Executor fees by state
19 Jul 2026
Twenty-three states publish a rule for what the executor may be paid. In twenty-one of them the figure can be worked to the dollar. The other twenty-seven leave it at “reasonable compensation” for a judge to review.
Executor and personal representative are the court’s two words for the same job, and the pay is the same question either way. Where a schedule exists it is usually a percentage, and on a $500,000 estate the worked figure runs from $10,000.00 in Wisconsin to $25,000.00 in Kentucky, South Carolina and Texas. What most people get wrong is not the percentage but the base it applies to: several states charge on the personal estate only, leaving the house out entirely, and two charge on the money that moves through the estate rather than on what the estate is worth. Every figure below is worked from the state’s own statute and carries the date that statute was last opened and read.
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/
Work it out on your own number
The table below is worked at $500,000 so the states can be compared on one line. Your estate is not $500,000. Put your own figure into the calculator and it works your state’s schedule band by band, names the base it is charged on, and cites the statute underneath.
The calculator carries verified band data for every state in the country and stamps each result with the date the underlying statute was last checked. Where the executor is paid on a narrower base than the attorney, it says so on the result rather than quietly using the same number twice.
What the executor fee actually is
- It is pay for a job, not a share of the estate
- The executor collects the assets, pays the debts and taxes, files the accounts and distributes what is left. The fee is compensation for doing that work, and it comes out of the estate before the beneficiaries are paid. An executor who is also a beneficiary often waives it, because a legacy is not taxed as income and a fee usually is. That is a decision for your own tax position, not a rule.
- The percentage is the easy half; the base is the hard half
- A rate means nothing until you know what it is charged on. Kentucky’s ceiling is five per cent of the personal estate, with real property excluded from the base entirely, so a house does not enter the calculation at all. Nevada charges on the estate accounted for less liens and encumbrances, a narrower base than its own attorney schedule uses. Maryland charges on the property subject to administration, not on gross estate value. Where the base is narrower than the whole estate, we mark it in the table.
- A ceiling, a floor and an exact figure are three different things
- The same percentage carries a different promise in different statutes. Missouri’s schedule is a minimum the court must exceed where reasonable compensation is higher. Iowa’s and Kentucky’s are ceilings, and the court may allow less. California’s and Ohio’s are exact. Read the word beside the figure before you read the figure.
- Two roles, two fees, sometimes twice over
- In California the executor is paid on the identical schedule as the attorney, so a $500,000 estate that uses both pays $13,000.00 twice. Wyoming does the same under a second section, which makes the true statutory cost of the two roles $20,700.00 rather than $10,350.00. Reading one line alone underestimates it by half.
The twenty-one states you can work a figure for
On an estate of $500,000, worked band by band from each state’s own statute. The middle column is what the statute calls the figure; it changes what the number means. Where the base is narrower than the whole estate, the note says what it is charged on.
| State | What the statute calls it | Executor fee |
|---|---|---|
| Kentucky personal estate only, real property excluded | maximum | $25,000.00 |
| South Carolina personal property plus realty actually sold | maximum | $25,000.00 |
| Texas ceiling only; cash in and cash out, most cash excluded | maximum | $25,000.00 |
| New Jersey corpus commissions; income taken separately | maximum | $20,500.00 |
| West Virginia personal estate plus realty sold | exact | $20,000.00 |
| Maryland property subject to administration | maximum | $19,080.00 |
| New York receiving and paying out at half the rate each | exact | $19,000.00 |
| Arkansas personal property administered | maximum | $15,150.00 |
| Florida compensable value of the estate | presumed | $15,000.00 |
| Ohio personal property, income, realty sold | exact | $15,000.00 |
| Missouri personal property plus realty sold by court order | minimum | $14,050.00 |
| California gross value accounted for, debts not deducted | exact | $13,000.00 |
| Oklahoma whole estate accounted for, non-assets excluded | exact | $12,600.00 |
| South Dakota personal property accounted for; permissive | default, adjustable | $12,585.00 |
| Alabama property received plus disbursements, two limbs | maximum | $12,500.00 |
| Louisiana inventory, and only where the will is silent | default, adjustable | $12,500.00 |
| Nevada estate accounted for less liens and encumbrances | minimum | $11,150.00 |
| Oregon the whole estate, each asset at its highest value | exact | $10,630.00 |
| Wyoming probate estate accounted for; no ceiling | minimum | $10,350.00 |
| Iowa gross assets in the inventory | maximum | $10,120.00 |
| Wisconsin inventory value less mortgages and liens | default, adjustable | $10,000.00 |
Read the base note before you compare two states. Kentucky and Texas both show $25,000.00 here, but Kentucky reaches it only on $500,000 of personal property with the house left out, and Texas caps a commission that is charged on cash actually received and actually paid out, with cash already in the bank at the date of death, life insurance proceeds and cash paid to heirs all excluded. The real Texas figure is usually far below the cap.
