How much does probate cost in Oregon?
9 Aug 2026
Oregon publishes the executor’s commission as a sliding schedule and works out to the dollar: 7% of the first $1,000.00, 4% of the next $9,000.00, 3% of the next $40,000.00, and 2% of everything above $50,000.00.
A fifth limb adds 1% of property that never passes through the court but is reportable for Oregon or federal estate tax, excluding life insurance proceeds. The base is wider than almost anywhere else — it takes in income received during administration and gains realised and unrealised, and each asset is counted at its highest recorded value. The attorney fee has no percentage at all but the most detailed reasonableness test in the country: seven factors, none of them controlling. And Oregon charges the court twice — once to petition, once again to file the accounting.
ORS 116.173(3) — Oregon Revised Statutes, chapter 116, published by the Oregon Legislative Assembly · Verified 6 Aug 2026
Informational only, not legal advice. Figures verified on the date stamped. Details: /disclaimer/
Work it out on your own number
Oregon is a statutory-formula state, so the commission computes exactly. Here is the schedule, with the court’s two-charge ladder beside it.
| Any sum not exceeding $1,000.00 | 7% |
| All above $1,000.00 and not exceeding $10,000.00 | 4% |
| All above $10,000.00 and not exceeding $50,000.00 | 3% |
| All above $50,000.00 | 2% |
| Property not subject to the court’s jurisdiction but reportable for estate tax, excluding life insurance proceeds | 1% |
| Extraordinary and unusual services | court may allow more |
| Court — petition, estate under $50,000.00 · accounting | $278.00 · $35.00 |
| Court — petition, $50,000.00 to under $1m · accounting | $591.00 · $298.00 |
| Court — petition, $1m to under $10m · accounting | $882.00 · $591.00 |
| Court — petition, $10m or more · accounting | $1,176.00 · $1,176.00 |
Worked through: a probate estate of $100,000.00 produces a commission of $2,630.00; $500,000.00 gives $10,630.00; $1,000,000.00 gives $20,630.00; $50,000.00 gives $1,630.00. Add $2,000.00 for every $200,000.00 of reportable non-probate property. On the court side, a $500,000.00 estate pays $591.00 to petition and $298.00 to file the accounting — $889.00 in all.
Oregon’s base is not the inventory. It includes income received during administration, gains realised on sales, unrealised gains on assets acquired during administration, amounts recovered on a personal injury claim and proceeds of a wrongful death claim — and each asset is taken at its highest value across the inventory, any supplemental inventory, any interim account and the final account. Feeding the calculator a date-of-death figure will understate the Oregon commission.
What each part costs
Every row is one figure, one source, one date. Where Oregon fixes no price, the row says so instead of guessing.
| Fee | Amount or formula | Set by | Source | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attorney feeOrdinary services | No statutory rateNo percentage. The personal representative is allowed, in the settlement of the final account, all necessary expenses incurred in the care, management and settlement of the estate — including reasonable fees of appraisers, attorneys and other qualified persons employed by the representative. A partial award may be allowed earlier on a petition showing that the final account reasonably cannot yet be filed. What makes a fee reasonable is a seven-factor test, set out in the depth layer below, and the statute says expressly that no single factor is controlling — including any fee agreement. One procedural protection is unusual and worth knowing: before the court awards less than the amount requested, it must allow the attorney an opportunity to submit additional supporting material. Separately, a representative who defends or prosecutes any proceeding in good faith and with just cause, successful or not, is entitled to necessary expenses and disbursements including reasonable attorney fees. | The court, on seven factors, none controlling | ORS 116.183 Chapter 116 is published as one page; use Ctrl+F for 116.183 | 6 Aug 2026 |
| Personal representativeExecutor or administrator | 7% / 4% / 3% / 2%, plus 1%A commission upon the whole estate: seven percent of any sum not exceeding $1,000.00; four percent of all above $1,000.00 and not exceeding $10,000.00; three percent of all above $10,000.00 and not exceeding $50,000.00; two percent of all above $50,000.00. Plus one percent of property, excluding life insurance proceeds, that is not subject to the jurisdiction of the court but is reportable for Oregon or federal estate tax. Property subject to the court’s jurisdiction is defined widely — everything owned at death that is subject to administration, amounts recovered on a personal injury claim, all income received during administration, gains realised on sales during administration beyond the stated value, unrealised gains on assets acquired during administration, and proceeds recovered in a wrongful death claim. Each asset is valued at its highest figure across the inventory, any amended or supplemental inventory, any interim account and the final account. Further compensation may be allowed for extraordinary and unusual services. Where the will makes special provision for compensation, the representative gets nothing else unless a written renunciation of the will’s provision is signed and filed before appointment. Where assets are insufficient to pay expenses or claims in full, compensation may not exceed the statutory amounts. | Statute — the schedule computes exactly | ORS 116.173, with ORS 113.038 A different method of compensation may be requested in the petition for appointment | 6 Aug 2026 |
