States Where Probate Costs the Most (2026 Study)

Updated August 12, 2026. Quick answer: Of the twelve states whose probate fee schedule we read at the official state source for this study, Florida sets the largest bill — $30,000 on a $500,000 estate, against $26,000 in California, the state usually named as the most expensive. The more useful finding is underneath the ranking: in 8 of those 12 states the statute fixes only the executor’s fee, and the lawyer’s fee — usually the larger line — is set by no schedule at all. This table therefore ranks the part of the bill the statute fixes, not the total cost of probate.

The one-paragraph summary, free to quote

A Clear Money Guide study of state probate fee statutes, compiled 12 August 2026, finds that Florida sets the highest statute-fixed probate bill of the twelve states whose schedules the authors read at the official state legislature source: on a $500,000 estate made up entirely of personal property, Florida’s presumed schedule pays the personal representative $15,000 and the attorney $15,000, a combined $30,000. California, the state most often described as the most expensive, comes second at $26,000. The study covers the twelve states whose schedule the authors read at the official state legislature source; it found that only four of those twelve — California, Florida, Nevada and Wyoming — set a fee schedule for the estate’s attorney at all. In the other eight, the statute fixes what the executor may take and leaves the lawyer’s fee to be argued as “reasonable,” which means the published schedule understates what the estate actually pays.

The ranking: what the statute sets on a $500,000 estate

Ranked by the combined fee the statute itself produces. Every figure is computed from the statutory bands, not from a survey or an average. Read the standard estate before comparing rows — the states are comparable here only because the scenario was chosen so that every one of these twelve statutes evaluates its own base on the same $500,000.

Read the “combined” column as a floor, not a total. In the 8 states with no attorney schedule — Kentucky, South Carolina, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Missouri, Oregon, Iowa — the estate still pays a lawyer, and that fee is not in this table because no statute sets it. Court filing fees, bonds, appraisals, publication and extraordinary-services fees are also excluded everywhere: see probate cost by state for the filing fee in each jurisdiction.

The finding most coverage gets wrong

California owns the reputation. It does not own the number. On a $500,000 estate Florida’s schedule produces $30,000 against California’s $26,000, and at $1 million the gap widens to $60,000 against $46,000. The arithmetic is simple: California’s twin ladders drop to 2% above $200,000, while Florida holds 3% all the way to $1 million on the personal representative’s side and, above the first $100,000, on the attorney’s.

But the two numbers are not the same kind of claim, and this is the part worth getting right. California’s statute says the personal representative and the attorney each shall receive the scheduled amount for ordinary services. Florida’s says the schedule is presumed to be reasonable — and Fla. Stat. §733.6171(2)(b) goes further, requiring the attorney to disclose to the client, in writing, that “there is not a mandatory statutory attorney fee for estate administration” and that the fee is negotiable. Florida sets the bigger number; California sets the harder one to argue down.

The second finding is the one that changes what a reader should do. Only 4 of the 12 states — California, Florida, Nevada and Wyoming — put the estate’s attorney in the schedule at all. In the other 8, the statute caps or fixes what the executor may take and says nothing about the lawyer. A South Carolina or Kentucky estate reading “5%” is reading the executor’s ceiling, not the bill.

A ceiling, a floor and an entitlement are not the same number

Rankings tend to line up percentages as though they were all the same kind of rule. They are not. What each statute is doing, in its own grammar:

