Quick answer: 12 Del. C. § 2305 allows a personal representative's commission and the attorney's fee as provided by Court of Chancery Rule 192 — a reasonable amount, no percentage table. What makes Delaware distinctive isn't the standard itself, which resembles other reasonable-compensation states, but the procedure: the commission is presumed reasonable unless a beneficiary formally objects, rather than requiring the court to sign off first. Get an illustrative estimate with the Delaware executor fee calculator.
The bare standard: reasonable, by rule not statute
12 Del. C. § 2305: commissions of a personal representative, and fees of the attorney who represents them, "shall be allowed in a reasonable amount" — the operative language actually lives in Court of Chancery Rule 192, not in the Delaware Code itself.
Eleven factors, and an explicit safe harbor for billing method
Rule 192(b): reasonableness may weigh the time spent, the risk and responsibility involved, the novelty and difficulty of the questions presented, the skill and experience of the personal representative and the attorney, any will provisions regarding compensation, comparable rates for similar services in the locality, the character and value of the estate assets, the character and value of assets outside the probate estate that still must be valued and reported on a death tax return, time constraints, the loss of other business necessitated by the administration, and the benefits obtained for the estate. The rule then adds something unusual: a fee "shall not be considered unreasonable merely because" it's based exclusively on hourly rates, exclusively on the probate estate's value, or exclusively on the taxable estate's value — explicitly protecting any of the three common billing approaches from an automatic challenge.
The presumption that flips the usual default
Rule 192(d): commissions and fees are
presumed reasonable unless a beneficiary files an exception to the account under
12 Del. C. § 2302(d) alleging they're unreasonable. The court retains power to reduce an unreasonably high amount for cause even with no exception filed — but nothing forces that review to happen automatically.
A specific, mandated warning to beneficiaries
Rule 192(e): the notice the Register of Wills mails with every filed account must include specified language explaining the reasonableness factors and stating plainly that unless the beneficiary files an exception, they'll be deemed to consider the commissions and fees reasonable. This is the mechanism that makes the presumption fair in practice — beneficiaries are told, in writing, exactly what their silence means.
Trusts can pay commissions too, under the same rule
Rule 192(c): if a trust permits or requires personal representative commissions or attorney fees to be paid from the trust, those payments follow the same Rule 192 reasonableness standard rather than a separate trust-specific test.
A sense of typical figures
Practitioners and legal-directory sources commonly cite a rough working range of about 2% to 4% of estate value, though this is informal market practice, not anything written into the rule — Rule 192 itself never mentions a percentage.
Facing probate in Delaware?A local probate attorney can review your estate — many offer a free consultation.
Talk to a Delaware attorneyEstimate for general guidance only, not legal advice. Based on 12 Del. C. ยง 2305 and Court of Chancery Rule 192. Delaware sets no statutory percentage or fixed hourly rate; figures described here are informal market reports, not legal rates. Verify with the Register of Wills or a licensed Delaware attorney.