How much does probate cost in West Virginia?
9 Aug 2026
West Virginia publishes the executor’s commission as a sliding schedule that works out to the dollar: 5% of the first $100,000.00, then 4%, 3% and 2% as the estate grows — plus 1% on real estate that is not sold, and nothing at all on joint and survivorship property.
Probate here runs before the county commission, not a court, and the state fixes no charge for opening an estate anywhere in its code — that figure is set locally and is not published statewide. What the state does fix is the other end: $20.00 for the clerk to publish the notice, a $300.00 ceiling on the fiduciary commissioner, and a per-word newspaper rate banded on circulation. And an estate appraised at $200,000.00 or less avoids the fiduciary commissioner entirely, which removes the biggest variable cost in West Virginia probate.
W. Va. Code §44-4-12a — West Virginia Code, published by the West Virginia Legislature · Verified 6 Aug 2026
Informational only, not legal advice. Figures verified on the date stamped. Details: /disclaimer/
Work it out on your own number
West Virginia is a statutory-formula state for the executor’s commission, so that computes exactly. The court side does not — the state simply does not print a charge for opening an estate.
| First $100,000.00 | 5% |
| Above $100,000.00 and not exceeding $400,000.00 | 4% |
| Above $400,000.00 and not exceeding $800,000.00 | 3% |
| Above $800,000.00 | 2% |
| Real estate not sold | 1% |
| Property not subject to administration but includable for federal estate tax | 1% |
| Joint and survivorship property, real or personal | no commission |
| Extraordinary services | the county commission may increase |
| Failure to discharge duties faithfully | the county commission may deny or reduce |
Worked through: a personal estate of $250,000.00 produces a commission of $11,000.00; $500,000.00 gives $20,000.00; $1,000,000.00 gives $33,000.00. A house worth $300,000.00 that is kept rather than sold adds $3,000.00 on the one per cent limb. A house held jointly with a surviving spouse adds nothing at all.
The base for the main schedule is the personal estate subject to administration, plus income received and accounted for, plus the gross proceeds of any real estate actually sold. Real estate that passes to the family sits on the separate one per cent limb, and joint and survivorship property is excluded entirely — which for most married readers removes a large part of what they would call the estate.
What each part costs
Every row is one figure, one source, one date. Where West Virginia fixes no price, the row says so instead of guessing.
| Fee | Amount or formula | Set by | Source | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attorney feeOrdinary services | No statutory rateWest Virginia fixes no attorney fee for probate. The article that governs accounting by fiduciaries contains no attorney compensation section — the contents list was read end to end, and the two compensation sections in it reach the fiduciary and the personal representative, not an attorney retained by the estate. What you pay is agreed with the lawyer. One rule is unusually clear and worth knowing before anyone is engaged: where the personal representative is themselves a lawyer and renders professional services, compensation for those professional services in addition to the commission shall not be allowed. The commission is all they get. | Agreement | W. Va. Code §44-4-12a(e), with the chapter 44 article 4 contents list Negative finding taken from the article’s own contents list, not from inference | 6 Aug 2026 |
| Personal representativeExecutor or administrator | 5% / 4% / 3% / 2%, plus 1%Commissions on all personal estate subject to administration, including income received and accounted for, and on the proceeds of real estate sold: five per cent of the first $100,000.00; four per cent of all above that up to $400,000.00; three per cent above that up to $800,000.00; and two per cent of everything above $800,000.00. Plus one per cent of the value of real estate not sold, and one per cent of property not subject to administration that is includable for federal estate tax. No commission at all on joint and survivorship property, real or personal. The basis is the gross proceeds of sale for real estate sold, and fair market value at the date of death for everything else, and the commission is full compensation for all ordinary services. Where several representatives serve they apportion by agreement, or in proportion to services rendered. The county commission may deny or reduce the commission for failure to discharge duties faithfully, and may increase it for extraordinary services. A testator may deviate from the schedule by express language in the will. | Statute — the schedule computes exactly | W. Va. Code §44-4-12a(a) to (d) and (f), with §44-4-12 A will’s express language displaces the schedule | 6 Aug 2026 |
