What Probate Costs in Every Major California City

California fixes probate compensation by statute and measures it on gross value, so what probate costs tracks the local housing market. Across the 139 largest California cities the combined sections 10800 and 10810 fee on a median home runs from $17,428 in Porterville to $64,540 in Mountain View.

Why the same statute produces different bills

The 139 largest California cities

Each row applies Probate Code sections 10800 and 10810 to that city’s median owner-occupied home value. The fee column is what the estate pays in total — the representative’s share and the attorney’s share added together — and the share column is that total as a percentage of the house before any mortgage is deducted, because the statute does not deduct it either.

Median value of owner-occupied housing units from the U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 5-year estimates, tables B01003 (population) and B25077 (median value of owner-occupied units), retrieved 2026-08-26. Fee figures are the statute applied to those values, not estimates or averages of what firms charge. The §13151 column reads the median only; the appraised value of a particular home decides the real case.

Probate administrator, executor, fiduciary — which do you need?

These are mostly the same job under different names, and searching the wrong one is common enough to be worth clearing up. California’s term is personal representative. Where there is a will and it names someone, that person is the executor. Where there is no will, or the named executor cannot serve, the court appoints an administrator — which is what most people mean by a “probate administrator”. Either way the appointment comes from the court under section 8000, priority is set by section 8461, and no authority exists until letters issue under section 8400.

Fiduciary describes the standard rather than the office. A personal representative is a fiduciary, and so is a trustee. California licenses professional fiduciaries under the Professional Fiduciaries Act, but Business and Professions Code section 6530 provides that the licensing requirement “does not apply to a person licensed as an attorney under the State Bar Act” — so a California attorney may serve in that role without a separate fiduciary licence. That matters when no family member is willing or able to serve, or when the family is in enough conflict that appointing one of them would guarantee litigation.

Whichever word brought you here, the two figures in the table above are the ones that decide the shape of the case: what the statute takes, and whether the estate can avoid administration at all.

What the table does not decide

The median is a starting point, not an answer. A home well above or below its city’s median moves both columns, other assets are added to the fee base, and extraordinary fees under section 10811 sit on top of the schedule for litigation, tax work or a sale of real property. The calculator returns the exact figure for a specific estate. What the table does show reliably is the shape of the problem: the fee is charged on gross value, so a mortgaged house is billed at its full appraised value and the percentage the family actually loses is considerably higher than any column here.

Related: the fee schedule in full, how administration works, the §13151 residence petition, the §13100 affidavit, and how long it all takes.