Estate Settlement Cost
Menu

Alabama personal representative compensation

Alabama executor fee calculator

Ala. Code § 43-2-848(a) allows reasonable compensation subject to a ceiling of two and one-half percent (2.5%) of the value of all property received and under the personal representative’s possession and control PLUS two and one-half percent (2.5%) of all disbursements.

Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Sources rechecked October 28, 2026. This page last revised .

1. Where and when
2. Compensation base

Asset 1

Asset 2

Ownership determines whether an asset usually enters probate. Choose “Not sure” when title or beneficiary status has not been confirmed.

Private by design: entries stay in this browser.

Your working estimate

Alabama estate snapshot

Gross probate propertyNot yet counted
Court charge$45The statewide statutory fee for a grant of letters of administration is $45.00 (Ala. Code § 12-19-90(a)(2)), including three certified copies and final settlement when not more than 10 pages. Ala. Code § 12-19-90(d) preserves county/local fee laws for judges of probate, so a particular county may add local charges on top of the statewide figure.
Scheduled executor compensationMore information needed2 asset entries have no value entered.Ala. Code § 43-2-848(a) allows reasonable compensation subject to a ceiling of two and one-half percent (2.5%) of the value of all property received and under the personal representative’s possession and control PLUS two and one-half percent (2.5%) of all disbursements. The ceiling therefore applies to receipts and disbursements, not to the whole estate value. Extraordinary services may be allowed additionally (§ 43-2-848(b)), and a will or written agreement can vary the amount (§ 43-2-848(c)–(d)).

This route check is general information, not legal advice. It does not test every eligibility condition, creditor issue, will provision, local fee, or asset-title fact.

Work out the Alabama cap from the estate’s accounting

Ala. Code § 43-2-848 sets the most the Probate Court may allow, measured on amounts from the estate’s own accounting rather than on what the estate is worth. Type those amounts below and the worksheet prices that limit, nothing more.

Alabama: up to 2.5% of the property received plus 2.5% of disbursements (Ala. Code § 43-2-848)

Ala. Code § 43-2-848(a) makes this the most the probate court may allow for ordinary work; within it the court weighs the difficulty, the local customary fee and the results. Extraordinary services can be allowed on top under subsection (b).

Fill in every figure to see what Ala. Code § 43-2-848 allows. Nothing you type leaves this browser.

How Alabama sets executor compensation

The ceiling therefore applies to receipts and disbursements, not to the whole estate value. Extraordinary services may be allowed additionally (§ 43-2-848(b)), and a will or written agreement can vary the amount (§ 43-2-848(c)–(d)).

The calculator applies the Alabama schedule to the value you enter, measured against the money the estate actually received and paid out. Within that ceiling, Ala. Code § 43-2-848(a) has the court weigh factors such as the difficulty of the administration, the fee customarily charged locally, the results obtained and the representative’s risk and responsibility. Under Ala. Code § 43-2-848(c) a representative with no contract with the decedent may renounce a fee the will sets, but takes reasonable compensation instead only if no alternate or successor will serve for the will’s amount; subsection (d) makes a written fee agreement with the decedent or all affected beneficiaries binding.

Alabama caps the fee on money moved, not on what the estate is worth

Ala. Code § 43-2-848(a) starts from reasonableness and then sets an outer limit. The court weighs factors that include the novelty and difficulty of the administration, the skill it requires, the fee customarily charged locally, the amount involved and the results obtained, the length of the relationship with the decedent, and “the liability, financial or otherwise, of the personal representative, or the risk and responsibility involved.” Whatever those factors support, the fee “shall not exceed two and one-half percent of the value of all property received and under the possession and control of the personal representative and two and one-half percent of all disbursements.”

The two bases behave differently. An estate that receives $200,000 of property and pays out $180,000 in debts, expenses and distributions has a ceiling of $5,000 on the receipts side plus $4,500 on the disbursements side, $9,500 in all. Property that never comes under the representative’s control, such as an account with a payable-on-death beneficiary, is in neither base, so the ceiling tracks the administration the representative actually ran rather than the size of the family’s wealth.

Subsection (b) lets the court allow a reasonable amount for extraordinary services on top of the capped fee. Subsection (c) deals with a will that sets the pay, or says there is none: where there is no contract with the decedent about compensation, the representative may renounce that provision, but takes reasonable compensation instead only “if no alternate or successor personal representative is willing to serve for the compensation provided in the will.” A representative may also renounce all or part of the fee, and the renunciation may be filed with the court.

Subsection (d) keeps a private route open: the decedent, or all affected beneficiaries, may agree in writing with the representative on the amount or how it is worked out, and that agreement binds everyone once the appointment is accepted, unless it is unconscionable.

Source: Ala. Code § 43-2-848, read from the enacting state’s own official publication on 2026-10-13. Quoted wording is the statute’s; the surrounding explanation is this site’s reading of it and is not legal advice.

The figure the Alabama schedule is applied to

The rate is only half of the answer; the other half is the number the rate is applied to, and in Alabama that number is specific. The reviewed rule measures compensation against the receipts-and-disbursements. The 2.5% + 2.5% ceiling is applied separately to (i) property received and under the PR’s control and (ii) disbursements — NOT to gross estate value. Applying it to total estate value would over- or under-state the cap.

Compensation source

Sources rechecked October 28, 2026: Alabama source list · how sources are checked · report a correction

Continue in Alabama