What are the costs associated with probate?
In addition to filing fees, copy costs and recording fees (usually totaling about $250), the cost of probate mostly consists of legal fees. The personal representative may also charge a fee, but if he or she is also a beneficiary of the estate it is not uncommon for the personal representative to waive any fee It is very difficult to predict the cost of legal representation without having information about the individual probate proceeding. A very rough rule to apply in Arizona might be to approximate the legal fees in an uncomplicated proceeding as about 1% of the assets subject to probate, but the actual costs in a given probate may be slightly less or considerably more, depending on circumstances. One reform introduced by the Uniform Probate Code was to require that lawyers charge “reasonable” fees, rather than relying on fee schedules set in statute or adopted by local bar associations; in those states which still have statutory fee schedules, the costs of probate will almost alway