| Court filing feeTwo charges, not one | $278.00 to $1,176.00 — twiceThe probate court collects a filing fee for the petition for appointment of personal representative on four bands: under $50,000.00, $278.00; $50,000.00 to under $1 million, $591.00; $1 million to under $10 million, $882.00; $10 million or more, $1,176.00. Then it charges again for the annual or final accounting, on the same bands: $35.00, $298.00, $591.00 and $1,176.00. A full Oregon probate therefore pays the court twice, and a budget built on the petition fee alone understates by up to $1,176.00. A wrongful death settlement brought for the benefit of the surviving spouse or dependents is expressly not part of the estate for working out which band applies. The simple estate affidavit pays the flat simple-proceeding fee of $124.00 instead. Anyone filing an appearance in a probate proceeding pays separately under ORS 21.135. | Statute — four bands on estate value | ORS 21.170, with ORS 21.145 Chapter 21 is published as one page; use Ctrl+F for 21.170 | 6 Aug 2026 |
| Newspaper publicationNotice to interested persons — once only | Capped at the paper’s open display rateNot fixed by statute — but the rate is capped by reference. Compensation for the publication of any public notice required by law may not exceed the rate a newspaper publishes as its open display advertising rate: the per column inch rate charged to local advertisers who are not under contract for a fixed rate or a minimum quantity. No cents figure exists anywhere, so the ceiling is whatever that paper’s open rate is — ask for it. You choose the published size of the notice, but it must afford the public reasonable ease in reading, and any notice that must be typeset has to be in a type size no smaller than the paper’s own regular classified columns. On the schedule: the notice runs once in a newspaper published in the county where the proceeding is pending, or in a newspaper the court designates, and creditors have four months from the date of publication. Failure to publish is a breach of duty to the persons concerned but does not affect the validity of the appointment. Where the petition states no assets are known, no publication is needed until assets appear, and then within thirty days of the inventory that first shows them. | Statutory ceiling, set by reference to a private rate | ORS 113.155, with ORS 193.090 and 193.010 One insertion — the shortest publication requirement in this database | 9 Aug 2026 |
| BondPersonal representative’s bond | Required before the representative may act — amount set by the court
|
Court’s discretion, on three statutory factors | ORS 113.105, with ORS 113.115 ORCP 82 D to G is a Rule of Civil Procedure and is not read here | 6 Aug 2026 |
Oregon is a statutory-formula state, and it is often described as a reasonable-compensation one. It is not. ORS 116.173(3) publishes a banded percentage schedule in the same shape as California’s, and the number computes to the dollar. What Oregon leaves to reasonableness is the attorney fee, not the representative’s.
How the Oregon sources are linked. The Oregon Legislative Assembly publishes one long HTML page per chapter and no address for an individual section, so every source above points at the chapter page with the section number printed beside it. Use your browser’s find command on the section number to reach it.
What can change the bill — allowances, waivers and one-off charges
- The accounting fee is the one people miss. Filing the annual or final account costs from $35.00 to $1,176.00 on the same four bands as the petition. It is a second charge on the same estate, not a substitute for the first.
- A wrongful death settlement for the family does not count toward the band. The amount of a settlement in a wrongful death action brought for the benefit of the surviving spouse or dependents is expressly not part of the estate for the purpose of determining which court-fee band applies.
- An appearance costs extra. Anyone filing an appearance in a probate proceeding pays the fee established under ORS 21.135 — a charge that falls on other parties, not on the estate.
- A partial fee award is available before the final account. On a petition showing that the final account reasonably cannot be filed yet, the court may allow part of the necessary expenses, including attorney fees, early.
- Good-faith litigation is an estate expense. A representative who defends or prosecutes a proceeding in good faith and with just cause, whether successful or not, is entitled to receive necessary expenses and disbursements including reasonable attorney fees from the estate.
