High Value Estates: Proposal For Compensating Personal Representatives For Ordinary Services In Probate Estates That Exceed $25 Million And Trustees Of High Value Administrative Trusts
The California Probate Code provides a formula to determine fees for attorneys and personal representatives for a probate estate valued at $25 million or less. The statute provides that fees for estates above this value should be reasonable. In this article, we propose setting reasonable fees for high value estates by applying a logical extension of the statutory schedule of executors’ and administrators’ commissions and attorneys’ fees for ordinary services in California and the application of that schedule to the trustee of a so-called “administrative trust,” i.e., a revocable trust following the death of the settlor.