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Colorado personal representative compensation

Colorado executor fee calculator

Colorado has no statutory percentage schedule. C.R.S. 15-10-602(1) entitles a fiduciary and his or her lawyer to reasonable compensation for services rendered on behalf of an estate, and 15-10-602(4) preserves the court's inherent authority and responsibility to determine the reasonableness of compensation and costs. The former schedule sections 15-12-719 and 15-12-721 are both repealed. A court must order refund of excessive compensation.

Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch September 15, 2026.

1. Where and when
Private by design: entries stay in this browser.
2. Compensation base

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

Asset 1

Asset 2

Your working estimate

Colorado estate snapshot

Gross probate propertyNot yet counted
Court chargeMore information needed1st Filing for a Decedent's Estate (not small estates)2 asset entries have no value entered. A blank amount is not treated as zero, so the charge cannot be computed.Court charges only, for the proceeding named beside each figure. That proceeding is not always the route screened above.
Scheduled executor compensationMore information needed2 asset entries have no value entered.Colorado has no statutory percentage schedule. C.R.S. 15-10-602(1) entitles a fiduciary and his or her lawyer to reasonable compensation for services rendered on behalf of an estate, and 15-10-602(4) preserves the court's inherent authority and responsibility to determine the reasonableness of compensation and costs. The former schedule sections 15-12-719 and 15-12-721 are both repealed. A court must order refund of excessive compensation.

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.

How Colorado executor compensation works

In Colorado, the personal representative (executor) is the person the court appoints, or the will nominates, to administer the estate. Colorado compensation is governed by state statute and, where the statute permits, by the terms of the will or a court order, so the lawful Colorado fee is whatever those authorities set — not a national rule of thumb.

Colorado does not set a statewide percentage schedule.

The amount is not computable from estate value alone. This page therefore publishes no percentage result; it reports the reasonable-compensation standard the reviewed record supports instead.

What this state does not set

Colorado does not set one statutory percentage to multiply by the estate. Do not substitute a neighboring state's rate or an informal fee table. The amount depends on the services and accounting in the particular administration, and the will may affect the compensation analysis where the governing rule allows it.

The governing compensation standard

A fiduciary and his or her lawyer are entitled to reasonable compensation for services rendered on behalf of an estate.

C.R.S. 15-10-602 (Colorado General Assembly (Office of Legislative Legal Services); reviewed August 9, 2026)

How the amount is fixed

Colorado has no statutory percentage schedule. C.R.S. 15-10-602(1) entitles a fiduciary and his or her lawyer to reasonable compensation for services rendered on behalf of an estate, and 15-10-602(4) preserves the court's inherent authority and responsibility to determine the reasonableness of compensation and costs. The former schedule sections 15-12-719 and 15-12-721 are both repealed. A court must order refund of excessive compensation.

Keep the estate accounting, time and task log, receipts, and any will or compensation agreement together. Before taking a fee, ask the District Court (Denver Probate Court in the City and County of Denver) how compensation is presented for review in this estate and whether an order or account approval is required. This page cannot decide what a court will consider reasonable.

Colorado compensation map

Which figure the Colorado fee rule actually measures

A percentage is not a fee answer until its base is known. This Colorado map identifies the compensation standard and the accounting figure it uses, while keeping court approval and extraordinary work outside an invented total.

QuestionRecorded Colorado answerCarry into the case
What route is being screened?Collection of personal property by affidavit (C.R.S. 15-12-1201)Confirm that the will, prior appointment, family facts, and asset titles fit this route.
What property and basis count?personal probate property only; net of enforceable liens and encumbrances.Keep real property, liens, beneficiary transfers, and survivorship transfers classified separately.
What is the amount screen?$88,000 for deaths from January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2026Use the counted property, not a bank-balance shortcut.
What is the time or deadline record?10 days after death; Colorado runs multiple independent, separately-triggered deadlines that cannot be reduced to one honest day count. C.R.S. 15-12-801 requires published notice (at least once during each of three successive weeks) fixing a bar date not earlier than four months from first publication or one year from death, whichever occurs first. C.R.S. 15-12-803(1)(a) bars pre-death claims: (I) creditors barred by publication within the time set in the published notice; (II) creditors barred by written notice within the time set in the written notice; (III) as to all creditors within one year after the decedent's death (outer nonclaim limit). Post-death claims are barred four months after they arise / after PR performance is due (15-12-803(2)).Keep the event that starts each clock with the date; do not combine separate periods into one number.
What does the cost record establish?$229 is the recorded statewide amount.Ask the District Court (Denver Probate Court in the City and County of Denver) about local surcharges, copies, publication, bond, and later filings.
What does compensation use?Colorado has no statutory percentage schedule. C.R.S. 15-10-602(1) entitles a fiduciary and his or her lawyer to reasonable compensation for services rendered on behalf of an estate, and 15-10-602(4) preserves the court's inherent authority and responsibility to determine the reasonableness of compensation and costs. The former schedule sections 15-12-719 and 15-12-721 are both repealed. A court must order refund of excessive compensation. The relevant base is the estate accounting.Keep the will, task log, receipts, and accounting base together; extraordinary work is separate.

Compensation record

The Colorado fee record, band by band

This is the registry view of the compensation rule, separate from the calculator result. It shows whether a rate schedule exists and what accounting base the schedule names. A blank band is not permission to borrow a percentage from another state.

Colorado has no tier table this site can price from the accepted record. The controlling record is C.R.S. 15-10-602; read its quoted standard and ask the court how the fee is presented for approval.

