The Personal Representative and Attorney Fees (Transcript)
D. "Rep" DeLoach III, Estate Planning and Board Certified Elder Law Attorney
The personal representative is entitled to a fee under the Florida Statutes. Typically, the fee for the personal representative is 3% of the probate assets, so that means whatever the decedent's inventory value or the inventory value of the estate was, their personal representative is generally entitled to a 3% fee of the estate assets. The Florida Statute set for this fee schedule was considered a reasonable fee schedule, but basically it's around 3%. Once the assets get over 3%, then the amount of money that the personal representative is entitled to goes down by a percentage or so, but ultimately it's 3% of the first million dollars.
Generally, the attorney for the estate is also entitled to a 3% fee. Again, you would take the inventory value of the estate and the attorney's entitled to 3% of the estate value. The attorney may also be entitled to extraordinary cost. That means dealing with real estate issues, tax issues, heirs that are combatful, additional time, expense, expertise, et cetera. Ultimately, what an attorney gets paid is typically a fee of around 3%, at least on the first million dollars, but the fees are set forth in the Florida Statutes, and a 3% fee is generally considered what a reasonable fee would be based upon the inventory value.
