Executor Fee in Kentucky: Real Estate Never Enters the 5% Base

Updated September 3, 2026. Quick answer: Kentucky executor compensation is capped by KRS §395.150(1) at 5% of the value of the decedent’s personal estate, plus a separate 5% of any income the executor collects while administering the estate. Real property is not part of either base; it only affects the fee indirectly, as grounds for additional court-approved compensation under subsection (2) if the executor also handled real-estate or tax matters connected to property outside the probate estate. A $500,000 personal estate pays a $25,000 ceiling; $100,000 pays $5,000; $1,000,000 pays $50,000; each figure assumes the whole amount is personal property, before any separate income-collection commission.

Two separate 5% streams, not one

KRS §395.150(1) sets two independent ceilings: 5% of the value of the personal estate, and, separately, 5% of the income the executor collects for the estate during administration: rents, interest, dividends and the like. Most states that publish a single percentage schedule apply one rate to one base; Kentucky applies the same rate to two different pools of money, so an executor who both distributes a large personal estate and collects substantial income over a long administration can be paid more than the headline “5%” figure suggests.

Real property only helps the fee indirectly

The ordinary 5% commission runs on personal estate value only; a house, farm or other real property titled in the decedent’s name is excluded from the base entirely. Subsection (2) lets the court award additional, court-approved compensation where the executor performed unusual or extraordinary services, and specifically names services connected with real estate or with estate and inheritance taxes claimed against property outside the decedent’s estate, but that is a separate, discretionary award for extra work, not a percentage of the real property’s value.

One of the older, unmodernized fee statutes

KRS §395.150 was recodified from earlier law in 1942 and has not been substantively amended since. It is also silent on attorney compensation, unlike states such as Missouri and Iowa, whose personal-representative schedules also cap the estate’s attorney fee, Kentucky sets no matching percentage cap on legal fees in this section.

What the whole process costs in this state: Kentucky probate cost. Every state’s fee model side by side: probate cost by state.

Work out the number: the executor fee calculator. How the standard is applied where no schedule exists: reasonable-compensation states. Whether to take the fee at all: when the executor is also an heir, and how the fee is taxed.

Statutory text read at each state’s own legislature or official code publisher. General information, not legal advice; a court retains the final say on what compensation is allowed.