Two attorneys can look at the same estate, the same house, the same brokerage account, and quote numbers that sit four times apart without either of them being dishonest. The gap usually comes from three things: which billing method the state allows and the firm prefers, what the fee gets measured against, and how much of the work sits outside the base fee entirely. A careful reader stops treating the number at the bottom of the engagement letter as the answer and starts asking what it is a percentage of, what it excludes, and who writes the check.
Three ways the fee gets built
A statutory fee is a percentage set by state law, tiered so the rate falls as the estate grows, and it is the same for every attorney in that state on that estate. California and Florida are the well-known examples, though the mechanics differ. Hourly billing is what most states use by default, with rates varying by market and by who does the work, since a paralegal drafting an inventory bills far less than a partner reviewing it. Flat fees show up most often for unsupervised or informal administration, where the court's involvement is thin and the sequence is predictable enough for a firm to price it. The same estate can produce all three quotes.
The trap is comparing them as if they measure the same thing. A statutory fee covers ordinary services, defined by statute and case law, and nothing more. A flat fee covers whatever the engagement letter lists, which may be filing the petition, publishing notice, preparing the inventory and closing the estate, with everything else billed separately. An hourly quote is an estimate of hours, not a cap, unless the letter says it is. Ask each one to state, in writing, what falls outside.
What the percentage is a percentage of
In statutory states, the fee base is typically the gross value of the probate estate, not the net. That distinction is worth real money. A house worth six hundred thousand dollars with a four hundred thousand dollar mortgage usually counts as six hundred thousand for fee purposes, because the debt is not deducted, and the fee on the whole house lands on an estate that will only ever see two hundred thousand of equity. Assets that never enter probate, a retirement account with a named beneficiary, a jointly held account with survivorship, a funded living trust, generally sit outside the base and outside the fee. Gains during administration and income the estate earns may be added in some states.
So the first question on a percentage quote is not the rate. It is the schedule of assets the attorney used to reach it, and whether the house went in at gross value or at equity.
Extraordinary fees, and the costs that are not fees at all
Extraordinary fees are the second layer in statutory states, awarded by the judge on top of the ordinary fee for work the statute treats as outside the routine: selling real property, defending a will contest, running a business the decedent owned, handling a contested creditor claim, or preparing tax returns. Anyone quoting a statutory number without mentioning extraordinary compensation has quoted you half the picture. In hourly states the same work simply appears as more hours.
Then there are costs, which are not compensation to anyone at the firm. Court filing fees, certified copies of letters, newspaper publication of the notice to creditors, a probate referee or appraiser where the state requires one, recording fees, and the premium on the executor's bond if the will does not waive it and the court does not excuse it. Bond premiums are annual and priced against the value of the assets bonded, so a long administration pays repeatedly. The IRS is responsible for the federal returns that often accompany a probate, the decedent's final Form 1040 and the estate's own income tax return, and preparing those is usually billed separately by whoever does the work.
Whose pocket the money leaves
Almost all of it comes out of the estate, paid before distribution, which means the beneficiaries fund it through a smaller inheritance rather than by writing checks. The timing is the problem. Filing fees, publication and the bond premium fall due at the start, when the estate may hold nothing liquid, so executors frequently advance those costs personally and take reimbursement later, with receipts. Attorney fees in statutory states are commonly paid at the end, on court approval. The executor's own commission, where state law allows one, is separately calculated and separately taxable as income, and many family executors waive it.
Get every quote to itemize compensation, extraordinary work and hard costs on separate lines, against a named list of assets. The four-fold gap usually collapses once all three quotes are describing the same estate.