Updated September 3, 2026. Quick answer: West Virginia’s personal representative commission, at W. Va. Code §44-4-12a(a), is a graduated schedule (5% of the first $100,000, 4% of the next $300,000, 3% of the next $400,000, and 2% above $800,000), not a flat rate. On a $100,000 estate that is $5,000; on $500,000 it is $20,000 (a blended 4.0%, which is where a flat-rate description comes from); on $1,000,000 it is $33,000 (a blended 3.3%). The commission runs on personal estate administered, income collected, and the proceeds of real estate that is sold.
The schedule is graduated, and the blended rate moves
§44-4-12a(a) lays out four bands (5% for the first $100,000, 4% for the next $300,000, 3% for the next $400,000, and 2% above $800,000), not one flat percentage. The blended rate happens to land near 4.0% at $500,000, which is where a “flat 4%” shorthand comes from, but that shorthand breaks down at other estate sizes: it is 5.0% at $100,000 and only 3.3% at $1,000,000.
Real estate, joint property and non-probate assets each get different treatment
Beyond the graduated schedule on personal estate, income and sold real estate, subsection (b) adds a separate flat 1% commission on real estate that is not sold and another flat 1% on property that is not subject to administration but is includable for federal estate tax purposes, reaching some non-probate assets most states’ commission statutes never touch. Joint and survivorship property, whether real or personal, is expressly excluded from any commission at all.
A lawyer-executor cannot double-dip, and the will can override the whole schedule
Subsection (e) bars a personal representative who is also a lawyer from being paid separately for legal services on top of the commission; the estate does not pay both. Subsection (f) lets a testator displace the entire statutory schedule by express language in the will, and (d) lets the county commission reduce the commission for unfaithful performance or increase it for extraordinary services.
What the whole process costs in this state: West Virginia 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 West Virginia requires the executor to post a bond.