Pennsylvania personal representative compensation

Pennsylvania executor fees

20 Pa.C.S. § 3537 provides that the court shall allow the personal representative such compensation as is, in the circumstances, reasonable and just, and may calculate it on a graduated percentage. There is NO statutory percentage schedule; courts commonly reference informal fee guides (e.g., the Johnson estate schedule) but the statute states only a reasonableness standard.

Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch October 3, 2026.

How Pennsylvania sets executor compensation

Pennsylvania sets no percentage schedule, so no fee can be computed from the estate value. The Orphans' Court Division (Register of Wills) decides what is reasonable for the work actually done; the governing text is quoted in the source below.

Pennsylvania leaves the percentage to the court, and says so in one sentence

20 Pa.C.S. § 3537 is titled simply "Compensation," and reads in full: "The court shall allow such compensation to the personal representative as shall in the circumstances be reasonable and just, and may calculate such compensation on a graduated percentage."

Two things follow from that wording. First, there is no statutory rate in Pennsylvania — the commonly circulated graduated tables are customary schedules that a court may find persuasive, not figures the Commonwealth has enacted. Second, the graduated approach is permissive: the statute says the court "may" calculate compensation that way, which leaves room for a flat or time-based allowance when that is the reasonable and just answer.

Because the test is "in the circumstances," the evidence that supports a Pennsylvania fee is the record of what the estate actually required: the accounting base, the time and responsibility assumed, and the results obtained. A personal representative who keeps a contemporaneous task log is arguing from the statute; one who quotes a percentage table is arguing from custom.

Source: 20 Pa.C.S. § 3537, 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.

Compensation source

Pennsylvania record: 3/3 verified, 10 matched checks, latest source re-fetch October 3, 2026. Source record · method · report a correction