Probate guides
19 Jul 2026
Six questions, answered across all fifty states at once — with the statute behind every figure and the date a person last read it.
The state pages answer what probate costs where you are. These answer the questions that cut across them: what the executor may be paid, where the small-estate line sits, whether you need a lawyer, and what the law counts as part of the estate in the first place. No figure appears in a guide that is not already carried on a state page with its own source and its own verification date.
Figures are carried from the fifty state pages, each of which cites its own statute. The stamp shows the oldest verification date behind any figure quoted here.
Informational only, not legal advice. Figures verified on the date stamped. Details: /disclaimer/
The guides
Twenty-three states publish a rule for what the executor may be paid; twenty-one can be worked to the dollar. The figures at $500,000, the base each is charged on, and the two states no figure can be worked for.
Read the guide → Small estate limits by stateAll fifty thresholds, from $15,000 to $400,000, with the base each is measured on. The six patterns the limits fall into, and the two states that publish no operative figure at all.
Read the guide → Do you need a lawyer for probate?Seven states publish what a probate attorney may be paid, worked at $500,000. The other forty-three publish nothing, and what is fixed instead on those pages.
Read the guide → How to avoid probateThe routes the statutes actually publish, including seventeen states where the small-estate line sits at $100,000 or higher — and what running the full process costs instead.
Read the guide → What goes through probateAlmost no state publishes a list. What they publish is the base each fee is charged on, and the exclusions stated by name: joint property, life insurance, vehicles, the homestead.
Read the guide → Is probate required if there is a will?A will directs probate rather than avoiding it, and in several states it closes the cheapest route. Where the statute turns on whether there is a will, and what a named fee binds.
Read the guide →Start with your own state
Every guide draws on the fifty state pages, and each of those carries the whole cost picture for one state: the attorney fee where a schedule exists, the executor rule, the court’s filing fee, the creditor notice, the bond and the small-estate threshold, each with its source and its date.
Twenty states charge one flat court fee, from $45.00 in Alabama to $435.00 in California. Seven publish an attorney schedule. Twenty-three publish an executor rule. Forty-eight publish a small-estate threshold. The index shows which is which at a glance.
Or go straight to a state: California · Texas · Florida · New York · Ohio · Pennsylvania
Three tools, in the order most people need them
When a figure changes, know first
Statutes get amended and fee schedules get updated. Once a month, we send a short note listing every figure that changed and every page we re-verified. Reference, not marketing.
About these guides
What are these guides for?
Each one answers a question across all fifty states at once, using figures already carried on the state pages. Nothing here is new research: every number is taken from a statute or a court’s own fee schedule, verified on a stamped date, and linked back to the state page that carries it.
Where do the figures come from?
From the statute, the court rule, or the court’s published fee schedule, opened and read at source on the date stamped beside it. Where a source publishes no figure, we print that absence rather than filling the gap with an estimate. The standard is set out in full at our methodology page.
How often are they re-checked?
Every dated figure sits on a re-check calendar with its own date, and each state is swept at its annual re-check plus one all-state sweep each autumn. When a figure changes, the page is regenerated rather than hand-edited.
Which guide should I start with?
If you are dealing with an estate now, start with small estate limits by state — clearing the threshold removes most of the process and most of the cost. If you already know full probate applies, executor fees by state and do you need a lawyer for probate carry the two largest figures.
How these figures are verified
Every figure on this page is carried from a state page, and every figure on a state page was checked against the official source — the statute, the court rule, or the court’s own published fee schedule — on the date stamped beside it. No figure appears anywhere on this site that has not been opened and read at its source first. Where a source publishes no figure, we print that absence rather than filling the gap with an estimate.
The sources for each figure are listed on that state’s own page, with a direct link and a date. Our re-check cadence, and what we do when a statute changes, are set out at /methodology/.
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 your state. Full terms: /disclaimer/
All fifty state pages are published — use the index, or start with the Statutory Fee Calculator.