Do You Get Paid? Executor and Trustee Compensation
For Executors And Trustees · Free PDF Guide
Yes, you're entitled to be paid for the work. How much, and whether you should take it, depends on which hat you're wearing and on a tax question worth thinking through before you decide. Here's how the fee works and how to make the call.
A quick, plain-English read. No legalese, and nothing to buy.
From Ridley Law · Eric Ridley · Estate planning, trust administration, and probate
Serving as a trustee or executor? The first-steps checklist tells you what you can take, what you owe, and how to document it.
What’s inside the guide
- The difference between how an executor is paid and how a trustee is paid, and why the two roles are not interchangeable
- How much compensation the law allows an executor, and where that number comes from
- How a trustee’s pay is set when the trust document is silent
- The tax tradeoff behind taking the fee versus waiving it
- How to decide, given your own situation, whether taking the compensation you’re owed actually makes sense
Is an executor entitled to a fee in California?
Yes. California sets executor and administrator compensation by statute, on a sliding scale that runs against the gross value of the estate, without any reduction for a mortgage or other debt (Prob. Code §10800). On a $1,000,000 estate, that schedule produces $23,000 for the executor, and the estate’s attorney is entitled to an identical fee under a parallel statute, for $46,000 in ordinary statutory fees before court costs, bond, or any extraordinary compensation (Prob. Code §§10800, 10810). Run the numbers on your estate with our probate fee calculator.
How is a trustee paid if the trust doesn’t say?
Differently than an executor, and by a different rule. If the trust document sets a fee, that provision controls (Prob. Code §15680). If the trust is silent, the trustee is entitled to “reasonable compensation under the circumstances,” not a percentage pulled from the probate fee schedule, which does not apply to trust administration at all (Prob. Code §15681).
Is money paid to an executor or trustee taxable?
Generally, yes, in a way an inheritance is not. A fiduciary fee is compensation for work performed and is treated as taxable income to the person who receives it, while property passing to that same person as a beneficiary generally is not. That difference is why many family members who serve as executor or trustee and are also heirs weigh taking the fee against simply taking their share as an inheritance, and the right call depends on the numbers in front of them.
For the mechanics of who gets appointed and how an estate moves through the court process, see our probate page.
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