Understanding Probate Fees in California

What families in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties need to know — without the confusion.

When a loved one passes away owning a home or other assets, one of the first things families want to know is: how much is this going to cost? It’s a reasonable question, and the answer is less scary than you might have heard.

The goal of this page is to give you a clear, honest picture of how probate attorney fees, administrator fees, and ancillary costs actually work in California — and to clear up some of the most common misconceptions we hear from families every day.

NOTE: This article uses the terms “administrator” and “executor” interchangeably.  There is no meaningful distinction between the two roles relevant to this article.

1. All Probate Fees Come Out of the Estate — Not Your Pocket

This surprises many families. The attorney’s fees, the administrator’s fees, and most costs of administration are paid from the assets of the estate itself — not by the executor personally, and not by the beneficiaries out of their own funds.

In practical terms: if your mother left a house and some savings, the fees are paid from those assets before distributions are made to heirs. No one writes a personal check to get the probate started (with one nuance we address below regarding upfront costs).

2. Statutory Fees Are Set by California Law — and Are Often Lower Than People Fear

California Probate Code § 10810 sets the fees that both the attorney and the administrator (executor) are entitled to receive for ordinary services. These are called “statutory fees,” and they follow a sliding scale based on the gross value of the estate.

Here is the statutory fee schedule:

Both the attorney and the administrator are each entitled to this amount — so the combined statutory fees are double the figures above.

A Real-World Example: House Worth $800K, Investments of $400K, Mortgage of $400K

Let’s walk through a common scenario. Here are the estate assets:

Important note: The $400,000 mortgage is not subtracted from the calculation. California statutory fees are calculated on the gross estate value — meaning the full fair market value of each asset, regardless of any debt against it. This is one of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of probate fees.

So in this example, the gross estate for fee purposes is $1,200,000 ($800,000 + $400,000). Here is how the statutory fees are calculated:

3. The Attorney Is Not Paid Until the End of Probate

The statutory attorney fee is paid at the close of the probate — typically after the court approves the final accounting and distribution, which usually takes nine months to a year or more from the date of filing. The attorney does not collect fees in the middle of the process.

This means the attorney has a genuine stake in seeing the probate through to completion efficiently. It also means families do not face large attorney bills during the process itself.

Statutory fees are based on the gross estate value, so understanding which assets are included in a probate estate is essential before estimating costs.

4. What About Upfront Costs? Radiant Fronts Them for You.

There are real costs to opening a probate that must be paid early in the process — court filing fees, probate referee fees, and the cost of publishing notice to creditors in a newspaper of general circulation, as required by California law. These are not attorney fees; they are third-party costs.

Many attorneys ask clients to deposit $1,500–$2,500 out of pocket at the outset to cover these costs, simply because they don’t want to be left holding the bill if the petition is denied or the matter doesn’t move forward for some reason.

At Radiant Probate & Estate Law, we front those costs for our clients. You are not asked to write a check to get started. We advance the necessary costs on your behalf. Once the administrator/executor is appointed and has access to estate funds, we are reimbursed from the estate checking account. In “house rich” estates with little or no cash, we are reimbursed when the property sells. And if the house is not going to be sold, there are companies that will advance cash to the estate secured by the real property — a practical solution we can help arrange. For more on managing estates with limited liquidity, see our blog post: California Probate When There is a House a Practical Guide for Executors and Families in Santa Clara County.

5. The Administrator (Executor) Does Not Have to Take a Fee

The administrator or executor is legally entitled to the same statutory fee as the attorney. But they are not required to take it.

Whether it makes sense to take the fee depends on the situation. Here is the most important factor to understand: administrator fees are taxable income to the person who receives them. Distributions to beneficiaries from an estate, on the other hand, are generally not taxed as income.

If the administrator is also a beneficiary — which is very common — taking a fee means they pay income tax on money they were going to receive anyway. In most cases, it makes more financial sense for an administrator who is also a beneficiary to waive the fee and simply receive their share of the estate as a distribution instead.

6. Extraordinary Fees: When They Apply and How Radiant Handles Them

For services that go beyond the ordinary administration of an estate, California law permits the attorney to petition the court for what are called “extraordinary fees.” Common examples include:

• Selling real property out of probate
• Resolving income tax issues for the estate
• Defending against a wrongful or disputed creditor claim
• Probate litigation or will contests

A few things are important to understand about extraordinary fees:

They must be approved by the court. Extraordinary fees are not self-authorized. The attorney petitions the court, which reviews the request in the context of comparable probate matters it oversees. This is a meaningful check on reasonableness.

Radiant is conservative about requesting them. We do not ask for extraordinary fees in most cases. When we do, it is because the work genuinely exceeded what a normal probate requires.

We waive extraordinary fees for real property sales when you use one of our trusted realtors. Selling a house out of probate involves specific rules that are quite different from a conventional real estate transaction. We work regularly with a select group of realtors who understand these rules, who often fund necessary repairs and improvements out of pocket (reimbursed at close of escrow), and who require significantly less hand-holding than a realtor unfamiliar with probate sales. Not all assets are included when calculating statutory probate fees. Certain assets may qualify as exempt property, which can reduce the value of the estate subject to those fees.

You are always free to choose any licensed realtor you want — that is your right as administrator. But when you choose one of our vetted realtors, we waive our extraordinary fee for the sale in virtually all cases. The exceptions are truly unusual situations, such as foreclosure intervention or a buyer attempting to back out of an accepted offer — matters that involve significant legal work beyond the sale itself.

7. What Are the Other Costs of Probate? (Ancillary Costs)

Beyond attorney and administrator fees, there are third-party costs that every probate in California incurs. These are paid from the estate and are separate from statutory fees. They include:

• Court filing fees (currently $435 in Santa Clara and San Mateo Superior Courts, with additional fees for subsequent petitions)
• Probate referee fee (the court-appointed appraiser who values estate assets; typically 0.1% of non-cash assets appraised)
• Newspaper publication fee (California law requires notice to creditors to be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the county; typically $200–$400 depending on the publication)
• Certified copies and miscellaneous court costs

8. Are Probate Fees Worth It?

We understand that when families first see the statutory fee numbers, the reaction is sometimes sticker shock. That’s fair. But consider what you are actually buying.

California probate is not a form you fill out. It is a multi-step court process with strict statutory deadlines, mandatory creditor notice periods, court-appointed appraisals, accounting requirements, and potential disputes with heirs or creditors along the way. It is a process that trips up even experienced attorneys when they venture into it without doing it regularly. A family trying to navigate probate alone — while grieving, while managing a property, while dealing with financial institutions that won’t budge without a court order — is taking on something genuinely difficult. The statutory fee buys you a guide who has done this many times, who knows what the court expects, and who is accountable for getting it right. So that you are not stuck holding the bag for a missed tax liability or an omitted government agency notice.

The fees are also fully transparent and court-supervised. They must be disclosed and approved by a judge. There are no hidden charges. Creditors and heirs have the opportunity to object. The process is designed with oversight built in.

And at the end of it, you have a court order that clears title, protects the distribution to heirs, and puts the matter to rest. For a family inheriting a house worth $800,000 or more, knowing that everything was done correctly — that no creditor can come back, that the title is clean or the house was sold in accordance with Probate Code requirements, that the IRS has no unfinished business with the estate — is worth a great deal. The fee looks different when you think of it that way.

Questions About Fees? Let’s Talk.

We represent families in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties navigating probate with real property and estate assets. We are direct about how fees work from the very first conversation — because we think you deserve to know what you’re getting into before you sign anything.

Call us or use the contact form below to schedule a free consultation.