- A different method of compensation can be requested at the outset. The petition for appointment may ask for one, and the court may grant it on specific facts showing the statutory commission would be inadequate — with notice to distributees, the Department of Human Services and the Oregon Health Authority, twenty days to object, and a hearing before appointment.
ORS 21.170(2), (3) and (4); ORS 116.183(1) and (3); ORS 113.038 — Oregon Revised Statutes · Verified 6 Aug 2026
What changes YOUR number in Oregon
- The base is wider than the estate
- Oregon’s commission runs on the whole estate as the statute defines it, and that definition reaches further than most: everything owned at death subject to administration, amounts recovered on a personal injury claim, all income received during administration, gains realised on sales during administration beyond the stated value, unrealised gains on assets acquired during administration, and proceeds recovered in a wrongful death claim. A long administration holding income-producing assets grows the base as it runs.
- Each asset is counted at its highest recorded value
- Not the date-of-death value, and not the final value — the highest figure the asset carries across the inventory, any amended or supplemental inventory, any interim account and the final account. An asset that rose and then fell is counted at the peak.
- The seven factors for the attorney fee
- Customary fees in the community for similar services · the time spent by counsel · counsel’s experience in such matters · the skill displayed · the result obtained · any fee agreement between the representative and counsel · the amount of responsibility assumed by counsel considering the total value of the estate · and other relevant factors. No single factor is controlling, which means a signed engagement letter does not settle the fee in Oregon the way it does in some states — it is one input among seven.
- The court must invite more material before cutting a fee
- Before awarding attorney fees in an amount less than the amount requested, the court must allow the attorney an opportunity to submit additional materials supporting the requested figure. That is a procedural protection with no equivalent in most states, and it is worth citing if a fee is challenged.
- A will’s compensation clause has to be renounced before appointment
- Where the will makes special provision for compensation, the representative takes that and nothing else — unless a written renunciation is signed and filed prior to appointment. After appointment the will’s figure stands, whatever the schedule would have produced.
- An insolvent estate caps the fee at the statutory amount
- Where the assets are insufficient to pay all expenses or claims in full, compensation may not exceed what the schedule and the extraordinary-services provision allow. The route to more than the schedule closes when the estate cannot pay its debts.
Oregon’s simple estate affidavit has two limits, and both must be met
Not more than $75,000.00 of the fair market value may be attributable to personal property other than manufactured homes, and not more than $200,000.00 to the combined value of real property and manufactured homes. It is two simultaneous caps, not one threshold — you cannot trade one allowance against the other.
- The values are gross. The fair market value of the entire interest is used without reduction for liens or other debts, which is the opposite of most states’ small-estate rules.
- Manufactured homes count with real property, not personal. That single classification decides a lot of Oregon estates and is easy to get wrong.
- Fair market value is measured at the date of death — or, where the death was more than a year before the affidavit is filed, at a date within forty-five days before filing.
- The affidavit may not be filed until thirty days after the death.
- The clerk charges the flat simple-proceeding fee of $124.00, not the probate scale, and no fee is charged for an amended affidavit.
- Exceeding the limits ends the route, it does not amend it. If the fair market value turns out to exceed the caps, the affiant may not file an amended affidavit, the affiant’s authority is terminated, and notice must promptly be filed with the court that the estate is not subject to the simple estate provisions.
- A separate route exists for a person who died with a will, applying the same two limits to property specifically devised to devisees other than the trustee of a pre-existing trust, with the balance devised to that trustee.
Oregon renamed this route. It is now the simple estate affidavit, not the small estate affidavit, and both §114.510 and §114.515 were amended recently — 2025 c.34 §2 and 2025 c.342 §1a for the first, 2023 c.17 §3 for the second. Older guidance using the old name is likely to carry old figures with it.
ORS 114.510 and 114.515 — Oregon Revised Statutes, chapter 114 · Verified 6 Aug 2026
Check your own estate against the Oregon route →
Three tools, in the order most people need them
Oregon probate cost questions
How much does an executor get paid in Oregon?
Oregon publishes a schedule and it works out to the dollar: seven percent of the first thousand dollars, four percent of the next nine thousand, three percent of the next forty thousand, and two percent of everything above fifty thousand. So an estate of five hundred thousand dollars produces a commission of ten thousand six hundred and thirty dollars, and one of a hundred thousand produces two thousand six hundred and thirty. A further one percent applies to property that never passes through the court but is reportable for estate tax, excluding life insurance. The base is wide — it includes income received and gains made during administration, and each asset counts at its highest recorded value.
