Massachusetts personal representative compensation
A personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation. A will provision may be renounced before qualifying when no compensation contract exists; the statute states no percentage base or extraordinary-services schedule.
Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch September 15, 2026.
In Massachusetts, the personal representative (executor) is the person the court appoints, or the will nominates, to administer the estate. Massachusetts compensation is governed by state statute and, where the statute permits, by the terms of the will or a court order, so the lawful Massachusetts fee is whatever those authorities set — not a national rule of thumb.
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.
Massachusetts 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.
A personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation for services. If a will provides for compensation of the personal representative and there is no contract with the decedent regarding compensation, the personal representative may renounce the provision before qualifying and be entitled to reasonable compensation.
A personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation. A will provision may be renounced before qualifying when no compensation contract exists; the statute states no percentage base or extraordinary-services schedule.
Keep the estate accounting, time and task log, receipts, and any will or compensation agreement together. Before taking a fee, ask the Probate and Family Court 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.
M.G.L. c. 190B, § 3-719 is the uniform provision, printed in the General Laws under the bracketed uniform heading “Compensation of Personal Representative.” A personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation for services. Where a will provides for compensation and there is no contract with the decedent about it, the representative may renounce that provision before qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead. The representative may also renounce the right to all or any part of the compensation, and a written renunciation of fee may be filed with the court.
Comparing that against Montana’s § 72-3-631, Arizona’s § 14-3719 and Nebraska’s § 30-2480 produces no difference in substance — all four are the same uniform sentence. Massachusetts went no further: the General Laws fix no percentage, and unlike Minnesota and Nebraska they enumerate no factors for the court to weigh. There is no statutory Massachusetts number to quote.
The Massachusetts-specific lever is on the other side of the process. Where § 3-1201 applies — an estate entirely of personal property, a motor vehicle plus no more than $25,000 of other personal property — the estate is handled by a voluntary personal representative, which is not a court appointment. No appointment means no personal representative in the § 3-719 sense and so no compensation entitlement to measure. Establishing which of the two tracks an estate is on answers the fee question more reliably than reading § 3-719 does.
Source: M.G.L. c. 190B, §§ 3-719, 3-1201, read from the enacting state’s own published code on 2026-09-17. Quoted wording is the statute’s; the surrounding explanation is this site’s reading of it and is not legal advice.
Massachusetts compensation map
A percentage is not a fee answer until its base is known. This Massachusetts map identifies the compensation standard and the accounting figure it uses, while keeping court approval and extraordinary work outside an invented total.
| Question | Recorded Massachusetts answer | Carry into the case |
|---|---|---|
| What route is being screened? | Voluntary administration / collection of personal property by affidavit | Confirm that the will, prior appointment, family facts, and asset titles fit this route. |
| What property and basis count? | personal probate property only; gross value for this route. | Keep real property, liens, beneficiary transfers, and survivorship transfers classified separately. |
| What is the amount screen? | $25,000 | Use the counted property, not a bank-balance shortcut. |
| What is the time or deadline record? | 30 days after death; Section 3-803 states a general one-year-from-death action limit but also contains exceptions and equitable relief; § 3-801 is reserved. It cannot honestly be collapsed into publication, actual-notice, appointment, and outer-limit deadlines as one number. | Keep the event that starts each clock with the date; do not combine separate periods into one number. |
| What does the cost record establish? | 2 published schedules; the proceeding and value basis control the total. | Ask the Probate and Family Court about local surcharges, copies, publication, bond, and later filings. |
| What does compensation use? | A personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation. A will provision may be renounced before qualifying when no compensation contract exists; the statute states no percentage base or extraordinary-services schedule. The relevant base is the estate accounting. | Keep the will, task log, receipts, and accounting base together; extraordinary work is separate. |
Compensation record
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.
Massachusetts has no tier table this site can price from the accepted record. The controlling record is G.L. c. 190B, § 3-719; read its quoted standard and ask the court how the fee is presented for approval.
Because Massachusetts 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 Probate and Family Court will approve.
A personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation for services. If a will provides for compensation of the personal representative and there is no contract with the decedent regarding compensation, the personal representative may renounce the provision before qualifying and be entitled to reasonable compensation.
| Record to assemble | Why it matters to the Massachusetts review |
|---|---|
| Will, appointment, or compensation agreement | Shows whether a document states a fee or leaves the amount to the reviewed standard. |
| Accounting base | Separates the estate accounting from the gross asset list. |
| Dated task and time record | Connects the requested amount to the administration work actually performed. |
| Receipts and extraordinary-work list | Keeps expenses and separately reviewable services out of an unexplained round number. |
Case-file context
A route answer is easier to use when the facts that can change it stay in the same record. These are the reviewed Massachusetts descriptions adjacent to this page\'s main question; they are not a substitute for the source quotations or the receiving court\'s instructions.
Massachusetts calls the small personal-property route voluntary administration and files it in the Probate and Family Court.
After 30 days, an interested person may file a voluntary-administration statement when the Massachusetts domiciliary left only personal property and the non-motor-vehicle personal property does not exceed $25,000. A prior petition for appointment disqualifies the route; one motor vehicle may be included outside that $25,000 wording.
The statutory filing fee is $100 for a statement of voluntary administration and $375 for formal or informal probate/appointment.
2 published schedules; the proceeding and value basis control the total.
Section 3-803 states a general one-year-from-death action limit but also contains exceptions and equitable relief; § 3-801 is reserved. It cannot honestly be collapsed into publication, actual-notice, appointment, and outer-limit deadlines as one number.
Court-material note: Massachusetts publishes statewide probate forms, a court fee page, and a statewide court-location directory.
Arithmetic illustration
The recorded Massachusetts ceiling is $25,000, and it is tested against personal probate property only, on a basis this site records as gross value for this route. Counted that way, $18,800 sits below the Massachusetts figure and $31,300 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 Massachusetts counts and how it values it are decided before the comparison is made.
| Illustrative counted amount | Comparison to the Massachusetts ceiling | What it does not decide |
|---|---|---|
| $18,800 | Below $25,000 | Title, liens, waiting period, appointment, or creditor duties |
| $31,300 | Above $25,000 | Whether another statutory route or court process applies |
Next evidence to collect
Official material
Massachusetts publishes statewide probate forms, a court fee page, and a statewide court-location directory.
Source trail
Each legal input links to the government source reviewed for this page. Source text can change; confirm the current rule before acting.
Reviewed source note: A personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation for services. If a will provides for compensation of the personal representative and there is no contract with the decedent regarding compensation, the personal representative may renounce the provision before qualifying and be entitled to reasonable compensation.