Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: in most states there is no percentage — the statute says only that executor compensation must be “reasonable,” and the probate judge decides what that means. The factors courts actually weigh: the estate’s size and complexity, hours documented, the skill the work demanded, results obtained, local custom, and whether the executor hired professionals to do the hard parts.
How reasonable gets decided in practice
Documentation is the fee. In a formula state the statute does the arguing; in a reasonable-compensation state, a contemporaneous log of hours and tasks is the difference between an approved fee and a family fight. Courts routinely cut undocumented requests and approve documented ones at similar percentages to the statutory states — the schedules in the calculator are a sane sanity-check range even where they do not bind.
The will can set the fee — a stated amount or method generally controls, and accepting the role usually means accepting the terms. Beneficiary consent beats litigation — a fee all heirs sign off on rarely gets judicial scrutiny; circulate the number before invoicing. And corporate executors publish fee schedules (typically percentage-based and higher than family executors charge) — useful as a court exhibit for what the market price of the work is.
If you are in California, New York, Texas or Florida, your state has an actual formula: CA · NY · TX · FL. The tax side: is the fee taxable.
The judge decides the fee. You decide what happens to the estate.
Once the fee question settles, the real money question is the distribution itself. The matching service below introduces you to advisers who pay to meet you.
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The number that surprises people who bought a long time ago
Downsizing is the one home sale where the gain is usually large and the exclusion usually still covers it. A couple who bought in 1994 for $180,000 and sell at $760,000 with $46,000 of selling costs have a realized gain of about $534,000 before improvements. That is above the $500,000 joint cap — but decades of capital improvements are exactly what brings it back under, and most sellers have never added them up.
Improvements are the lever, and the records are the constraint
A new roof, an addition, a replaced HVAC system, new windows, a finished basement: these add to basis. Repainting and repairs do not. Thirty years of improvements on a family home routinely total six figures, and every dollar of it reduces the gain dollar for dollar. The practical problem is documentary, not legal — the seller who kept receipts pays less than the identical seller who did not.
Why downsizers should check the net investment income tax separately
A retiree with modest ordinary income can still be pushed over the 3.8 percent NIIT threshold by the sale itself, because taxable gain is net investment income. The thresholds are $250,000 on a joint return and $200,000 otherwise, written into Section 1411(b) as fixed figures with no indexing. A sale that produces $120,000 of taxable gain on top of $180,000 of other income crosses the joint threshold and picks up 3.8 percent on the part above it.
The move itself may change the tax
Downsizing usually means moving, and sometimes across a state line. Some states tax the gain the federal exclusion just removed. If the sale and the move are in the same year, the order of the two matters, and it is worth checking the destination state before signing.
Related
Methodology
- Exclusion caps, the 2-of-5 test, the nonqualified-use allocation, the reduced-exclusion fraction and the depreciation carve-out are taken from the text of 26 U.S.C. 121. The 3.8 percent rate and its thresholds are from 26 U.S.C. 1411. Both were read on 2026-07-30.
- Section 121 caps and Section 1411 thresholds are written in the statute as fixed dollar amounts with no indexing mechanism, so they are built in. Long-term capital gain brackets ARE indexed annually, so your rate is an input rather than a lookup.
- Figures were computed by two independently written engines that agree to the cent, and the calculator on this page reproduces both exactly.
- Federal only. State treatment varies and some states do not follow the federal exclusion.
Educational estimate, not tax advice, and not a filed return. Federal only. Confirm anything that changes a filing decision with a CPA or tax attorney.
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