Clear Money Guide
What this guide covers
A quick view of the questions and evidence developed below.
Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: California executor compensation is set by Probate Code §10800: 4% of the first $100,000, 3% of the next $100,000, 2% of the next $800,000, 1% of the next $9,000,000, 0.5% of the next $15,000,000, with the court setting a reasonable amount above $25M. A $500,000 probate estate pays $13,000; $1,000,000 pays $23,000. The estate attorney earns the identical schedule again (§10810), so a $1M probate pays $46,000 in combined statutory fees before costs.
The part that changes the answer: the base is the PROBATE estate
The percentages run on the gross value of property actually administered in probate. A house in joint tenancy, retirement accounts and life insurance with named beneficiaries, and everything inside a living trust never enter the base. A California family with a $2M net worth held mostly in a trust and beneficiary-designated accounts can have a $200,000 probate estate — and an $7,000 executor fee, not $33,000. (Note the base is GROSS value: a $800,000 house with a $600,000 mortgage counts as $800,000.)
Compute yours: executor fee calculator. The whole cost picture: California probate cost. Whether to charge at all if you also inherit: the waive-or-take math.
An executor’s fee only arises if the estate is actually administered, and the answer is on when probate is required in California, which gives California’s qualifying value for the small-estate route and what that route does not reach.
Related: whether California requires the executor to post a bond.