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Michigan personal representative compensation

Michigan executor fee calculator

Michigan uses reasonable compensation rather than a percentage schedule. A will provision may be renounced before qualifying when no compensation contract exists; a written compensation contract with the decedent binds the representative.

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

Michigan estate snapshot

Gross probate propertyNot yet counted
Court chargeMore information neededGeneral probate-court civil action or proceeding2 asset entries have no value entered. A blank amount is not treated as zero, so the charge cannot be computed.More information neededMCL 700.3982 court-order assignment2 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.Michigan uses reasonable compensation rather than a percentage schedule. A will provision may be renounced before qualifying when no compensation contract exists; a written compensation contract with the decedent binds the representative.

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 Michigan executor compensation works

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

Michigan 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

Michigan 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 personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation for services performed. A personal representative may pay the personal representative's own compensation periodically as earned without prior court approval.

MCL 700.3719 (Michigan Legislature; reviewed August 9, 2026)

How the amount is fixed

Michigan uses reasonable compensation rather than a percentage schedule. A will provision may be renounced before qualifying when no compensation contract exists; a written compensation contract with the decedent binds the representative.

Keep the estate accounting, time and task log, receipts, and any will or compensation agreement together. Before taking a fee, ask the Probate 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.

Michigan compensation map

Which figure the Michigan fee rule actually measures

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

QuestionRecorded Michigan answerCarry into the case
What route is being screened?Collection of personal property by sworn statementConfirm 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?$51,000 for deaths from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2025Use the counted property, not a bank-balance shortcut.
What is the time or deadline record?28 days after death; Michigan has distinct deadlines: publication, later notice to known creditors, and a three-year death-based outer bar when statutory notice was not given, plus separate post-death claim rules. One days value would misstate the framework.Keep the event that starts each clock with the date; do not combine separate periods into one number.
What does the cost record establish?$150 is the recorded statewide amount.Ask the Probate Court about local surcharges, copies, publication, bond, and later filings.
What does compensation use?Michigan uses reasonable compensation rather than a percentage schedule. A will provision may be renounced before qualifying when no compensation contract exists; a written compensation contract with the decedent binds the representative. The relevant base is the estate accounting.Keep the will, task log, receipts, and accounting base together; extraordinary work is separate.

Compensation record

The Michigan 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.

Michigan has no tier table this site can price from the accepted record. The controlling record is MCL 700.3719; read its quoted standard and ask the court how the fee is presented for approval.

Prepare a reasonable-compensation request

Because Michigan 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 Court will approve.

A personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation for services performed. A personal representative may pay the personal representative's own compensation periodically as earned without prior court approval.

MCL 700.3719 (Michigan Legislature; reviewed August 9, 2026)
Record to assembleWhy it matters to the Michigan 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 Michigan 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 Michigan 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

Michigan’s Probate Court offers both a sworn-statement collection route for estates without real property and a court-order assignment route.

After 28 days, a successor may use a sworn statement (MCL 700.3983) or a court-order assignment (MCL 700.3982) where the estate has no real property, is within the annually adjusted net-of-liens ceiling, and no personal-representative application or appointment is pending or granted. The ceiling is $50,000 base (as amended by 2024 PA 1) adjusted annually for cost of living under MCL 700.1210; the operative figure for calendar-year 2025 deaths is $51,000 (Michigan Department of Treasury certified notice, Table B).

Cost context

Commencing a probate-court civil action or proceeding generally costs $150; commencing the MCL 700.3982 assignment proceeding costs $25. MCL 600.871 separately imposes a statewide, value-based decedent-estate fee due by closing or within one year; it is not an opening filing fee.

$150 is the recorded statewide amount.

Deadline context

Michigan has distinct deadlines: publication, later notice to known creditors, and a three-year death-based outer bar when statutory notice was not given, plus separate post-death claim rules. One days value would misstate the framework.

  • The published small-estate ceiling of $51,000 is the figure the Michigan Department of Treasury CERTIFIED for decedents dying in CALENDAR YEAR 2025 (notice certified January 31, 2025, Table B). The CY2026 Treasury notice was not obtainable at review - the Treasury estates COLA archive still listed the CY2025 notice as its most recent, and no CY2026 notice was published. A 2026 death must be checked against the current-year Treasury notice (base $50,000 indexed annually under MCL 700.1210) before relying on this number.
  • The base $50,000 (2024 PA 1) and the indexing mechanism (MCL 700.1210, COLA factor x base rounded to the nearest $1,000) are captured so the CY2026 figure can be refreshed once the notice is published.

Court-material note: Michigan publishes statewide SCAO forms for both small-estate routes. The forms repeat that the statutory base is adjusted, but do not print an operative calendar-year ceiling. No stable HTTP-200 human-readable statewide Probate Court directory page was located; direct court-form URLs were verified.

Arithmetic illustration

See the Michigan amount screen without mistaking it for a result

The recorded Michigan ceiling is $51,000 for deaths from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2025, 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, $38,300 sits below the Michigan figure and $63,800 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 Michigan counts and how it values it are decided before the comparison is made.

Illustrative counted amountComparison to the Michigan ceilingWhat it does not decide
$38,300Below $51,000 for deaths from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2025Title, liens, waiting period, appointment, or creditor duties
$63,800Above $51,000 for deaths from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2025Whether 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

Michigan publishes statewide SCAO forms for both small-estate routes. The forms repeat that the statutory base is adjusted, but do not print an operative calendar-year ceiling.

No stable HTTP-200 human-readable statewide Probate Court directory page was located; direct court-form URLs were verified.

Source trail

Records used by this Michigan 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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