Does Oregon set probate attorney fees by statute?
No percentage, but the most detailed reasonableness test in the country. The court considers customary fees in the community for similar services, the time counsel spent, counsel’s experience, the skill displayed, the result obtained, any fee agreement, and the responsibility assumed given the total value of the estate. No single factor is controlling, so a signed fee agreement is one input among seven rather than the answer. Before awarding less than the amount requested, the court must give the attorney a chance to submit further material supporting the figure.
What does it cost to file for probate in Oregon?
Two charges, not one. The petition for appointment costs two hundred and seventy-eight dollars for an estate under fifty thousand, five hundred and ninety-one up to a million, eight hundred and eighty-two up to ten million, and one thousand one hundred and seventy-six above that. Then the annual or final accounting is charged again on the same bands, from thirty-five dollars to one thousand one hundred and seventy-six. So a five hundred thousand dollar estate pays eight hundred and eighty-nine dollars in total. A simple estate affidavit pays a flat one hundred and twenty-four dollars instead.
Does an executor need a bond in Oregon?
Yes, unless an exception applies — the representative may not act at all, and letters may not issue, until a bond is provided. The court sets the amount, weighing the nature, liquidity and apparent value of the assets, the anticipated income during administration, and the probable indebtedness and taxes. A will saying no bond is required will normally be honoured, and so will the representative being the sole heir or devisee, but the court can still require one for good cause in either case. Two practical waivers exist: written confirmation from a bank that property can only be withdrawn on court order, or a court restriction on selling or encumbering anything without prior approval.
Does Oregon have a small estate affidavit?
It is now called a simple estate affidavit, and it has two limits that must both be met: no more than seventy-five thousand dollars of personal property other than manufactured homes, and no more than two hundred thousand dollars of real property and manufactured homes combined. The values are gross, with no reduction for liens or debts, which is unusual. Thirty days must have passed since the death, and filing costs a flat one hundred and twenty-four dollars. If the value turns out to exceed either limit the route closes entirely — no amended affidavit is possible, the affiant’s authority ends, and a full probate has to be opened.
Sources & verification
Every figure on this page was checked against the official source on the date shown. The Oregon Legislative Assembly publishes one long page per chapter with no address for an individual section, so each link below opens the chapter and the section number is printed beside it.
- Attorney fee and the seven-factor test — ORS 116.183 www.oregonlegislature.govVerified 6 Aug 2026 · amended 2021 c.282 §20 · annual statutory re-check
- Personal representative’s commission — ORS 116.173 www.oregonlegislature.govVerified 6 Aug 2026 · last amended 2019 c.166 §10 · annual statutory re-check
- An alternative method of compensation — ORS 113.038 www.oregonlegislature.govVerified 6 Aug 2026 · requested in the petition, decided before appointment · annual statutory re-check
- Court filing fees — petition and accounting — ORS 21.170 and ORS 21.145 www.oregonlegislature.govVerified 6 Aug 2026 · last amended 2019 c.605 §§5 and 6 · ORS 21.135 named and not read · annual statutory re-check
- Publication — the notice — ORS 113.155 www.oregonlegislature.govVerified 6 Aug 2026 · last amended 2023 c.18 §1 · one insertion, four-month claim bar · annual statutory re-check
- Publication — the rate ceiling and what qualifies as a newspaper — ORS 193.090, with ORS 193.010, 193.020 and 193.070 www.oregonlegislature.govVerified 9 Aug 2026 · §193.090 stable since 1979 c.760 §3; §193.010 amended 2023 c.257 §1 to add the digital newspaper definition · annual statutory re-check
- Bond — ORS 113.105, with ORS 113.115 www.oregonlegislature.govVerified 6 Aug 2026 · last amended 2019 c.678 §35 · ORCP 82 D to G is a court rule and is not read · annual statutory re-check
- Simple estate affidavit — ORS 114.510 and 114.515 www.oregonlegislature.govVerified 6 Aug 2026 · §114.510 amended 2025 c.34 §2 and 2025 c.342 §1a; §114.515 amended 2023 c.17 §3 · closer watch than the annual re-check
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 Oregon. Full terms: /disclaimer/ · Privacy
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