| Court filing feeQualifying before the county commission | Not set by statuteWest Virginia fixes no charge for opening an estate, and we can say so with confidence rather than as a gap. Probate runs before the county commission and its clerk, not the circuit court. Both candidate fee sections were read end to end: the circuit court clerk’s schedule charges $200.00 to institute a civil action, but probate does not go to the circuit court and that fee does not attach; and the county commission clerk’s schedule is a recording schedule — deeds, plats, marriage licences — with no probate qualification item anywhere in it. What the county clerk charges to admit a will and qualify a personal representative is set locally and is not published in the Code. Ask the clerk of the county commission in the county where the estate will be opened. What the state does fix is at the other end: the clerk collects a flat $20.00 for publishing the notice of administration, and the fiduciary commissioner’s fee is capped — see the row below and the depth layer. | The county — the state fixes no figure | W. Va. Code §44-1-14a(g), read with §59-1-10 and §59-1-11 Both chapter 59 fee sections read in full; neither carries a probate qualification charge | 9 Aug 2026 |
| Newspaper publicationA pooled county notice — and a printed per-word rate | $0.07 to $0.14 per wordYou do not buy this advertisement. The fiduciary supervisor causes a combined notice to be published at least once a month, as a Class II legal advertisement in a newspaper of general circulation in the county, naming each decedent and fiduciary whose estate accounts have been filed — and your estate goes into it. Creditors then have sixty days from first publication to exhibit claims with legally verified vouchers to the fiduciary, or to the fiduciary supervisor. Separately, the clerk of the county commission publishes the notice of administration once a week for two successive weeks, within thirty days of the appraisement being filed or within a hundred and twenty days of qualification where no appraisement is required — and charges the estate a flat $20.00 for it. The rate a newspaper may charge is fixed by statute, per word, banded on circulation: seven cents a word for papers under 1,000 circulation, eleven and a half cents from 1,000 to 5,000, twelve cents over 5,000 and under 10,000, thirteen cents over 10,000 and under 30,000, and fourteen cents at 30,000 or more. Every publication after the first is charged at seventy-five per cent of the first. Where the advertisement is not set solid, the word count is computed as though it were, at eighty words to the single column inch in six-point type and fifty-four in eight point. A newspaper may charge less; it may not charge more. Circulation class is fixed annually by an affidavit filed with the Secretary of State, and a paper that files none is conclusively presumed to be under 1,000. | Statute — a printed per-word rate, banded on circulation | W. Va. Code §59-3-3, with §59-3-2 and §44-3A-4 The operative rates include the three one-cent annual increases written into §59-3-3(a) | 9 Aug 2026 |
| BondExecutor’s bond — a floor at the full personal estate | At the least the full value of the personal estate
|
Statutory floor, expanding where the will grants a power of sale | W. Va. Code §44-1-7, with §44-1-6 and §44-1-8 The base widens to include realty where the will authorises a sale | 6 Aug 2026 |
The $200,000 appraisement threshold is the most important number on this page, and it is not a small-estate limit. Where the appraisement shows the estate at $200,000.00 or less — exclusive of real estate specifically devised and of non-probate assets — or where there is only one beneficiary competent at law, settlement proceeds without reference to a fiduciary commissioner, unless a party in interest requests one or an unpaid creditor files a claim. That removes the single largest variable cost in West Virginia probate. Where a commissioner is appointed, the fee is capped at $300.00 plus expenses unless the personal representative consents to more or the county commission allows a higher figure on actual time under its published schedule.
How the West Virginia sources are linked. The West Virginia Legislature publishes one clean page per section, so every source above points at the exact section we read.
What can change the bill — allowances, waivers and one-off charges
- The fiduciary commissioner is the cost to watch. Each county commission promulgates by order a schedule of fees or a rate of compensation for the guidance of fiduciary commissioners, based on actual time spent and actual services rendered — and the statute provides that no fee may be based solely upon the amount of the estate. That is the strongest anti-percentage language in this database. The schedule is posted in a conspicuous place in the county courthouse.
- Every commissioner’s fee is reviewed. The commissioner submits an itemised statement of services and time for every estate, and the county commission may approve, disapprove or modify it, weighing the time and labour expended, the difficulty of the questions raised, the skill required, the customary fee for like work, and the time limitations imposed by the personal representative, a beneficiary or the circumstances.
- Publishing the notice of administration — $20.00 to the clerk of the county commission, and the clerk places the notice rather than leaving it to the estate.
- Recording and mailing the waiver of final settlement — $10.00.
- The circuit court’s $200 civil filing fee does not apply. West Virginia probate does not go to the circuit court, so that figure — which appears in many general guides — is not a probate cost here.
- A lawyer serving as executor cannot bill twice. Where the personal representative is a lawyer who renders professional services, compensation for those services in addition to the commission is not allowed.
