Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: South Dakota’s default commission schedule under S.D. Codified Laws § 29A-3-719 applies when compensation is not provided by will, or in an intestate proceeding: 5% on the first $1,000 of personal property accounted for, 4% on the next $4,000, and 2.5% on everything above $5,000. A $100,000 estate pays $2,585; a $500,000 estate pays $12,585; a $1,000,000 estate pays $25,085. Real property is compensated separately at a just and reasonable rate the court fixes, except real estate sold during the probate is treated as personal property for this schedule.
How the three tiers actually stack
The schedule in § 29A-3-719 runs on personal property accounted for by the personal representative, excluding personal property not ranked as assets, and it stacks rather than applying a single rate to the whole estate: 5% on the first $1,000, 4% on the next $4,000, and 2.5% on everything above $5,000. Real property is not part of that base at all; it gets its own just and reasonable compensation fixed separately by the court, with one exception, real estate sold during the probate is treated as personal property and folded into the same tiered schedule.
A hybrid statute: reasonable compensation with a computable default
§ 29A-3-719 is not a pure schedule statute. Subsection (a) sets a general reasonable-compensation standard built on seven factors covering the personal representative and also attorneys, accountants, appraisers, and other agents: time and labor, difficulty, preclusion of other employment, the local customary fee, the nature and value of the estate’s assets, time limitations, and skill and reputation. Subsection (c) is the part that supplies the computable percentage schedule above, and it applies specifically to the common default scenario: when compensation is not provided by will, or in an intestate proceeding. A will provision, or an estate that falls outside that default scenario, routes back to the reasonable-compensation standard in subsection (a) instead.
What to confirm before applying the schedule
Check the will first: the tiered percentages only govern when compensation is not provided by will, or the estate is intestate, so a will with its own fee provision displaces the schedule entirely. Separate the personal property base from any real property in the estate, since real property is compensated on a different, court-fixed reasonable basis, unless it was sold during the probate. If a family member or attorney is applying subsection (a)’s reasonable-compensation standard instead, because the default scenario does not apply, expect the seven-factor test to govern rather than the flat tiers.
What the whole process costs in this state: South Dakota 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 South Dakota requires the executor to post a bond.