Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: Utah has no statutory percentage fee for either the personal representative or the probate attorney. Utah Code 75-3-718 entitles both to reasonable compensation, and if nobody objects, whatever fee is requested in the petition is deemed reasonable by default.
The actual rule: reasonable compensation for both roles
Utah Code 75-3-718, part of the state’s Uniform Probate Code, entitles both the personal representative and the estate’s attorney to reasonable compensation for their services. There is no percentage schedule for either. If a petition seeking approval of the fee is filed and no interested person objects, the statute says reasonable compensation shall be the compensation sought in the petition, meaning the requested amount is accepted by default. Only when someone objects does the court step in to set the amount.
Who decides, and how a dispute actually plays out
If an interested person objects, 75-3-718(1) directs the court to determine reasonable compensation for the personal representative using an explicit multi-factor test, quality, quantity, and value of services rendered, the circumstances under which they were rendered, and the practice of comparable fiduciaries, but for the attorney the statute simply says the court shall determine reasonable compensation, without listing separate factors. Objecting parties must get notice at least 10 days before the hearing. Separately, Utah Code 75-3-720 lets any interested person petition the court at any time to review the reasonableness of compensation paid to the personal representative, the attorney, or any other person employed, and a person found to have received excessive compensation can be ordered to refund it.
A genuine Utah-specific wrinkle: litigation expenses are a separate statute
Utah Code 75-3-719 is easy to confuse with 75-3-718 but covers a narrower situation: reimbursement of attorney fees and costs incurred while defending or prosecuting an estate proceeding in good faith, including will contests, plus a general court power to shift costs and fees between parties in estate litigation as justice and equity may require. That is a litigation cost-shifting rule, not the baseline standard for what the probate attorney gets paid for ordinary estate administration, which remains 75-3-718’s reasonable-compensation test.
The rest of the arithmetic: Utah probate cost.
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 Utah probate filing fee.