W. Va. Code §59-1-9; §44-1-14a(a) and (g); §44-2-1; §44-4-12a(e) — West Virginia Code · Verified 9 Aug 2026
What changes YOUR number in West Virginia
- Probate runs before the county commission, not a court
- This is the thing that makes West Virginia different from every other state on this site, and it explains why no filing fee is printed anywhere. The county commission and its clerk administer estates, and a fiduciary supervisor and, where needed, a fiduciary commissioner do the work a probate judge does elsewhere. Any guide that quotes a West Virginia “court filing fee” is describing something else.
- The $200,000 line decides whether the expensive step happens
- Below it — measured on the appraisement, excluding specifically devised real estate and non-probate assets — the estate settles without a reference to a fiduciary commissioner, and the personal representative pays no further fees to one except for hearings. Above it, or where a party in interest asks or an unpaid creditor files a claim, a commissioner is appointed and their capped fee enters the picture. It is not a small-estate route, but it changes the bill more than the small-estate route does.
- A fee cannot be charged as a percentage of the estate
- §59-1-9 tells county commissions to set fiduciary commissioner compensation on actual time spent and actual services rendered, and adds expressly that no fee may be based solely upon the amount of the estate. It is the sharpest statement of that principle we have found, and it is worth citing if a commissioner’s bill arrives as a flat percentage.
- Joint property earns the executor nothing
- The commission schedule excludes joint and survivorship property, real or personal, entirely. For a married couple holding the house and the accounts jointly, that can take most of what they would call the estate outside the commission base — and it is why a West Virginia commission is often much smaller than the headline percentages suggest.
- Selling the house changes the commission
- Real estate that is sold goes into the main schedule at its gross proceeds, at five, four, three or two per cent. Real estate that is kept attracts one per cent of its value. The decision to sell therefore changes what the executor is entitled to, sometimes substantially.
- The bond grows if the will lets the executor sell land
- Most states set the bond against the personal estate. West Virginia does too — until the will authorises the executor to sell real estate or receive the rents and profits, at which point the floor becomes the full value of both. A power of sale in the will is convenient and it costs something.
- You are still liable without a surety
- Where the executor is the sole beneficiary, no surety is required on the bond. The statute is careful to add that the executor remains liable on their own personal recognizance for default or misadministration. No surety is not no exposure.
- The publication cost is genuinely small, and mostly not yours
- The estate is listed in a pooled monthly county notice rather than buying its own advertisement, and the clerk’s charge for the notice of administration is a flat twenty dollars. Where a per-word charge does arise, the statutory rate makes it computable: a three-hundred-word notice run twice costs about $36.75 in the smallest-circulation paper and about $73.50 in the largest, since the second run is charged at three-quarters of the first.
West Virginia’s small-estate route is $50,000 — and no West Virginia real estate at all
The small estate of a person who died domiciled in West Virginia, owning no probate real property or any interest in it, may be administered on affidavit and without the appointment of a personal representative. The affidavit states that the entire personal probate estate at the date of death, wherever located, consists only of small assets whose aggregate fair market value does not exceed $50,000.00.
- The real-property bar is absolute, not a second cap. Any interest in West Virginia probate real property closes the route whatever it is worth.
- The waiting period depends on who signs. At least thirty days must have elapsed where the affiant is nominated as personal representative or executor under the will, and at least sixty days where they are not. No application for appointment may be pending or granted in any jurisdiction.
- The affidavit is filed with the clerk of the county commission or the fiduciary supervisor, who records and indexes it. No bond, security or oath is required.
- The clerk issues a certificate and authorization of small estate, good for six months and extendable once by up to six months for good cause.
- An interested person may object within thirty days of the mailing, and the objection may revoke the certificate and force a full probate.
- This is not a no-consequence shortcut. The authorised successor holds a fiduciary duty to safeguard and pay over the assets, may apply them to the administrative costs of obtaining the certificate, the funeral expenses and known creditors’ claims — and is liable to the decedent’s successors for breach for three years from the issue of the certificate.
- A payor who delivers a small asset is discharged as if it had dealt with a personal representative and need not inquire into the truth of the affidavit; a payment made in good faith is not void merely because the aggregate value later turns out to exceed $50,000.00. A successor or creditor may within six months bring a proceeding in equity before the circuit court to subject real estate to the payment of debts where the small assets are insufficient.
This figure drifts. The small estate provisions were amended in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2025 — four times in six years. Check the current session before relying on the number.
W. Va. Code §44-1A-2, §44-1A-3 and §44-1A-4 — West Virginia Code · Verified 6 Aug 2026
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West Virginia probate cost questions
How much does an executor get paid in West Virginia?
