Texas Executor Commission Calculator

Texas runs a different machine from the states that pay executors a percentage of the estate. Estates Code §352.002 pays a commission on cash moved: 5% of every sum the executor actually receives in cash — the sale of a car, a collected debt, rent, dividends — plus 5% of every sum the estate actually pays out in cash — the funeral bill, the mortgage payoff, taxes, the plumber. Each dollar in earns a nickel; each dollar out earns another. A dollar that comes in from a sale and later goes out to a creditor earns on both legs, because both legs were work.

Three kinds of money are excluded on purpose. Cash the person already had at death — checking and savings balances — earns nothing, because collecting it takes a death certificate, not administration. Life-insurance proceeds paid to a named beneficiary earn nothing, because that money never passes through the executor’s hands at all. And distributions to heirs and beneficiaries earn nothing on the way out — handing over inheritances is the finish line, not billable work. On top of the two 5% legs sits an aggregate cap: the whole commission may not exceed 5% of the estate’s gross fair market value — everything the estate holds at its value, before subtracting debts.

One thing that surprises people: most Texas estates run as independent administrations — after appointment, the executor works with minimal court supervision. Independence doesn’t change the pay. Absent a compensation clause in the will, §352.002’s default applies there just the same. But most Texas wills aren’t silent: they set their own terms — commonly “reasonable compensation” or a stated amount — and when the will speaks, the will controls. So this calculator computes the default, which is the fallback for a silent will or no will, not a guarantee of what your estate pays. Read the will first.

A worked example

Say the executor sells assets and collects what the estate was owed — $200,000 received — and pays debts, taxes, and bills totaling $150,000. That is $350,000 of cash moved; 5% of it is $17,500. On a $600,000 gross estate the cap is 5% of $600,000 = $30,000, so the commission stands at $17,500 — the cap never engages.

Now flip the shapes. A $300,000 estate that gets almost fully liquidated — $250,000 in, $200,000 out — produces 5% × $450,000 = $22,500 of leg math, but the cap is $15,000, so $15,000 is what the statute allows. And an $800,000 estate where the house passes to the heirs in kind (transferred as-is, never sold), with just $20,000 in and $30,000 out, pays $2,500. Same statute, opposite answers, because Texas prices the money moved rather than the estate. Whether that is good or bad for your executor depends on which shape your estate is — which is exactly why the cash figures matter more here than the estate’s headline value.

Common questions

Why cash moved instead of the estate’s value? Because Texas chose to pay for administration rather than for size. A big estate administered with little cash movement produces a small commission, and that is the design — the executor who did little moving gets paid little. It cuts both ways: genuinely liquidating and settling a modest estate can pay more than presiding over a large one that passes through untouched. California and New York run the opposite machine, computing the fee from value regardless of the work of moving it — our California and New York pages show that math.

Does the will override the 5% commission? Yes — and most Texas wills do, commonly with “reasonable compensation” or a stated dollar amount. The statute is the default for a will that says nothing about pay, or for no will at all. That holds in independent administration too: independence changes the court’s involvement, not the source of the executor’s compensation.

Can an executor ever be paid more than the cap? Not through §352.002 arithmetic — the cap trims the leg math whenever cash churn outruns 5% of the estate’s gross value. But a neighboring section of the Estates Code lets the court allow reasonable compensation when the standard commission is unreasonably low for the work — classically an executor who must manage a farm, ranch, or business during administration. That route runs through a judge’s approval, not the executor’s own math.

This is the statutory arithmetic as of September 2026 — Texas Estates Code §352.002, verified against the codes on Sep 2, 2026. It is mechanics, not legal or tax advice: wills override, courts adjust, statutes get amended, and your estate’s facts decide what applies.