Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: South Carolina’s personal representative commission under §62-3-719 is capped at just 5% of the income the estate earns, not 5% of the estate itself, and it belongs to the personal representative. No South Carolina statute sets a percentage for the attorney.
S.C. Code section 62-3-719: a narrow 5% cap on income only, and it’s the executor’s
South Carolina’s compensation statute for the personal representative caps the additional commission at 5% of the income the probate estate actually earns while under administration, not a percentage of the estate’s total value. That narrower base is itself a distinguishing South Carolina detail; and by its own terms the statute governs the personal representative’s own compensation, not the attorney’s fee.
No attorney fee schedule; a separate review mechanism exists
South Carolina’s probate code includes §62-3-721, titled Proceedings for review of employment of agents and compensation of personal representatives and employees of estate, which by title alone establishes a court process for testing the propriety of hiring and paying anyone the personal representative employs, attorneys included. The practical result under South Carolina practice is that attorney fees are reviewed for reasonableness rather than measured against any percentage.
The income-only cap undercuts the routine 5-percent-of-everything assumption
Because South Carolina’s own executor commission statute reaches only income earned by the estate, not principal, the common online shorthand of 5% of the estate does not even correctly describe South Carolina’s executor commission, let alone the attorney’s fee, which has no percentage at all.
The rest of the arithmetic: South Carolina 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 South Carolina probate filing fee.