From our “Ask a Question” Mailbag: Lehigh County Attorney Co-Executor Fees

Most Recently Updated July 19, 2018.

“I am the co-executor of my mother’s Lehigh County, Pennsylvania estate, along with her attorney. What fee can he charge?”

Lehigh County Attorney Co-Executor Fees

Lehigh County Attorney Co-Executor Fees

First, if your mother’s attorney is serving as the executor and will also be providing your mother’s estate legal services in Lehigh County, the attorney should not be charging both fees:

• an executor’s fee and
• a fee for legal services based solely on a percentage of the estate.

The Johnson Estate Guideline

Pennsylvania has not adopted a statutory fee for legal or executor services based on a percentage of the estate’s assets, but there is a case, which we refer to as “The Johnson Estate,” that spells out a guideline for how attorneys and executors should charge for their services.

This is a guideline, not the law. If a case is much easier or much harder than usual, then the reasonable fee could be much lower or higher than what The Johnson Estate describes. Our firm’s general policy is to bill hourly for services, which I believe is more reasonable. Further, if a client asks me to serve as executor I will ask the client how I should be compensated. Often, they want me to bill hourly. If so, I will document that in the will itself. In the end, the attorney’s fee for serving as executor and for legal services to the estate as a probate attorney should be “reasonable,” but how those fees will be calculated—flat fee or hourly—should be agreed to in the beginning.

More Probate Questions?

The attorney fees are only part of the overall probate process. By all means, if you wish to learn more, please read my more detailed article, The Probate Process All You Need to Know.

In Conclusion: Lehigh County Attorney Co-Executor Fees

I hope that this article was helpful in explaining reasonable fees for attorneys as executors. Further, I included links to even more detailed information on my website. Therefore, please contact me and let me know how I did. Certainly, your comments and questions are welcome!

Let our Probate Lawyers help walk you through what can be a confusing process. To begin with, call to speak to one of our experienced Probate Attorneys.  By all means, our lawyers are ready to answer your questions. In fact, feel free to contact our office for a free consultation. Ultimately our goal is to make the process as painless as possible!

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