Prepare a reasonable-compensation request

Because Colorado does not publish a percentage table here, the useful output is a record of the work and the accounting figure the court can review. Keep the will or appointment order, the the estate accounting the rule names, a dated task log, receipts, and a separate list of extraordinary work. This worksheet does not predict what the District Court (Denver Probate Court in the City and County of Denver) will approve.

A fiduciary and his or her lawyer are entitled to reasonable compensation for services rendered on behalf of an estate.

C.R.S. 15-10-602 (Colorado General Assembly (Office of Legislative Legal Services); reviewed August 9, 2026)
Record to assembleWhy it matters to the Colorado review
Will, appointment, or compensation agreementShows whether a document states a fee or leaves the amount to the reviewed standard.
Accounting baseSeparates the estate accounting from the gross asset list.
Dated task and time recordConnects the requested amount to the administration work actually performed.
Receipts and extraordinary-work listKeeps expenses and separately reviewable services out of an unexplained round number.

Case-file context

Keep the Colorado answer with its neighboring conditions

A route answer is easier to use when the facts that can change it stay in the same record. These are the reviewed Colorado descriptions adjacent to this page\'s main question; they are not a substitute for the source quotations or the receiving court\'s instructions.

Route context

Colorado allows an out-of-court affidavit to collect a decedent's personal property when the estate is within an inflation-indexed cap. Formal probate opens in the District Court, except that Denver County has a dedicated Denver Probate Court.

A successor may collect a decedent's personal property by presenting an affidavit (no court filing) once at least ten days have elapsed since death, no personal representative is appointed or pending, and the fair market value of property subject to disposition by will or intestacy, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed twice the C.R.S. 15-11-403 amount as CPI-adjusted under C.R.S. 15-10-112. The Colorado Judicial Branch (JDF 998) publishes the operative cap by year of death: $88,000 for 2026 deaths. This is an inflation-indexed, year-specific amount, not a permanent threshold, and the affidavit does not transfer real estate.

Cost context

The Colorado Judicial Branch statewide Probate Case Fees schedule lists $229 for the 1st Filing for a Decedent's Estate (not small estates), citing C.R.S. 13-32-102(1)(b),(7), and separately lists $113 for a Small Estate filing (13-32-102(1)(a),(7)). The collection-by-affidavit procedure (JDF 999/998) is handled out of court and ordinarily is not filed.

$229 is the recorded statewide amount.

Deadline context

Colorado runs multiple independent, separately-triggered deadlines that cannot be reduced to one honest day count. C.R.S. 15-12-801 requires published notice (at least once during each of three successive weeks) fixing a bar date not earlier than four months from first publication or one year from death, whichever occurs first. C.R.S. 15-12-803(1)(a) bars pre-death claims: (I) creditors barred by publication within the time set in the published notice; (II) creditors barred by written notice within the time set in the written notice; (III) as to all creditors within one year after the decedent's death (outer nonclaim limit). Post-death claims are barred four months after they arise / after PR performance is due (15-12-803(2)).

  • Colorado's small-estate cap is set by the decedent's YEAR OF DEATH, not a single timeless figure. The Colorado Judicial Branch table JDF 998 publishes the operative amount per year: $88,000 for 2026 deaths, $86,000 for 2025 deaths, and $82,000 for 2024 deaths (earlier years are lower - 2023 $80,000; 2022 $74,000; 2020-2021 $70,000). A death in an earlier year must use that year's figure: a 2025 estate of $87,000, for example, does NOT qualify even though it is under the 2026 cap. Always check JDF 998 for the year of death.
  • Filing-fee figures come from the judiciary fee list (agency-published), which shows no revision date; the underlying statute is C.R.S. 13-32-102 in Title 13 (outside the harvested Title 15 PDF).

Court-material note: JDF 999 is the statewide collection-by-affidavit form; JDF 998 is the instruction guide that publishes the year-of-death cap. Probate opens in District Court in every county except the City and County of Denver, which uses the separate Denver Probate Court.

Arithmetic illustration

See the Colorado amount screen without mistaking it for a result

The recorded Colorado ceiling is $88,000 for deaths from January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2026, and it is tested against personal probate property only, on a basis this site records as net of enforceable liens and encumbrances. Counted that way, $66,000 sits below the Colorado figure and $110,000 sits above it. Both are comparisons to a published number rather than legal outcomes: two estates holding the same total can land on opposite sides of this line, because what Colorado counts and how it values it are decided before the comparison is made.

Illustrative counted amountComparison to the Colorado ceilingWhat it does not decide
$66,000Below $88,000 for deaths from January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2026Title, liens, waiting period, appointment, or creditor duties
$110,000Above $88,000 for deaths from January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2026Whether another statutory route or court process applies

Next evidence to collect

Bring the stated accounting base and the will or court instructions to the compensation discussion.

  1. Record the date of death, the county, and the exact proceeding or affidavit being considered.
  2. Classify each asset by title, beneficiary, trust, real-property status, and the value basis shown above.
  3. Open the official court material below and keep its form or schedule with the estate record.
  4. Do not distribute property until the route, creditor position, and required approvals are resolved.

Official material

JDF 999 is the statewide collection-by-affidavit form; JDF 998 is the instruction guide that publishes the year-of-death cap.

Probate opens in District Court in every county except the City and County of Denver, which uses the separate Denver Probate Court.

Source trail

Records used by this Colorado map

Compensation source

Each legal input links to the government source reviewed for this page. Source text can change; confirm the current rule before acting.

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