Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: Arkansas executor compensation is governed by Ark. Code Ann. § 28-48-108, which lets the court award compensation it deems just and reasonable, but caps that award at a three-tier percentage schedule: 10% of the first $1,000, 5% of the next $4,000, and 3% of everything above $5,000 in personal property that has been fully administered. A $100,000 personal estate tops out at $3,150; $500,000 tops out at $15,150; $1,000,000 tops out at $30,150. Real property is not part of this base; subsection (b) allows a separate reasonable fee, fixed by the court, for substantial work on real property.
A three-tier percentage schedule, not a flat rate
Ark. Code Ann. § 28-48-108 sets the ceiling in three tiers: 10% of the first $1,000 of personal property passing through the personal representative’s hands, plus 5% of the next $4,000 (the $1,000 to $5,000 band), plus 3% of everything above $5,000. The schedule applies only to personal property that has been fully administered, not to whatever the estate happens to hold on paper. On a $100,000 personal estate that works out to $100 plus $200 plus 3% of $95,000 ($2,850), for a total of $3,150; the same math scales to $15,150 on $500,000 and $30,150 on $1,000,000.
A ‘just and reasonable’ standard with the schedule as its ceiling
The statute’s actual language is that the personal representative shall be allowed such compensation for his or her services, when and as earned, as the court shall deem just and reasonable, and then adds that, except as provided in subsection (b), this compensation is not to exceed the three-tier percentages above. So the percentages function as a cap on a reasonableness determination, not an automatic entitlement the way a flat commission would be. Subsection (b) allows an additional, separate reasonable fee, fixed by the court, for substantial work on real property, kept apart from the personal-property percentage schedule.
What that means in practice
A personal representative estimating an Arkansas fee should apply the three tiers only to personal property that has actually been fully administered, and should track any substantial real-property work separately, since that work can support an additional reasonable fee under subsection (b) rather than being folded into the percentage ceiling. Because the underlying standard is just and reasonable with the schedule as an upper bound, the court retains room to award less than the ceiling even though it cannot award more.
What the whole process costs in this state: Arkansas 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 Arkansas requires the executor to post a bond.