Executor Fees in Massachusetts: Statute, Amounts, and Taxes

Executor fees in Massachusetts are not set by a fixed percentage or dollar formula. Under the state’s Uniform Probate Code, a personal representative is entitled to “reasonable compensation for services,” and the actual amount depends on the estate’s size, its complexity, and the work the job actually required.¹ That single word, reasonable, is where most of the confusion and most of the disputes come from.

What the Statute Allows

Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 190B, Section 3-719 is short. It entitles a personal representative to reasonable compensation for services. No percentage tiers. No cap. No schedule.¹

The statute also handles two related situations. If the will itself specifies the executor’s compensation, and the executor hasn’t signed a separate compensation contract with the decedent, the executor can renounce that provision before formally qualifying and claim reasonable compensation instead. Executors can also renounce all or part of their fee entirely by filing a written renunciation with the court.¹

The renunciation option matters more than it first appears. Family members serving as executor often waive the fee, either because they’re also beneficiaries or because taking a fee would generate taxable income they’d rather avoid. Filing the written renunciation with the court protects the executor from later claims that they shortchanged themselves or handled the estate improperly.

How Courts Decide What Is Reasonable

Because the statute doesn’t define reasonable, the courts have. The leading framework comes from McMahon v. Krapf, a 1948 Supreme Judicial Court decision Massachusetts judges still rely on.² The factors the court laid out are:

The size of the estate. Larger estates generally justify higher compensation, though the relationship isn’t strictly proportional.
The marketable nature of the assets. An estate of publicly traded stocks is far easier to administer than one holding illiquid real estate, business interests, or collectibles.
The legal and factual complexity of the work. Contested claims, tax disputes, litigation, and international assets all raise the difficulty.
The time reasonably required. Padded hours don’t survive scrutiny.
The skill and ability the executor brought to the job. A professional with legal, accounting, or financial expertise may warrant more for the same task.
The amounts customarily paid for similar work in the community.
The results accomplished. Recovering assets, resolving disputes favorably, or reducing taxes strengthens the case for higher pay.

These factors work together. Two hundred hours on a small, straightforward estate won’t support the same fee as two hundred hours navigating complex tax questions on a multimillion-dollar one. Effort matters, but so do the results.

What Executor Fees Actually Look Like

Without a statutory percentage, fees vary widely, and courts assess each estate on its own facts. Some general patterns show up in practice.

As a rough illustration, an estate worth around $700,000 that takes roughly 675 hours of work might generate about $25,000 in executor fees. That works out to roughly $37 per hour, which is on the lower end for professional services but consistent with what courts tend to approve for non-professional executors handling moderately complex estates.

Professional executors, meaning banks, trust companies, and attorneys who serve in the role regularly, typically charge more than family members or friends. Some bill hourly; others take a percentage of the estate’s total value. Either way, the fee still has to pass the reasonableness test under Section 3-719.

Family members serving as executor sometimes take nothing, especially when they’re also inheriting. Others charge a modest hourly rate. Both approaches are legally acceptable, but the tax consequences are different, and that’s worth thinking through before deciding.

When the Will Sets the Fee

Some wills specify what the executor should be paid: a flat amount, a percentage, or an hourly rate. When they do, things get simpler. The executor takes what the decedent authorized, and beneficiaries generally can’t challenge that amount unless it’s so excessive it suggests undue influence or fraud in the drafting.

Executors aren’t locked in, though. Under Section 3-719, an executor who hasn’t entered into a separate compensation contract with the decedent can renounce the will’s fee provision before qualifying and claim reasonable compensation instead.¹ That option can matter when the will is old and the specified fee is below current market rates, or when the estate turns out to be much more complicated than the decedent expected.

Timing is strict. The renunciation must happen before the executor formally qualifies, meaning before the court issues letters of appointment. Once you’ve accepted the role under the will’s terms, that window closes.

Taxes on Executor Fees

Executor fees are taxable income. The IRS requires every personal representative to include estate fees in gross income, whether they’re a professional fiduciary or a family member handling one estate in a lifetime.³

Self-employment tax depends on who’s collecting the fee. Professional executors, such as attorneys, accountants, and trust companies who regularly serve in this capacity, owe self-employment tax on their fees. Non-professional executors, meaning family members or friends serving in an isolated instance, generally do not, unless the estate contains a business the executor actively participates in running and the fees relate to operating it.

On the estate’s side, executor fees paid are deductible as administration expenses on the federal estate tax return, provided the amount is in line with what’s customary for estates of similar size in the jurisdiction. A bequest left to the executor in lieu of compensation is not deductible.⁴

This creates a real planning question. A family member who is both executor and beneficiary might prefer to waive the fee and simply take the inheritance, since inheritances are generally not taxable income to the recipient. Taking a $25,000 fee means paying income tax on it; receiving an additional $25,000 as a beneficiary typically doesn’t. For estates large enough to owe federal estate tax, however, paying executor fees reduces the taxable estate and can save money on the whole. The right answer depends on the numbers, and both scenarios are worth running before deciding.

Expenses Are Separate From the Fee

Compensation and expense reimbursement are two different things. The fee pays the executor for time and effort. Expenses are the out-of-pocket costs of running the estate: court filing fees, appraisals, postage, travel to meet with attorneys or financial institutions, storage costs for estate property.

Massachusetts probate filing fees alone run $375 plus a $15 surcharge for both formal and informal probate petitions.⁵

An executor can be reimbursed for reasonable expenses whether or not they take a fee for their time. Even executors who waive compensation should track and submit their out-of-pocket costs. Mixing the two categories, or failing to document expenses separately, creates confusion at accounting time and invites challenges from beneficiaries who can’t tell what they’re paying for.

Protecting a Fee Claim

The most important thing an executor can do to protect a fee claim is keep contemporaneous records. Log hours as you work, not from memory weeks later. Note what you did, why it was necessary, and how long it took. Keep every receipt, every email exchange with an attorney or accountant, every appraisal report. When a beneficiary challenges a fee, the practical burden of showing it’s justified falls on the executor, and detailed records are what carry that burden.

A few other habits head off trouble:

Discuss fees early. Tell beneficiaries, before or shortly after qualifying, what you expect to charge and how you’ll calculate it. Surprises at the end of administration are what turn into disputes.
Benchmark against comparable estates. Courts weigh the amounts customarily paid for similar work, so knowing that number matters.
Run the tax math if you’re also a beneficiary. Waiving the fee and taking a larger inheritance isn’t automatically better, but it often is.
File a written renunciation if you’re waiving compensation. Don’t just skip billing. Put it on the record with the court.
Hire professionals when the estate calls for it. Paying an attorney or accountant from estate funds for complex tax or legal work is expected and reasonable. Handling everything personally to justify a higher fee rarely works out.

The fee disputes that reach the Probate and Family Court almost always involve an executor who failed to document the work, failed to communicate with beneficiaries, or both. Executors who bring the same transparency to compensation that they bring to the rest of the estate rarely face a serious challenge to what they’re paid.

1
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 190B Section 3-719 – Compensation of Personal Representative
2
Justia. Francis M. McMahon, Executor, vs. George W. Krapf, Trustee
3
IRS. Are the Fees I Receive as an Executor or Administrator of an Estate Taxable
4
eCFR. 26 CFR 20.2053-3 – Deduction for Expenses of Administering Estate
5
Mass.gov. Probate and Family Court Filing Fees