Data · Executor fees
How the executor is paid, by state
Administering an estate is work, and the law pays the person who does it — but it pays them in three quite different ways depending on the state. This table sorts the ten states Probatly covers into those three families and shows, where our verified data states one, what the rule produces on a $1,000,000 estate.
Three families of rules. Six states — California, Texas, Florida, New York, Ohio and Georgia — publish a statutory percentage schedule: the percentages are in the statute, and the fee is arithmetic. Three states — Pennsylvania, Illinois and Alabama — use a reasonable-compensation standard: the statute says the pay must be reasonable and just, and a court decides what that means. North Carolina sits in between: the Clerk of Court sets the fee, capped at 5% of receipts plus disbursements. Where a state has no schedule, this page says so rather than dressing a practice range up as law.
One warning about Pennsylvania in particular: the percentage schedule most guides quote for Pennsylvania comes from the Johnson Estate case — it is a case-law benchmark used by courts, not a statute, and retellings of its tiers vary slightly. It is labelled as a benchmark in the table below, and it should never be presented as a statutory schedule.
| State | How the executor is paid | Statute | Worked example | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | A statutory percentage schedule on the gross appraised value of the estate: 4% of the first $100,000, 3% of the next $100,000, 2% of the next $800,000, 1% of the next $9,000,000, and 0.5% of the next $15,000,000. The estate's attorney is entitled to the identical schedule. | Cal. Prob. Code §10800 (executor); §10810 (attorney) | $23,000 on a $1,000,000 estate — for the executor, and the same again for the attorney. | Verified Nov 7, 2026 |
| Texas | 5% of the cash the executor actually receives, plus 5% of the cash actually paid out — capped at 5% of the gross value of the estate. | Tex. Estates Code §352.002 | The commission is calculated on cash flow through the estate, not on the value of property that passes without being sold. | Verified Nov 7, 2026 |
| Florida | Florida publishes a compensation schedule the court presumes reasonable: 3% of the first $1,000,000, 2.5% of the next $4,000,000, 2% of the next $5,000,000, and 1.5% above $10,000,000. The estate's attorney has a parallel presumed-reasonable schedule — and the statute requires the attorney to disclose in writing that the schedule is not mandatory. | Fla. Stat. §733.617 (personal representative); §733.6171 (attorney) | Attorney schedule (§733.6171): $3,000 at $100,000, then 3% up to $1,000,000, on the same presumed-reasonable basis. | Verified Nov 7, 2026 |
| New York | Statutory commissions on amounts received and paid out: 5% of the first $100,000, 4% of the next $200,000, 3% of the next $700,000, 2.5% of the next $4,000,000, and 2% above $5,000,000. | SCPA §2307 | About $34,000 on a $1,000,000 estate. | Verified Nov 7, 2026 |
| Pennsylvania | The statute says only that compensation must be "reasonable and just." Courts commonly benchmark against the schedule from the Johnson Estate case (Orphans' Court, 1983) — one widely used version is 5% of the first $100,000, 4% of the next $200,000 and 3% of the next $700,000, with lower tiers above that. That schedule is a court benchmark, not a statute, and retellings of its tiers vary slightly. | 20 Pa.C.S. §3537; Johnson Estate benchmark (case law, not a statute) | Labelled as a benchmark wherever we use it — never presented as a statutory schedule. | Verified Nov 7, 2026 |
| Illinois | "Reasonable compensation" assessed by the court — Illinois has no statutory percentage. Secondary sources commonly cite a practice range of about 2–4% of the estate, which we publish as practice, not law. | 755 ILCS 5/27-1 | The 2–4% range is a secondary-source practice range, labelled as such. | Verified Nov 7, 2026 |
| Ohio | 4% of the first $100,000, 3% of the next $300,000, and 2% of everything above $400,000 — applied to personal property and to the proceeds of real estate that is sold, plus 1% on real estate that is not sold. | ORC §2113.35 | No worked example in our verified data — the rule in the previous column is the figure to work from. | Verified Nov 7, 2026 |
| Georgia | 2.5% of money received, plus 2.5% of money paid out, plus up to 3% — awarded by the court — on property delivered in kind rather than sold. | O.C.G.A. §53-6-60 | No worked example in our verified data — the rule in the previous column is the figure to work from. | Verified Nov 7, 2026 |
| North Carolina | The Clerk of Court sets reasonable compensation, capped at 5% of the estate's receipts plus disbursements combined. | N.C.G.S. §28A-23-3 | No worked example in our verified data — the rule in the previous column is the figure to work from. | Verified Nov 7, 2026 |
| Alabama | The court sets reasonable compensation. Secondary sources commonly cite a ceiling of 2.5% of amounts received plus 2.5% of amounts paid out — we publish that as the commonly cited ceiling, not as a statutory schedule. | Ala. Code §43-2-848 | Note: §43-2-848 covers the personal representative's compensation; attorney fees in Alabama are separately negotiated and court-approved as reasonable. Some guides confuse the two. | Verified Nov 7, 2026 |
Executor compensation is taxable income to the executor, is separate from attorney fees, and in schedule states is usually calculated on the value the statute specifies — which is not always the same base. Extraordinary services (selling real estate, running a business, litigation) can support additional compensation in several states; that is court-decided and is not in this table.
Two attorney-fee rules worth knowing before you hire one
California pays the attorney the same schedule as the executor. The statutory percentages that pay the personal representative under Cal. Prob. Code §10800 are payable, identically, to the estate’s attorney under §10810 — so on a California estate the schedule effectively runs twice, once for each of them.
Florida requires the attorney to tell you the schedule is optional. Florida’s attorney-compensation schedule is only presumed reasonable, and the statute requires the attorney to disclose in writing that the schedule is not mandatory — if a Florida engagement letter presents the schedule as a fixed tariff, that disclosure is the first thing to ask for.