As a person planning for your own estate or as an interested beneficiary in a family member’s estate, you likely have questions about whether or not the executor involved in estate administration is entitled to pay. Given the number of tasks and the complexity of managing another person’s estate administration, the state of California recognizes that an Executor is entitled to receive pay for his or her responsibilities. 
Under the California Probate Code, a certain percentage of the total assets inside the estate determine what the executor will be paid. The general theory behind this is that the more assets inside the estate, the more complicated it will be for the executor to close out probate and other estate tasks.
When determining the overall value of all of the assets, debts are not included in this inventory. For smaller estates, which include those with less than $100,000 in assets, the maximum that a California executor can be paid is 4 percent.
Many estates fall into this second category for assets totaling more than $100,000 but less than $25 million do still allow the executor to get paid a percentage. The person serving in this role could be paid 4 percent of the first $100,000 inside and 3 percent of the next $100,000. Beyond that, this person can receive 2 percent of the next $800,000 on the estate, 1 percent of the next $9 million dollars inside, and .5 percent of any amount between $9 and $25 million, if applicable.
If someone believes that the executor is mishandling funds, this raises the question of how to respond and remove this person from their role. This can be a complicated estate planning dispute.
If you want to understand more of the role that an executor plays, discuss your case with the help of a knowledgeable estate planning attorney in Pasadena.
