Florida presumes an attorney fee by schedule, and makes the attorney say it is negotiable
The clerk’s charge above is usually the smallest cost of a Florida formal administration. The personal representative’s attorney is paid under a separate statute, Fla. Stat. § 733.6171, and subsection (3) sets the fee for ordinary services that is "presumed to be reasonable if based on the compensable value of the estate, which is the inventory value of the probate estate assets and the income earned by the estate during the administration." That is the same base the personal representative’s commission uses, not the gross estate and not the value of non-probate assets.
The schedule has two parts. Up to $100,000 it is flat: $1,500 for an estate of $40,000 or less, "an additional $750" above $40,000 up to $70,000, and another $750 above $70,000 up to $100,000. Above $100,000 it is marginal: 3 percent "on the next $900,000," 2.5 percent above $1 million up to $3 million, 2 percent above $3 million up to $5 million, 1.5 percent above $5 million up to $10 million, and 1 percent above $10 million.
Worked example. An estate with a compensable value of $500,000 is presumed to justify $1,500 + $750 + $750 for the first $100,000, plus 3 percent of the $400,000 above it ($12,000): $15,000 in total. The personal representative’s own commission under § 733.617 on the same figure is a separate 3 percent, so the two presumed amounts together are $30,000 before any extraordinary services.
The presumption is not a price list. An attorney who intends to bill by the schedule must first disclose in writing that "there is not a mandatory statutory attorney fee for estate administration," that the presumed fee "may not be appropriate in all estate administrations," and that "the fee is subject to negotiation." Without that signed disclosure the attorney "may not be paid for legal services without prior court approval of the fees or the written consent of all interested parties."
Extraordinary services are paid on top under subsection (4): will contests, contested claims and other litigation, tax audits, real-property sales or leases, homestead proceedings and, since chapter 2026-57 took effect on July 1, 2026, proceedings to enforce the personal representative’s authority. Subsection (5) lets the court increase or decrease the ordinary-services fee on petition of any interested person. The schedule in subsection (3) itself was not changed by that 2026 act.
Source: Fla. Stat. § 733.6171, read from the enacting state’s own official publication on 2026-10-09. Quoted wording is the statute’s; the surrounding explanation is this site’s reading of it and is not legal advice.