West Virginia publishes a schedule and it works out to the dollar: five per cent of the first hundred thousand, four per cent up to four hundred thousand, three per cent up to eight hundred thousand and two per cent above that — so a personal estate of five hundred thousand dollars produces twenty thousand. Real estate that is sold goes into that schedule at its gross proceeds; real estate that is kept attracts one per cent instead. Joint and survivorship property earns no commission at all. The county commission can reduce the fee for failure to discharge duties faithfully or increase it for extraordinary services, and a will can set a different figure.
Does West Virginia set probate attorney fees by statute?
No. The article governing accounting by fiduciaries contains no attorney compensation section — what you pay is agreed with the lawyer. One rule is worth knowing before anyone is engaged: where the personal representative is themselves a lawyer and renders professional services, they may not be paid for those services in addition to the commission. The commission is all they get.
What does it cost to file for probate in West Virginia?
The state does not say, and that is a settled finding rather than a gap. Probate runs before the county commission rather than a court, and neither the circuit court clerk’s fee schedule nor the county commission clerk’s recording schedule carries a probate qualification charge. What the county clerk charges to admit a will and qualify a representative is set locally and is not published in the Code, so ask the clerk of the county commission where the estate will be opened. Two figures the state does fix: twenty dollars for the clerk to publish the notice of administration, and a three hundred dollar ceiling on the fiduciary commissioner’s fee.
Does an executor need a bond in West Virginia?
Normally yes, and the amount must be at least the full value of the personal estate being administered — more if the will authorises the executor to sell real estate or receive the rents and profits, in which case the floor covers both. A will directing that the executor give no bond is honoured unless an interested person applies and the county commission requires one after a hearing. Where the executor is the sole beneficiary, or the administrator the sole distributee, no surety is required — but the executor remains personally liable for default or misadministration either way.
Does West Virginia have a small estate affidavit?
Yes, for estates of fifty thousand dollars or less in personal probate assets wherever located, and only where the person owned no West Virginia probate real property at all. No personal representative is appointed: an affidavit is filed with the clerk of the county commission or the fiduciary supervisor, and a certificate and authorization of small estate is issued, good for six months. Thirty days must have passed if the affiant is nominated in the will, sixty if not. No bond or oath is needed, but the authorised successor takes on a fiduciary duty and can be sued for breach for three years, and an interested person can object within thirty days.
Sources & verification
Every figure on this page was checked against the official source on the date shown. The West Virginia Legislature publishes one clean page per section, so each link below opens the exact section we read.
- Attorney fee — the stated absence, and the lawyer-executor bar — W. Va. Code §44-4-12a(e) code.wvlegislature.govVerified 6 Aug 2026 · chapter 44 article 4 contents list read end to end; no attorney compensation section exists · annual statutory re-check
- Personal representative’s commission — W. Va. Code §44-4-12a, with §44-4-12 code.wvlegislature.govVerified 6 Aug 2026 · all worked figures produced by running the band arithmetic in code · annual statutory re-check
- Fiduciary commissioner compensation — set by the county, never by percentage — W. Va. Code §59-1-9 code.wvlegislature.govVerified 6 Aug 2026 · county schedules are posted in the courthouse and are not published statewide · annual statutory re-check
- No state charge for opening an estate — the negative, twice confirmed — W. Va. Code §59-1-10 and §59-1-11 code.wvlegislature.govVerified 8 Aug 2026 · both read as full-page PDFs · §59-1-10 is a recording schedule; §59-1-11 is the circuit court clerk, which probate does not use
- Notice of administration, the clerk’s $20 charge and the $200,000 line — W. Va. Code §44-1-14a(a) and (g) code.wvlegislature.govVerified 9 Aug 2026 · the only flat statewide dollar figure in West Virginia probate · annual statutory re-check
- The pooled county notice and the sixty-day claim window — W. Va. Code §44-3A-4 code.wvlegislature.govVerified 9 Aug 2026 · most recent amendment 2016 Regular Session, Enrolled House Bill 4235 · annual statutory re-check
- Publication rate and the Class II schedule — W. Va. Code §59-3-3, with §59-3-2 code.wvlegislature.govVerified 9 Aug 2026 · read as PDFs · the operative rates include the three one-cent annual increases written into subsection (a) · annual statutory re-check
- Bond — W. Va. Code §44-1-7, with §44-1-6 and §44-1-8 code.wvlegislature.govVerified 6 Aug 2026 · annual statutory re-check
- Small estate — the route, the duties and the liability — W. Va. Code §44-1A-2, with §44-1A-3 and §44-1A-4 code.wvlegislature.govVerified 6 Aug 2026 · read as PDFs · amended 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2025 · 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 West Virginia. Full terms: /disclaimer/ · Privacy
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