legal · 2026-05-01
Project total probate cost on an estate including executor commission, attorney percentage, court filing fees, and bond premium.
| Gross estate value | $500,000 |
| Attorney % | 3% |
| Executor commission % | 2.5% |
| Court filing + publication | $1,200 |
| Bond premium % of estate | 0.5% |
| Attorney fee | $15,000 |
| Executor fee | $12,500 |
| Surety bond cost | $2,500 |
| Cost as % of estate | 6.24% |
Probate eats 4-7% of an estate before the heirs see a dollar. Most of that disappears into two line items: the attorney's percentage and the executor's commission. Both are often statutory, both are sometimes negotiable, and both compound with estate size.
A revocable living trust avoids most of this. On a $1M estate, that's $40,000-70,000 in probate cost a trust can sidestep.
In statutory states (CA, NY, FL) the percentages are set by law for ordinary services — the attorney is entitled to them but can waive or negotiate. In non-statutory states (most of the rest), all attorney fees are negotiable; insist on a flat fee or hourly cap before signing engagement.
Yes, and family-member executors often do. The waiver must be documented before disbursement. If the executor is taxable in a high bracket and a beneficiary anyway, taking the commission as taxable income then re-gifting it is the worst of both worlds.
If the will doesn't waive bond OR there's no will, the executor must post a surety bond protecting beneficiaries against malfeasance. Premium is 0.3-1% of bonded estate annually until probate closes (typically 9-18 months). A trust skips this entirely.