How much are probate fees?

How much are probate fees?

Attorney Gadi Zohar explains:

Probate fees are determined by statute generally. So first of all, to back up with probate you have fees and you have costs. The costs are what the court charges, like the fee to file a petition is about $500 and those are the costs. The fees are generally the attorney fees and the fees that an administrator or an executor is entitled to.

There are statutory fees. They are set by law, and they’re based on a percentage of the estate. Generally, you can calculate statutory fees to be somewhere around 2.5-3% of the value of the estate. There’s a formula for that. And the executor and the attorney are each entitled to those, although sometimes executors who are family members don’t take those.

Then there are extraordinary fees that are for extraordinary services that do come up sometimes in probate, not often not not, not usually. But they do come up sometimes. And those all have to be approved by the court at the end of the day. The important thing is that none of those fees should come out of your pocket.

All of the probate fees and costs should come out of the estate. We never require anyone to deposit money with us from their personal funds. All the fees and all the costs come out of the probate estate.