Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: Massachusetts sets no statutory percentage for the personal representative or the attorney. Chapter 190B, section 3-719 says only that a personal representative gets reasonable compensation, and Massachusetts courts test an attorney’s fee the same way, under the fee-reasonableness factors in the Massachusetts Rules of Professional Conduct and long-standing fiduciary compensation case law.
Section 3-719: reasonable compensation, nothing more specific
Chapter 190B, section 3-719 entitles a personal representative to reasonable compensation for services, allows renunciation of a will’s compensation provision before qualifying, and lets a personal representative renounce all or part of the compensation by filing a written renunciation with the court. It sets no percentage, dollar figure, or attorney-specific rule.
Courts fall back on case law and Rule 1.5, not a statute
Massachusetts sources point to McMahon v. Krapf, 323 Mass. 118 (1948), as the Supreme Judicial Court decision courts still cite for the factors relevant to fiduciary compensation reasonableness, such as the skill required, time spent, and the size, difficulty, and results of the matter. Massachusetts attorneys’ fees are separately tested against the fee-reasonableness factors in Rule 1.5 of the Massachusetts Rules of Professional Conduct, since no probate statute sets the number directly.
A Massachusetts personal representative can simply give up the fee, and often does
Section 3-719 lets a personal representative renounce all or part of the compensation a will provides, which happens often in Massachusetts because commission income is taxable while an inheritance frequently is not. Renouncing the personal representative’s own fee has no effect on the separate attorney’s fee, which is still paid from the estate and still reviewed for reasonableness on its own terms.
The rest of the arithmetic: Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts probate filing fee.