• Florida — presumed reasonable: the schedule is a presumption, and §733.6171(2)(b) requires the attorney to tell the client in writing that there is not a mandatory statutory attorney fee and that the fee is negotiable (Fla. Stat. §733.617(2)).
• California — entitlement: for ordinary services the representative and the attorney each shall receive the scheduled amount (Cal. Prob. Code §10800).
• Kentucky — ceiling: compensation shall not exceed five percent of the personal estate, plus five percent of income collected (KRS 395.150(1)).
• South Carolina — ceiling: a sum not to exceed five percent, with a $50 minimum commission; the court may approve more only for extraordinary services (S.C. Code §62-3-719(a)).
• Nevada — default, attorney’s elective: the schedule applies where the will provides no compensation; the attorney ladder applies only if the attorney is requesting compensation based on the value of the estate (NRS 150.020(1)).
• Wyoming — court shall allow: the court shall allow both schedules for ordinary services unless a written waiver is filed, and nothing prevents negotiating lower fees (Wyo. Stat. §2-7-803(a)).
• Maryland — ceiling: commissions may not exceed the table; a party may appeal the allowance and the court may increase it up to, but not past, the table (Md. Est. & Trusts §7-601(b)).
• New York — entitlement: the fiduciary is allowed the rates for receiving and paying out; where gross principal is $300,000 or more, up to three fiduciaries may each take a full commission (SCPA 2307(1)).
• Ohio — allowed fees: executors and administrators shall be allowed these fees on personal property and income, plus 1% of real property not sold (ORC §2113.35(A)).
• Missouri — floor: this is the statutory minimum compensation; the court shall allow more where reasonable compensation exceeds it, with no extraordinary services required (RSMo §473.153).
• Oregon — commission: a commission on the whole estate, plus 1% of property outside the court’s jurisdiction but reportable for estate tax (ORS 116.173(3)(a)).
• Iowa — ceiling: reasonable fees as the court determines, not in excess of these commissions on the gross assets in the probate inventory (Iowa Code §633.197(1)).

Missouri is the clearest warning against reading any of these as a price. Its schedule is the statutory minimum: RSMo §473.153 directs the court to allow additional compensation wherever reasonable compensation exceeds the schedule, and says expressly that extraordinary services are not necessary to earn it. A Missouri estate can pay more than the table and the statute will be satisfied.

The standard estate, and why these twelve are comparable

Every figure above is the statutory fee on one identical hypothetical: a $500,000 estate made up entirely of probate personal property — bank and brokerage accounts, no real estate — with no income earned during administration, one personal representative, one attorney, no extraordinary services, and no provision in the will displacing the statute. The $1 million column is the same estate at twice the size.

That scenario was not chosen for tidiness. These twelve statutes measure different things: California and Nevada compute on the estate “accounted for”, Ohio and Missouri on personal property plus the proceeds of real property sold, Iowa on the gross assets in the probate inventory, Oregon on property subject to the court’s jurisdiction, South Carolina and Kentucky on personal property plus income, Maryland on property subject to administration, Florida on inventory value plus income, and New York on sums received and paid out. An all-personal-property estate earning no income is the one scenario in which every one of those bases evaluates on the same $500,000 and every add-on term — real-property proceeds, income, non-probate property, extra fiduciaries — is zero. Change the scenario and the ranking moves; that is a property of the statutes, not a flaw in the table.

How the numbers were produced. Each schedule was transcribed from the statutory text at the official state legislature source on 12 August 2026, then implemented twice, in two independently written programs using deliberately different arithmetic — one walking the bands with a running remainder, the other evaluating closed-form cumulative breakpoints. The two agree to the cent across 4,068 comparisons spanning estate values from $0 to $25 million, and 23 values transcribed by hand from the statutes match both. Where the two disagreed, nothing would have shipped.

What this study does not rank, and why

Five more states set a schedule and are deliberately absent from the table. Our executor fee calculator computes them, and their citations are below — but on the day this study was compiled we could not retrieve their text from an official state source, and this site does not publish a number it has not read at the source. They are named rather than quietly dropped:

• Texas — Tex. Est. Code §352.002
• New Jersey — N.J.S.A. 3B:18-14 and 3B:18-13
• Georgia — O.C.G.A. §53-6-60
• Arkansas — Ark. Code §28-48-108(a)
• Alabama — Ala. Code §43-2-848(a)

Most states are not in the table because there is nothing to rank. The majority of US jurisdictions set no schedule whatsoever: the statute says the personal representative and the attorney are entitled to reasonable compensation and leaves the amount to the probate court. That is not a gap in this study — it is the single most important fact about probate cost in this country, and it is why no national “average probate fee” can be computed from the statutes at all. Each state’s actual rule, with its citation, is in probate cost by state.

