Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: North Carolina has no percentage fee schedule for the probate attorney. The personal representative’s own commission is capped at 5% of receipts and expenditures by G.S. 28A-23-3, set at the clerk of superior court’s discretion, and an outside attorney’s fee is a separate, unscheduled reasonable compensation item the clerk reviews case by case rather than a formula tied to estate value.
The 5% figure belongs to the personal representative, not the attorney
Personal representatives, collectors or public administrators shall be entitled to commissions to be fixed in the discretion of the clerk of superior court not to exceed five percent (5%) upon the amounts of receipts, including the value of all personal property when received, and upon the expenditures made in accordance with law.
Source: N.C. Gen. Stat. section 28A-23-3(a)
This 5% ceiling caps the executor’s or administrator’s own commission on money that moves through the estate. It is not a fee schedule for the lawyer the representative hires; the clerk may weigh professional fees paid to attorneys when setting the personal representative’s commission, but is not required to reduce it dollar for dollar.
When the attorney is the personal representative
The clerk of superior court, in the discretion of the clerk of superior court, is authorized and empowered to allow counsel fees to an attorney serving as a personal representative, collector or public administrator, in addition to the commissions allowed the attorney as such representative, collector or public administrator, where such attorney in behalf of the estate the attorney represents renders professional services, as an attorney, which are beyond the ordinary routine of administration.
Source: N.C. Gen. Stat. section 28A-23-4
The only statute that specifically prices attorney work applies narrowly. It lets a lawyer who is also serving as the estate’s personal representative bill extra counsel fees, on top of the 5% commission, for legal work beyond routine administration. It says nothing about what a lay executor must pay an outside attorney.
What sets the outside attorney’s fee
Where a lay personal representative hires separate counsel, North Carolina has no statutory percentage or dollar-bracket formula for that fee. The amount is a reasonable-compensation question, reviewed by the clerk of superior court as part of the estate’s accounting, and the clerk may consider what was paid to professionals when setting the representative’s own commission.
The executor’s commission is a different charge
The personal representative’s commission, up to 5% of receipts and expenditures under G.S. 28A-23-3, is a separate charge from any outside attorney fee; the clerk can factor in what the estate paid its attorney when setting that commission but is not bound to an exact offset.
How the fee models compare across all 51 jurisdictions: probate cost by state, and the national picture on what a probate attorney costs.
Statutory text read at each state’s own legislature or official code publisher. General information, not legal advice; fee statutes change and a court retains the final say on what is reasonable.
The attorney fee above is separate from what the court itself charges just to open the case, see the North Carolina probate filing fee.