How much do executors get paid depends on where probate happens and what the will says, but the answer usually lands between 2% and 5% of the estate’s value. The fee comes out of estate funds before heirs receive anything, and three things set the number: the will, a state statutory formula, or a probate judge applying a “reasonable compensation” standard. What you actually keep depends on that fee, whether the work went beyond routine administration, and the taxes you’ll owe on it.
Who Sets the Fee
Start with the will. A will can name a specific dollar amount, an hourly rate, or a percentage of the estate, and probate courts generally honor those terms as the expressed wishes of the person who died. A beneficiary can still challenge the amount as unreasonable, but the will’s language is the first and strongest signal.
When the will is silent, state law fills the gap. Roughly a dozen states use a statutory formula based on a percentage of the estate. The remaining majority use a reasonable compensation standard, which hands the probate judge discretion to decide what the circumstances justify. A few states cap executor fees at a flat percentage regardless of estate size.
Even where a statute dictates a percentage, the number is more of a starting point than a guarantee. A beneficiary or interested party can object, and the court will then weigh the fee against what the executor actually did.
How Percentage Formulas Calculate the Fee
Statutory-percentage states apply the fee in tiers: a higher percentage on the first dollars, lower percentages as the estate grows. One common pattern allows 5% on the first $100,000, 4% on the next $200,000, 3% on the next $700,000, and progressively lower rates above that. Another starts at 4% and drops to 2% after $400,000. The brackets vary significantly from state to state.
In rough numbers, a $500,000 estate in a tiered state might generate a statutory fee somewhere between $10,000 and $15,000. A $1 million estate could land between roughly $18,000 and $25,000. Your own state’s brackets drive the exact figure.
Two details change the math more than people expect. First, the fee is calculated on the gross appraised value of probate assets, not the net value after debts. A house worth $400,000 with a $300,000 mortgage still counts as $400,000 for fee purposes. Some jurisdictions carve out an exception for real estate sales, calculating the commission on net proceeds, but the general rule favors gross value.
Second, assets that bypass probate are excluded entirely. Life insurance paid to a named beneficiary, retirement accounts with designated beneficiaries, payable-on-death bank accounts, and anything held in a living trust never pass through the executor’s hands and don’t factor into the fee. An estate that looks large on paper can produce a modest executor fee if most of its value moves outside probate.
What “Reasonable Compensation” Means in Discretionary States
In states without a formula, probate judges weigh several factors. The estate’s size and complexity are the starting point. Beyond that, courts look at hours logged, any special skills the executor brought to the job, how efficiently administration ran, and whether the executor’s decisions saved or made money for the estate.
Judges sometimes compare the proposed fee to the executor’s normal hourly rate at their day job, especially when time records are detailed. Professional fiduciaries and corporate trustees typically charge between 1% and 2% of the estate’s value annually, and that range often serves as a benchmark for evaluating what an individual executor requests.
Record-keeping is what separates executors who get paid what they ask for from those who get cut. Log hours, document tasks, keep correspondence. A fee request backed by detail is defensible. A lump-sum request with nothing behind it is where most fee disputes begin.
Extra Pay for Extraordinary Work
Standard duties include inventorying assets, paying creditors, filing tax returns, and distributing property. When an estate demands work well beyond that, the executor can petition the court for additional compensation on top of the statutory or agreed-upon fee.
Work that typically qualifies as extraordinary includes running a business the deceased owned until it can be sold, defending the estate against lawsuits or will contests, handling IRS audits or tax disputes, and overseeing complex sales of real estate or business interests that require active management. The petition is separate, and the court will want detailed records showing what was done, how long it took, and how the estate benefited.
What Shrinks the Fee
Several situations reduce what an executor takes home.
Co-executors split one fee. When a will names two or more co-executors, they generally share a single fee rather than each collecting the full statutory amount. The estate’s cost stays the same; the individual paycheck gets smaller. Most courts expect the split to track the work each person actually performed, not an even division. Disagreements go to the probate judge, and co-executors who kept better records of their own efforts have the advantage.
Courts can reduce or deny fees. Compensation is not guaranteed. Fees get cut for unreasonable delay in administration, poor record-keeping, breach of fiduciary duty (self-dealing, commingling estate funds, investments that benefit the executor at the estate’s expense), and mismanagement that lets assets lose value. In serious cases involving misappropriation or deliberate misconduct, courts can impose a surcharge requiring the executor to personally reimburse the estate, remove the executor, and strip the right to compensation for work already done.
When You Actually Get Paid
Executor fees are an administrative expense of the estate, which puts them ahead of beneficiary distributions in the payment order: debts and taxes first, executor compensation next, then inheritances.
The usual path runs through a final accounting. The executor prepares a document detailing every financial transaction during administration, including the proposed fee, and submits it to the probate court and the beneficiaries. Beneficiaries get an opportunity to object. If the court approves the accounting without a successful challenge, the executor pays themselves from estate funds.
Average probate runs six to nine months, but larger or contested estates can stretch two years or more. Some jurisdictions let executors take partial payments during administration rather than waiting until the end, usually by court order and more common in complex estates. That option matters when the alternative is working unpaid for a very long time.
Taxes on Your Executor Fee
Every dollar you receive as an executor is taxable income. The IRS requires personal representatives to include fees in gross income, and the estate does not withhold on your behalf, so the tax bill falls on you.1IRS. Publication 559 (2025), Survivors, Executors, and Administrators
Where you report it depends on whether this is a one-off or a line of work. If you’re administering the estate of a relative or friend and this isn’t something you do regularly, report the fee on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 8z as other income. Self-employment tax does not apply. If you serve as an executor with continuity and regularity across multiple estates, the IRS treats you as being in the trade or business of estate administration. Report the fees on Schedule C and expect to owe self-employment tax of 15.3% on top of income tax.1IRS. Publication 559 (2025), Survivors, Executors, and Administrators
One wrinkle catches people off guard: if the estate operates a business and you actively participate in running it during administration, the IRS treats fees connected to that business activity as self-employment income even if you’re not a professional executor.1IRS. Publication 559 (2025), Survivors, Executors, and Administrators
Should You Waive the Fee If You’re Also a Beneficiary?
Executor fees are taxable income. Inheritances are not. If your share of the estate is large enough that the fee doesn’t meaningfully change what you receive, waiving it and taking a bigger inheritance usually leaves more in your pocket after taxes.
Say you’re entitled to a $15,000 fee on a $500,000 estate and you’re the sole beneficiary. Taking the fee means paying income tax on that $15,000, and the remaining $485,000 passes to you tax-free. Waiving the fee means the full $500,000 comes to you as a tax-free inheritance. The math clearly favors waiving.
The calculation flips when the estate owes federal estate tax. Executor fees are deductible as an administration expense on the estate tax return, which can shrink the estate’s tax bill. For estates large enough to trigger federal estate tax, running both scenarios with an accountant before deciding is worth the consultation.