Montana executor fees

Montana’s fee statute is the uniform text, so the renunciation timing is what decides outcomes

MCA § 72-3-631 entitles a personal representative to reasonable compensation for services and says nothing about how much that is. Comparing it word for word against Arizona’s § 14-3719, Nebraska’s § 30-2480, North Dakota’s § 30.1-18-19 and Massachusetts’ c. 190B § 3-719 turns up no substantive difference: all five are the uniform provision. Montana’s version has been amended three times since enactment — in 1979, in the May 2000 special session, and by Ch. 313, Laws 2019 — without adding a schedule or a list of factors.

Because the amount is open, the timing rule in the statute does more work than the entitlement does. Where a will provides for compensation and there is no contract with the decedent about it, the representative “may renounce the provision before qualifying” and take compensation under the section instead. Before qualifying is the operative phrase: the choice between the will’s figure and a reasonable fee is made at the start of the appointment, not after the work reveals which is larger.

The statute separately allows a representative to renounce the right to all or any part of the compensation, and a written renunciation of fee may be filed with the court. A family member serving without charge is doing something the code expressly contemplates and gives a way to record.

Montana’s small-estate affidavit is the other half of the picture. Where MCA § 72-3-1101 applies there is no appointment, so there is no representative and no compensation question to answer at all.

Source: MCA § 72-3-631, read from the enacting state’s own published code on 2026-09-17. Quoted wording is the statute’s; the surrounding explanation is this site’s reading of it and is not legal advice.