Legal · free calculator
Probate cost estimator
Project total probate cost on an estate including executor commission, attorney percentage, court filing fees, and bond premium.
Total probate cost
All-in fees + bond
Show the work
- Attorney fee$15,000
- Executor fee$12,500
- Surety bond cost$2,500
- Cost as % of estate6.24%
Probate cost — the part nobody quotes upfront
Probate eats 4-7% of an estate before the heirs see a dollar. Most of that disappears into two line items: the attorney's percentage and the executor's commission. Both are often statutory, both are sometimes negotiable, and both compound with estate size.
What's actually owed
- Statutory attorney fee in CA / NY / FL: tiered, typically 2-4% of gross estate
- Executor commission: 1.5-5% depending on state and willingness to waive
- Court filing + publication: $300-2,500 typical
- Surety bond: 0.3-1% of estate, required when no will or beneficiaries demand it
The lesson
A revocable living trust avoids most of this. On a $1M estate, that's $40,000-70,000 in probate cost a trust can sidestep.
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