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North Carolina personal representative compensation

North Carolina executor fee calculator

The clerk may allow compensation up to 5% of receipts and expenditures.

Sources reviewed August 7, 2026. Sources rechecked October 3, 2026. This page last revised .

1. Where and when
Other personalty and income received by the estate after the inventory, entered one account or report at a time

North Carolina charges the opening inventory and each later account or report separately, and sets a minimum for every filing. Three accounts of $1,000 are three separate charges, not one charge on $3,000, so enter each account or report on its own line. This does not affect the small-estate limit. Enter 0 if nothing further was received; leaving a line blank keeps the charge undecided.

2. Compensation base

Asset 1

Asset 2

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

Private by design: entries stay in this browser.

Your working estimate

North Carolina estate snapshot

Gross probate propertyNot yet counted
Court chargeMore information neededAdministration of a decedent estate2 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.The clerk may allow compensation up to 5% of receipts and expenditures. This is a ceiling, not an automatic award.

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.

Work out the North Carolina cap from the estate’s accounting

N.C. Gen. Stat. § 28A-23-3 sets the most the Clerk of Superior Court may allow, measured on amounts from the estate’s own accounting rather than on what the estate is worth. Type those amounts below and the worksheet prices that limit, nothing more.

North Carolina: up to 5% of receipts plus 5% of expenditures, as the clerk fixes it (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 28A-23-3)

N.C. Gen. Stat. § 28A-23-3(a) leaves the amount to the clerk of superior court below this limit, and where the gross estate is $2,000 or less the clerk fixes a just and adequate amount instead. Necessary charges and disbursements are allowed separately (subsection (d)(1)).

Fill in every figure to see what N.C. Gen. Stat. § 28A-23-3 allows. Nothing you type leaves this browser.

How North Carolina sets executor compensation

This is a ceiling, not an automatic award.

The calculator applies the North Carolina schedule to the value you enter, measured against the money the estate actually received and paid out. Under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 28A-23-3(c) the clerk may pay commissions in stages, but the total may not exceed this limit; necessary charges and disbursements are allowed separately as expenses (subsection (d)(1)). N.C. Gen. Stat. § 28A-23-3(g) lifts this ceiling where the will stipulates an amount, method or standard for the fee, while subsection (h) keeps it where the will says only “as provided by law” or the “maximum amount provided by law.”

North Carolina caps commissions at 5% of receipts and expenditures — and the clerk sets the number

G.S. § 28A-23-3(a) entitles personal representatives, collectors and public administrators to commissions “to be fixed in the discretion of the clerk of superior court not to exceed five percent (5%) upon the amounts of receipts, including the value of all personal property when received, and upon the expenditures made in accordance with law.” The 5% is a ceiling on a discretionary award, not an entitlement, and it is applied to two flows — receipts and expenditures — rather than to a single closing value.

The statute lets the clerk take professional fees into account when setting the maximum: fees paid by the estate for services performed in the ordinary course of administration, including services by attorneys and accountants, may be considered. It then expressly says the clerk “is not required to reduce the maximum commissions allowed by the aggregate fees paid to professionals on a dollar-for-dollar basis.” Hiring professionals influences the award but does not mechanically net against it.

Subsection (b) directs the clerk to consider the time, responsibility, trouble and skill involved in managing the estate. Where real property is sold to pay debts or devises, the commission is computed only on the proceeds actually applied in payment of debts or devises — not on the gross sale price. Subsection (d)(2) bars commissions on distributions of the shares of heirs or devisees altogether.

Two further features shape the timing and the floor. Under subsection (c) the clerk may allow commissions from time to time during administration, but the total is determined on final settlement and may not exceed the statutory limit. And if the gross value of an estate is two thousand dollars ($2,000) or less, the clerk may instead fix an amount the clerk deems just and adequate, escaping the percentage entirely on very small estates.

Source: N.C. G.S. § 28A-23-3, read from the enacting state’s own official publication 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.

Compensation source

Sources rechecked October 3, 2026: North Carolina source list · how sources are checked · report a correction

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