When Executors Get Paid: What Florida Law Really Allows, and What Families Can Fight

Most people assume that whoever handles a loved one’s estate does it out of duty, not for a paycheck. But Florida law says otherwise. A personal representative is entitled to be paid for the work of running an estate, and that single fact turns out to be one of the most reliable sources of family conflict in probate court. Beneficiaries who expected every dollar to come to them are often surprised to learn that a meaningful percentage gets carved out first, and disputes over that carve out are common enough that Florida’s statutes spell out exactly how the math is supposed to work.

The Formula Courts Start With

Florida law does not leave compensation to guesswork. Under Florida Statutes Section 733.617, a personal representative is entitled to a commission based on the compensable value of the estate, meaning the inventory value of probate assets plus any income the estate earns during administration. The statute lays out a sliding scale that is presumed reasonable: 3 percent of the first million dollars, 2.5 percent of the next four million, 2 percent of the following five million, and 1.5 percent of anything above ten million. These numbers are a starting presumption, not a hard ceiling or floor, which is exactly where disputes begin.

Where the Fighting Actually Starts

Beneficiaries rarely challenge the basic percentage itself. The real friction shows up around what gets added on top of it or subtracted from it. A few recurring flashpoints:

• Extraordinary service fees claimed for selling real estate, running the deceased’s business, or handling litigation on the estate’s behalf, on top of the standard commission
• A will that sets a specific fee or method of compensation that differs from the statutory formula, which the personal representative may or may not be bound to accept
• Claims that the representative’s own delay, mismanagement, or self-dealing should reduce or eliminate the commission entirely
• Multiple family members serving as co-personal representatives, each expecting a full commission rather than splitting one

How Judges Actually Weigh These Claims

When a beneficiary formally objects, the probate court does not just check the arithmetic. It looks at the size and complexity of the estate, how much time the work actually took, the skill involved, the results achieved, and whether the fee matches what is customary in that community for similar work. A representative asking for extraordinary compensation has to show the extra work was genuinely outside the routine tasks the base commission already covers, not simply that the job was stressful or time consuming. Courts can and do reduce commissions when a representative breached fiduciary duties, and they can approve fees below or above the statutory guideline depending on the specific facts of the case.

These disputes tend to move fastest, and cost the least, when they are raised early rather than after months of resentment have built up among family members. If you are serving as a personal representative or you believe one is charging more than the work justifies, a conversation with the West Palm Beach probate attorneys at the Law Offices of Larry E. Bray, P.A. before the fight escalates can save the estate real money.

Source:

leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0733/Sections/0733.617.html