Five words, five different promises
Every fee on this site carries one of these words, taken from how the statute reads. On the executor side, five of them appear:
- exactThe figure is fixed by law. California, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon and West Virginia are this.
- minimumA floor; the court must allow more where reasonable compensation exceeds it. Missouri, Nevada and Wyoming are this.
- maximumA ceiling; the court allows a reasonable fee up to it, and may allow less. Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, South Carolina and Texas are this.
- default, adjustableApplies unless the will or an agreement says otherwise. Louisiana, South Dakota and Wisconsin are this, and in Louisiana the testament governs first, then an agreement between the administrator and the surviving spouse and the competent heirs; the 2.5 per cent applies only where both are silent.
- presumedPresumed reasonable, not mandatory. The schedule is what the law presumes reasonable, not what every estate pays — many settle below it, and the court can allow less. Florida is this.
South Dakota is marked plain on the state index rather than carrying a schedule mark, because its percentage applies only where the will is silent or there is no will, and the statute says the representative may be allowed it rather than shall.
Two states publish a rule you cannot turn into a figure
- Georgia
- Georgia publishes the commission, but it runs on the money that moves through the estate, not on what the estate is worth. Where the will or a written agreement does not say otherwise, the personal representative takes 2.5 per cent of all sums received and 2.5 per cent of all sums paid out. Until the estate is administered, nobody knows what those sums are.
- North Carolina
- North Carolina publishes a ceiling, not a rate, and it runs on receipts and expenditures rather than on estate value. The clerk fixes the commission and it may not exceed five per cent of the amounts received plus five per cent of the expenditures made in accordance with law.
We publish the rule and state the absence rather than inventing a percentage of estate value that the statute does not authorise.
The twenty-three states with a published rule
Each page shows the schedule, the base it is charged on, the statute, and the date it was last read at source.
The twenty-seven that publish none
These states entitle the representative to reasonable compensation and print no percentage. Their pages say so plainly and show what is fixed — the court fee, the bond, the creditor notice, the small-estate shortcut.
Reasonable compensation is not the same as free. It means the amount is argued and approved rather than printed in advance, and the court can cut it. The full picture for every state, attorney fee included, is on the probate cost pillar.
If the estate is small enough, none of this applies
Forty-eight states publish a threshold under which a shorter process runs — an affidavit, or a simplified court administration, depending on the state. The line starts at $5,000 in Arizona and runs to $400,000 in Wyoming, with California’s primary-residence route reaching $750,000 on its own separate ceiling. Below the line there is usually no commission to argue about at all. Check yours in thirty seconds:
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.
Executor fee questions
What is the average executor fee?
There is no honest national average, because twenty-seven states publish no percentage at all and the twenty-three that do are charged on different bases. What can be said exactly: on a $500,000 estate the worked statutory figure is $25,000.00 in Kentucky, South Carolina and Texas, $20,500.00 in New Jersey, $19,000.00 in New York, $15,000.00 in Florida and Ohio, $13,000.00 in California and $10,000.00 in Wisconsin. Your state page has your answer, cited.
Is the executor fee taken from the estate or from the beneficiaries?
From the estate, before anything is distributed. Administration costs are paid before other claims, so the fee comes out first and reduces what beneficiaries receive. The executor does not pay it personally.
Can an executor waive the fee?
Yes, and family executors often do. Where the executor is also a beneficiary, taking a legacy instead of a fee can be the better result, because the two are usually treated differently for tax. That is a question for a tax adviser or an attorney in your state, not something a fee schedule decides.
Does the house count towards the executor fee?
It depends on the state, and this is where most estimates go wrong. Kentucky charges on the personal estate and excludes real property from the base entirely. South Carolina charges on personal property plus the proceeds of realty actually sold. Ohio and West Virginia charge on personal property plus realty sold. California charges on the gross value of the estate accounted for, with debts and mortgages not deducted. The base is printed beside every figure in the table above.
Can the court allow more than the published schedule?
In several states, yes. Missouri, Nevada and Wyoming publish minimums the court must exceed where reasonable compensation is higher, and Wyoming’s statute has no ceiling at all. Kentucky may allow more for unusual or extraordinary services, and Oregon and West Virginia both provide for extraordinary-service allowances on top. Where the word is maximum, the movement runs the other way and the court may allow less.
What if the will already names a fee?
The will usually governs. In Louisiana the testament comes first and the 2.5 per cent applies only where both the testament and the heirs’ agreement are silent. In Oklahoma a compensation provision in the will is full compensation unless the executor renounces it in writing. Several states allow a representative to renounce a will provision where there is no contract with the decedent. If a will names a figure, read it before you rely on a schedule.
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/
Next: what probate costs in total, state by state, at how much does probate cost — or go straight to California, New York, Texas or Florida.