Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: Rhode Island sets no statutory percentage. R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-14-8 allows executors and administrators such compensation for their services as the probate court considers just, using that word rather than reasonable. The probate court approves the amount as a line item within the executor’s or administrator’s accounts, rather than through a separate fee petition.
The statute, and what it does not do
R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-14-8 allows executors and administrators to be allowed in their accounts such compensation for their services as the probate court shall consider just. It sets no percentage, no schedule, and lists no factors anywhere in the section.
Just, not reasonable, and decided inside the accounting
Rhode Island’s statute uses the word just rather than reasonable, a distinctive choice compared to most state compensation statutes. Compensation is not awarded through a separate fee petition; it is approved as a line item within the executor’s or administrator’s periodic or final accounting filed with the probate court, meaning Rhode Island’s town and city probate courts rather than a unified state probate division. The formula traces back to the 1905 Court and Practice Act, one of the oldest unchanged compensation formulas in state law.
What that means in practice
Because compensation is baked into the accounting rather than argued in a standalone fee petition, an executor or administrator in Rhode Island should expect the amount to be reviewed by the probate court for the city or town handling the estate when the account is filed, not decided upfront. There is no percentage or factor list to benchmark against, only the court’s judgment of what is just.
What the whole process costs in this state: Rhode Island 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.
Related: whether Rhode Island requires the executor to post a bond.