By Corcoran Smith Law Corp. · Published 2026-08-20 · Updated 2026-09-27

California Probate Costs: Executor and Attorney Fees

California sets the executor fee and the probate attorney fee by statute, on the same schedule, and each is paid separately: four percent of the first $100,000, three percent of the next $100,000, two percent of the next $800,000, and one percent of the next $9 million, measured on gross estate value. The court allows the fees, an executor can waive theirs, and extraordinary work can add more.

How executor and attorney fees are calculated

Calculate the ordinary scheduled compensation for a specific estate — including what it costs as a share of the equity before fees, expenses and taxes, once a mortgage is taken into account.

What the schedule produces

Ordinary services only. Extraordinary fees, filing fees, publication, appraiser fees and bond are additional.

What are extraordinary fees in California probate?

What typically counts as extraordinary

• Selling real property, including the confirmation hearing
• Litigation brought by or against the estate
• Contested creditor claims
• Tax work beyond routine filings
• Running a business the decedent owned
• Handling difficult or contested distributions

How to test whether a request is reasonable

The petition has to show the work. Where it does not — where hours are vague, or the same task appears in both the ordinary and extraordinary column — that is the ground a beneficiary objects on. A request that would leave the attorney earning several times the statutory fee on a straightforward estate invites scrutiny, and the court decides, not the parties.

When are probate fees actually paid?

Compensation is allowed by the court on petition, often at final distribution. Section 10830 also permits a petition for interim compensation after four months have elapsed since letters were first issued to a general personal representative; payment is not necessarily deferred until the estate closes. Section 10501 reserves allowance of both the representative’s and the attorney’s compensation to the court even where full independent authority was granted, so neither can simply pay themselves along the way. A representative who does is exposed to surcharge.

What else does probate cost?

The statutory fee is the largest line but not the only one, and the others arrive earlier.

Can a beneficiary object to the fees?

Yes, and this is the practical reason the allowance is a court decision rather than an invoice. Because compensation is sought by petition on notice, a beneficiary can object to extraordinary fees, to the valuation the statutory fee was calculated on, or to both. Objecting to the ordinary fee itself rarely succeeds — it is fixed by statute — but objecting to the base sometimes does, because an inflated appraisal raises the fee on both sides. That is one reason the inventory and appraisal deserves attention when it is filed rather than a year later.

How can these fees be reduced or avoided?

Almost entirely by keeping assets out of administration in the first place, since only what passes through probate is counted. After a death, check whether probate is needed at all before assuming the schedule applies.

• A funded living trust — assets titled in the trust never enter the calculation
• A spousal property petition — no value limit at all
• The section 13151 petition — a primary residence up to $750,000 for deaths from April 1, 2025 through March 31, 2028
• The section 13100 affidavit — up to $208,850 for deaths on or after 1 April 2025
• Joint tenancy and transfer on death deeds — pass outside the estate
• A Heggstad petition — where a trust exists but an asset was never retitled into it

A representative who is also a beneficiary sometimes waives their own statutory fee, which halves the combined cost. It is a real saving and worth raising early, though it is a decision with tax consequences worth taking advice on.

Why this drives so many decisions

The statutory fee is the main reason California families work so hard to keep estates out of probate, and the reason a living trust is usually recommended. It is also why the gross-value rule matters: a heavily mortgaged property can generate a fee out of all proportion to what anyone inherits. The fee calculator shows that gap for a specific estate, and the city comparison shows the fee on a median home in each larger California city.

Related: the administration process, what the representative must do to earn it, when each cost falls, and what contested matters cost, which is a different question. This schedule governs probate only — a trustee has no statutory percentage, and trustee compensation is decided a different way entirely.