reaches real property.
Sources & verification
Every figure on this page was checked against the official source on the date shown. The Virginia Division of Legislative Automated Systems publishes the Code of Virginia with a clean address for each section.
- Attorney fee and the commissioner of accounts — Va. Code §64.2-1208(A) law.lis.virginia.govVerified 10 Aug 2026 · credit line runs to 2012 c. 614 and no further; re-read at source and confirmed untouched by the 2026 act · annual statutory re-check
- Personal representative’s commission and the institutional-fiduciary floor — Va. Code §64.2-1208(A) and (B) law.lis.virginia.govVerified 10 Aug 2026 · same section as the attorney fee · annual statutory re-check
- Probate tax, local tax and the return — Va. Code §58.1-1712, §58.1-1714 and §58.1-1718 law.lis.virginia.govVerified 2 Aug 2026 · worked examples on this page computed from the printed rate · annual statutory re-check
- Clerk’s fees, including qualification and recording — Va. Code §17.1-275(A)(2), (3), (8), (9) and (38) law.lis.virginia.govVerified 2 Aug 2026 · annual statutory re-check
- Publication, and that it is optional — Va. Code §64.2-508.1 law.lis.virginia.govVerified 9 Aug 2026 · new law, 2026 c. 382, the only 2026 enactment in this database · re-read at the next Virginia session
- Who may publish, and the free public posting — Va. Code §8.01-324 law.lis.virginia.govVerified 9 Aug 2026 · last amended 2024 cc. 277 and 341 · read in full and it fixes no price or rate ceiling, recorded as a checked negative
- Bond amount, security and the no-surety certificate — Va. Code §64.2-504, §64.2-505 and §64.2-1411(A) and (C) law.lis.virginia.govVerified 2 Aug 2026 · §64.2-1411 last amended 2025 c. 148 · annual statutory re-check
- The two small-estate routes — Va. Code §64.2-600, §64.2-601(A) and §64.2-602(A) law.lis.virginia.govVerified 2 Aug 2026 · §64.2-600 and §64.2-602 last amended 2025 c. 148; §64.2-601 last amended 2026 c. 40
Researched and verified by John Terra · Methodology
This page is information, not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws and fee schedules change; every figure here was verified on the date stamped beside it. For advice about your own situation, consult an attorney licensed in Virginia. Full terms: /disclaimer/ · Privacy
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