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Montana personal representative compensation

Montana executor fee calculator

MCA § 72-3-631(1) entitles a personal representative to "reasonable compensation for services." Contrary to a common assumption, Montana's Uniform Probate Code enactment does NOT set a statutory percentage schedule (the harvested § 72-3-631 text states only a reasonable-compensation standard). A will may fix compensation, but the personal representative may renounce that provision before qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead.

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

Montana estate snapshot

Gross probate propertyNot yet counted
Court chargeSet locallyMCA § 25-1-201(1)(m) sets a probate-specific fee: on the filing of an application for informal, formal, or supervised probate or for the appointment of a personal representative, the clerk of district court collects $70 from the applicant, "which includes the fee for filing a will for probate". This probate-specific subsection governs over the general civil-commencement fee in § 25-1-201(1)(a), so the opening fee for a probate proceeding is $70. The § 72-3-1101 affidavit route requires no court filing.
Scheduled executor compensationMore information needed2 asset entries have no value entered.MCA § 72-3-631(1) entitles a personal representative to "reasonable compensation for services." Contrary to a common assumption, Montana's Uniform Probate Code enactment does NOT set a statutory percentage schedule (the harvested § 72-3-631 text states only a reasonable-compensation standard). A will may fix compensation, but the personal representative may renounce that provision before qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead.

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 Montana executor compensation works

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

Montana 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

Montana 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

72-3-631 . Compensation of personal representative. (1) A personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation for services.

How the amount is fixed

MCA § 72-3-631(1) entitles a personal representative to "reasonable compensation for services." Contrary to a common assumption, Montana's Uniform Probate Code enactment does NOT set a statutory percentage schedule (the harvested § 72-3-631 text states only a reasonable-compensation standard). A will may fix compensation, but the personal representative may renounce that provision before qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead.

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

Montana’s fee statute is the uniform text, so the renunciation timing is what decides outcomes

MCA § 72-3-631 entitles a personal representative to reasonable compensation for services and says nothing about how much that is. Comparing it word for word against Arizona’s § 14-3719, Nebraska’s § 30-2480, North Dakota’s § 30.1-18-19 and Massachusetts’ c. 190B § 3-719 turns up no substantive difference: all five are the uniform provision. Montana’s version has been amended three times since enactment — in 1979, in the May 2000 special session, and by Ch. 313, Laws 2019 — without adding a schedule or a list of factors.

Because the amount is open, the timing rule in the statute does more work than the entitlement does. Where a will provides for compensation and there is no contract with the decedent about it, the representative “may renounce the provision before qualifying” and take compensation under the section instead. Before qualifying is the operative phrase: the choice between the will’s figure and a reasonable fee is made at the start of the appointment, not after the work reveals which is larger.

The statute separately allows a representative to renounce the right to all or any part of the compensation, and a written renunciation of fee may be filed with the court. A family member serving without charge is doing something the code expressly contemplates and gives a way to record.

Montana’s small-estate affidavit is the other half of the picture. Where MCA § 72-3-1101 applies there is no appointment, so there is no representative and no compensation question to answer at all.

Source: MCA § 72-3-631, 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.

Montana compensation map

Which figure the Montana fee rule actually measures

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

QuestionRecorded Montana answerCarry into the case
What route is being screened?Collection of personal property by affidavit (MCA § 72-3-1101)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?$100,000Use the counted property, not a bank-balance shortcut.
What is the time or deadline record?30 days after death; Montana runs multiple independently-triggered claim deadlines that cannot honestly collapse into one number: a four-month bar from first publication of the notice to creditors (§ 72-3-801(1)); an actual-notice period of four months from published notice or 30 days from mailing, whichever is later (§ 72-3-801(2)); and an outer nonclaim bar of one year after death (§ 72-3-803(1)(a)). Publishing a single figure would mislead.Keep the event that starts each clock with the date; do not combine separate periods into one number.
What does the cost record establish?$70 is the recorded statewide amount.Ask the District Court about local surcharges, copies, publication, bond, and later filings.
What does compensation use?MCA § 72-3-631(1) entitles a personal representative to "reasonable compensation for services." Contrary to a common assumption, Montana's Uniform Probate Code enactment does NOT set a statutory percentage schedule (the harvested § 72-3-631 text states only a reasonable-compensation standard). A will may fix compensation, but the personal representative may renounce that provision before qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead. The relevant base is the estate accounting.Keep the will, task log, receipts, and accounting base together; extraordinary work is separate.

Compensation record

The Montana 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.

Montana has no tier table this site can price from the accepted record. The controlling record is Mont. Code Ann. § 72-3-631; read its quoted standard and ask the court how the fee is presented for approval.

Prepare a reasonable-compensation request

Because Montana 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 will approve.

72-3-631 . Compensation of personal representative. (1) A personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation for services.

Record to assembleWhy it matters to the Montana 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 Montana 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 Montana 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

Montana is a Uniform Probate Code state. Personal property of a decedent whose probate estate (net of liens and encumbrances) does not exceed $100,000 can be collected by affidavit under MCA § 72-3-1101, 30 days after death, with no court filing. Probate proceedings are filed in the District Court, where the probate-specific opening fee is $70 under MCA § 25-1-201(1)(m). Personal representatives receive reasonable compensation under § 72-3-631 — Montana sets no statutory percentage schedule.

Montana allows collection of a decedent's personal property by affidavit under MCA § 72-3-1101 when "the value of the probate estate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $100,000", 30 days have elapsed since death, and no application or petition for appointment of a personal representative is pending or has been granted. (Unclaimed property of $5,000 or less may be refunded by the Department of Revenue regardless of estate value.)

Cost context

MCA § 25-1-201(1)(m) sets a probate-specific fee: on the filing of an application for informal, formal, or supervised probate or for the appointment of a personal representative, the clerk of district court collects $70 from the applicant, "which includes the fee for filing a will for probate". This probate-specific subsection governs over the general civil-commencement fee in § 25-1-201(1)(a), so the opening fee for a probate proceeding is $70. The § 72-3-1101 affidavit route requires no court filing.

$70 is the recorded statewide amount.

Deadline context

Montana runs multiple independently-triggered claim deadlines that cannot honestly collapse into one number: a four-month bar from first publication of the notice to creditors (§ 72-3-801(1)); an actual-notice period of four months from published notice or 30 days from mailing, whichever is later (§ 72-3-801(2)); and an outer nonclaim bar of one year after death (§ 72-3-803(1)(a)). Publishing a single figure would mislead.

Court-material note: Probate in Montana is handled by the District Court. The Judicial Branch publishes statewide self-help resources and forms. The $70 probate fee is fixed statewide by MCA § 25-1-201(1)(m); the § 72-3-1101 affidavit is a private demand instrument, not a court filing.

Arithmetic illustration

See the Montana amount screen without mistaking it for a result

The recorded Montana ceiling is $100,000, 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, $75,000 sits below the Montana figure and $125,000 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 Montana counts and how it values it are decided before the comparison is made.

Illustrative counted amountComparison to the Montana ceilingWhat it does not decide
$75,000Below $100,000Title, liens, waiting period, appointment, or creditor duties
$125,000Above $100,000Whether 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

Probate in Montana is handled by the District Court. The Judicial Branch publishes statewide self-help resources and forms. The $70 probate fee is fixed statewide by MCA § 25-1-201(1)(m); the § 72-3-1101 affidavit is a private demand instrument, not a court filing.

Source trail

Records used by this Montana 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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