West Virginia personal representative compensation
Commissions apply to personal estate received and accounted for, including income, plus proceeds of real estate sold: 5% through $100,000, 4% through $400,000, 3% through $800,000, and 2% above. Unsold real estate and certain estate-tax property receive a separate 1%; a will may expressly deviate.
Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch September 15, 2026.
In West Virginia, the personal representative (executor) is the person the court appoints, or the will nominates, to administer the estate. West Virginia compensation is governed by state statute and, where the statute permits, by the terms of the will or a court order, so the lawful West Virginia fee is whatever those authorities set — not a national rule of thumb.
The calculator above applies West Virginia's reviewed statutory rule to the compensable estate value you enter. The West Virginia figure does not include extraordinary fees — services beyond routine administration (such as litigation, tax elections, or real-property management) that the court may approve separately on top of the ordinary compensation.
In West Virginia, the compensable amount is measured against the figures shown in the estate's court accounting, so two West Virginia estates with the same headline size can produce different lawful fees when what they are made of differs. Enter the figure that matches that basis rather than the gross number on the first account statement, or the West Virginia result will not reflect the rule the statute actually applies.
If the West Virginia will names a specific compensation amount or formula, that term controls unless a beneficiary or the representative petitions the court for modification. When no will exists, or the will is silent on the point, the West Virginia statutory rule becomes the presumptive measure of reasonable compensation for the work.
West Virginia compensation map
A percentage is not a fee answer until its base is known. This West Virginia map identifies the compensation standard and the accounting figure it uses, while keeping court approval and extraordinary work outside an invented total.
| Question | Recorded West Virginia answer | Carry into the case |
|---|---|---|
| What route is being screened? | Administration of a small estate upon affidavit and without appointment | 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? | $50,000 | Use the counted property, not a bank-balance shortcut. |
| What is the time or deadline record? | 30 days after death; West Virginia publishes a 60-day claim deadline: W. Va. Code § 44-1-14a(a)(7) requires the clerk's published notice of administration to state that claims against the estate must be filed within sixty days of the date of first publication. Claims not presented by that date are barred against the personal representative under § 44-2-26, subject to the surplus exception in that section. The interval is published as a fixed period of days. | Keep the event that starts each clock with the date; do not combine separate periods into one number. |
| What does the cost record establish? | No single statewide amount is published here; confirm the receiving court's current schedule. | Ask the County Commission (with fiduciary supervisor/commissioner; Circuit Court review) about local surcharges, copies, publication, bond, and later filings. |
| What does compensation use? | Commissions apply to personal estate received and accounted for, including income, plus proceeds of real estate sold: 5% through $100,000, 4% through $400,000, 3% through $800,000, and 2% above. Unsold real estate and certain estate-tax property receive a separate 1%; a will may expressly deviate. 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.
| Compensation band | Rate | Read with |
|---|---|---|
| Up to $100,000 | 5% | the estate accounting |
| The next band through $400,000 | 4% | the estate accounting |
| The next band through $800,000 | 3% | the estate accounting |
| Above the prior band | 2% | the estate accounting |
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 West Virginia descriptions adjacent to this page\'s main question; they are not a substitute for the source quotations or the receiving court\'s instructions.
West Virginia’s county commission system uses the county clerk, fiduciary supervisor, and fiduciary commissioners to administer estates, with circuit-court involvement for review.
A West Virginia domiciliary with no probate real-property interest may use the affidavit when all personal probate small assets have aggregate fair market value no more than $50,000. A will-nominated successor waits 30 days; another successor waits 60 days.
The statewide recording base for an otherwise unlisted writing is $10, with $1 per page after five; oath and copy services can add charges, so no single opening total is stated.
No single statewide amount is published here; confirm the receiving court's current schedule.
West Virginia publishes a 60-day claim deadline: W. Va. Code § 44-1-14a(a)(7) requires the clerk's published notice of administration to state that claims against the estate must be filed within sixty days of the date of first publication. Claims not presented by that date are barred against the personal representative under § 44-2-26, subject to the surplus exception in that section. The interval is published as a fixed period of days.
Court-material note: Probate is administered through county commissions, clerks, fiduciary supervisors, and fiduciary commissioners rather than a statewide judiciary probate-form portal; no judiciary/AOC resource returning HTTP 200 was identified. West Virginia's official statewide small-estate form is the statutory model affidavit at W. Va. Code § 44-1A-2(e), which supplies a document 'substantially in the following form' for the affidavit administration under subsection (b); the completed affidavit is recorded with the county clerk or fiduciary supervisor.
Arithmetic illustration
The recorded West Virginia ceiling is $50,000, and it is tested against personal probate property only, on a basis this site records as gross value for this route. Counted that way, $37,500 sits below the West Virginia figure and $62,500 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 West Virginia counts and how it values it are decided before the comparison is made.
| Illustrative counted amount | Comparison to the West Virginia ceiling | What it does not decide |
|---|---|---|
| $37,500 | Below $50,000 | Title, liens, waiting period, appointment, or creditor duties |
| $62,500 | Above $50,000 | Whether another statutory route or court process applies |
Next evidence to collect
Official material
Probate is administered through county commissions, clerks, fiduciary supervisors, and fiduciary commissioners rather than a statewide judiciary probate-form portal; no judiciary/AOC resource returning HTTP 200 was identified.
West Virginia's official statewide small-estate form is the statutory model affidavit at W. Va. Code § 44-1A-2(e), which supplies a document 'substantially in the following form' for the affidavit administration under subsection (b); the completed affidavit is recorded with the county clerk or fiduciary supervisor.
Source trail
West Virginia does not set one flat percentage. The rate steps down as the compensable figure grows, and each rate applies only to its own band — so the whole figure is never multiplied by the top rate or the bottom one. The published bands are:
| Band of the compensable figure | Rate |
|---|---|
| on the first $100,000 | 5% |
| on the next $300,000 | 4% |
| on the next $400,000 | 3% |
| on the balance above $800,000 | 2% |
The bands are read against the figure the estate’s court accounting establishes, which is not the same as the gross value on an opening statement. That distinction changes the West Virginia answer: two estates of the same headline size produce different lawful commissions when the figure the schedule actually measures differs between them.
No single band is priced for you here, because West Virginia keys the schedule to a figure the estate’s own accounting establishes rather than to a number an asset list can supply. Use the calculator above once you have that figure, and treat any court-approved extraordinary compensation, or a fee a will fixes, as separate from this ordinary schedule.
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: §44-4-12a. Compensation and expenses of personal representatives. (a) Personal representatives, as defined in section one, article one, chapter forty-two of this code, shall be allowed any reasonable expenses incurred by the personal representative as such and commissions upon the amount of all the personal estate which is subject to administration, including the income from the personal estate, that is received and accounted for by them and upon the proceeds of real estate that is sold, as follows: (1) For the first $100,000, at the rate of five percent; (2) All above $100,000 and not exceeding $400,000, at the rate of four percent; (3) All above $400,000 and not exceeding $800,000, at the rate of three percent; and (4) All above $800,000, at the rate of two percent.