Not included in any figure: court filing fees, bond premiums, appraisal and publication costs, extraordinary-services compensation, and any fee agreement in the will or between the estate and its lawyer that displaces the statute. Several of these statutes are explicitly displaceable by agreement.

Your state, in one sentence

One quotable line per ranked state, written to be lifted whole with attribution.

• Florida: Florida sets the largest statute-fixed probate bill of any state we read: on a $500,000 estate the personal representative’s presumed commission and the attorney’s presumed fee are $15,000 each, or $30,000 together — and Florida law requires the attorney to disclose in writing that the fee is not mandatory and is negotiable.
• California: California is the state everyone names, and its $26,000 on a $500,000 estate is second to Florida’s $30,000 — but California’s is the stronger claim, because the statute says the representative and the attorney each shall receive it rather than that it is merely presumed reasonable.
• Kentucky: Kentucky caps the executor at 5% of the personal estate plus 5% of income collected — $25,000 on a $500,000 estate — and sets no schedule at all for the attorney.
• South Carolina: South Carolina caps the personal representative at 5% of appraised personal property — $25,000 on a $500,000 estate — but that is a ceiling the court may cut, and the attorney’s fee sits outside the statute entirely.
• Nevada: Nevada pays the personal representative $11,150 on a $500,000 estate, and its attorney ladder — identical to California’s — adds $13,000, but only if the attorney elects to be paid on estate value rather than by the hour.
• Wyoming: Wyoming is the one state we read where the executor and the attorney are handed the same statutory ladder in consecutive sections: $10,350 each on a $500,000 estate, $20,700 together.
• Maryland: Maryland’s commission table — $1,800 plus 3.6% of everything over $20,000 — produces $19,080 on a $500,000 estate, and it is a ceiling the court may reduce, not a fee the executor is owed.
• New York: New York allows $19,000 on a $500,000 estate for receiving and paying out, and once gross principal reaches $300,000 up to three co-executors may each take a full commission — so a three-executor estate of that size can owe $57,000.
• Ohio: Ohio allows $15,000 on a $500,000 personal-property estate, plus a separate 1% of any real property the executor does not sell.
• Missouri: Missouri’s $14,050 on a $500,000 estate is the statutory minimum, not the cap — the statute directs the court to allow more where that is reasonable, and says extraordinary services are not required to justify it.
• Oregon: Oregon’s commission on a $500,000 estate is $10,630, plus 1% of property outside the court’s jurisdiction that is still reportable for estate tax.
• Iowa: Iowa’s ceiling on a $500,000 estate is $10,120 — the lowest statute-fixed executor fee we read — and it is computed on the gross assets in the probate inventory, excluding life insurance unless the estate is the beneficiary.

Every statute this study reads

Each was fetched from the official state legislature source on 12 August 2026 and the schedule transcribed from its text. Statutory text is public domain; the compilation is ours.

The executor’s half of the bill, ranked on its own

This study ranks what the statute fixes in total. Its companion ranks the executor’s line alone across a wider set of states — 15 of them, including three whose schedules are absent from the table above (West Virginia, Oklahoma and Wisconsin) — and shows the ranking inverting on small estates: states with the highest executor fees.

Cite this study

Suggested citation: “States Where Probate Costs the Most: statutory fee schedules compared,” Clear Money Guide, 12 August 2026, clearmoneyguide.com/states-where-probate-costs-the-most/.

Librarians, educators, and journalists: this table is CC BY 4.0 — reuse with attribution is welcome, and we answer methodology questions at [email protected]. If you need the figure for an estate size not shown, the executor fee calculator and the probate cost calculator compute it, and the underlying state-by-state dataset is a free CSV with a documented column schema.