How much does one receive for serving as executor?
In Oregon, the base executor fee is roughly 2% of the value of assets passing under the will, and roughly 1% of assets passing outside the will. See Oregon Revised Statute 116.173. For example, if the decedent owned a $1 million home (which passes under the will) and $700,000 of IRAs and life insurance (which pass outside the will), the fee would be roughly $27,000. The fee is not reduced by the decedent’s debts or mortgages. If the executor performs extraordinary services, additional compensation can be requested. The executor fee is not always commensurate with the amount of work involved. For example, very little work is involved in administering the estate of an elderly individual whose only asset is a $1 million brokerage account. On the other hand, countless hours might be needed to administer a $200,000 estate involving numerous creditors, delinquent tax returns, insufficient cash, hard-to-sell real estate, substantial clean up work, beneficiary disputes, etc.
Washington’s executor fee is not a fixed percentage. Instead, the executor is entitled to a “reasonable” fee. In general, reasonableness for an executor fee is based on the same criteria as attorney fees, including time required, difficulty, requisite skill, amount customarily charged in that community, size of estate, experience, etc. See RCW 11.68.100(2) and Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5(a).
I am named as a co-trustee along with my sister. We may act jointly or independently. I am almost done distributing the assets from my mom’s estate which was a trust. I have been handling my mom’s finances for years and was somewhat familiar with the assets. Distributing the assets involved liquidating a brokerage account, seven other independent mutual fund or insurance plans, reporting on the status of a property investment, itemizing the contents and value of a safe deposit box (which included some gold coins), transferring title of a time share into my sisters name, and justifying advances to both me and my sister, in an asset summary sheet. I am trying to determine the “reasonable fee” I can charge the estate for my services. I have 104 hours involved. It seems that I have been functioning as an executor but I don’t know how that differs from a “trustee” in legal terms. Your feedback would be very helpful. Mom lived in Grants Pass, Oregon when she died and had an estate valued at about $500,000.00, none of which was real estate to be sold. It was all in equities,savings, insurance, or other tangible assets. Thank you.
Richard,
Reading between the lines, it appears you have done all of the work and feel you deserve a larger trustee fee than your sister. I tend to agree with you. There are really two issues. First, what is a reasonable trustee fee, and second, how is the fee divided between you and your sister?
Under Oregon law, the personal representative of a probate estate is automatically entitled to a fee of roughly 2% of the gross estate. Additional fees are allowed for extraordinary services. However, the Oregon uniform trust code is not nearly so specific. ORS 130.635(1) provides: “If the terms of a trust do not specify the trustee’s compensation, a trustee is entitled to compensation that is reasonable under the circumstances.” This is not much help.
It sounds like your services are analogous to those of a personal representative of a probate estate, and that 2% (or about $10,000) might be a reasonable fee. If you paid yourself $50 per hour, you would end up with about $5,000. Aside from the 104 hours of services, you have legal responsiblity for the trust assets, which warrants a fee by iteslf. I think a reasonable fee is somewhere in the $7,000 to $10,000 range, and that most of it should be paid to you. Ideally, co-trustees reach an agreement on how to allocate the fee. If they cannot agree, you can always petition a court to determine the appropriate fee and how it is allocated. That can be expensive and contentious, but sometimes it is a necessity.
Dave
Hi Dave,
Thank you very much for the insight regarding my question on executor fees. Hopefully, I can reach an agreement with my sister as to what constitutes a reasonable fee. If I cannot, I will contact you for your services.
Kind Regards
My Mother died in December 2012. My sister is thought to be the executor. She initially said my Mother’s attorney indicated there was no will, to his knowledge. Less than a week after my Mother’s death my sister now says there is a will. Apparently she found it. Is she obligated to provide me and my brother, supposedly also an heir to on-third, with a copy of the will and if so is there s deadline.
I have requested to be given, or at least see, a copy of the will. My Mother had NUMEROUS possessions that will require an immense amount of time to sort through.
Thank You