Oregon Probate Cost: Four Bands, Charged More Than Once
Oregon prices the opening of a probate by the value of the estate, in four statutory bands that are identical in all 36 counties. The number most cost pages miss is the second one: the accounting fee is charged on every annual account and again on the final account.
Opening an Oregon probate costs $278, $591, $882 or $1,176, decided by the value of the estate rather than by the county. ORS 21.170(1) sets the four bands: under $50,000, $50,000 to under $1,000,000, $1,000,000 to under $10,000,000, and $10,000,000 or more. ORS 21.105(1) requires the caption of the petition to state that value, which is how the band gets declared on the face of the filing rather than assessed later at the counter. ORS 21.170(3) is the one adjustment to the figure the band is read against: the amount of a settlement in a wrongful death action brought for the benefit of the surviving spouse or dependents is not part of the estate for this purpose.
The recurring charge is what turns a $591 estate into a four-figure court bill. ORS 21.170(2) charges $35, $298, $591 or $1,176, on the same four bands, for an annual or final accounting, and ORS 116.083 makes an account due annually within 60 days of the anniversary of appointment as well as at final settlement. A quote that names only the petition fee understates a two-year estate by at least one accounting fee and usually two. A qualifying estate avoids the ladder entirely: ORS 21.170(1) opens with the words Except as provided in ORS 114.515, and ORS 114.515(5) charges the flat $124 fee established by ORS 21.145 to file a simple estate affidavit, with nothing at all for an amended affidavit.
Quick Summary
- To open a probate
- $278 to $1,176Four estate-value bands under ORS 21.170(1), identical in all 36 counties
- Every accounting
- $35 to $1,176ORS 21.170(2), on each annual account and again on the final account
- Simple estate affidavit
- $124ORS 21.145 applied by ORS 114.515(5); an amended affidavit is free
- Personal representative commission
- 7, 4, 3 and 2 percentORS 116.173(3)(a), on application to the court, plus 1 percent of certain nonprobate property
There is no cheaper county in Oregon. ORS 21.170 sets one statewide schedule, and ORS 21.170(5) says in terms that the fees established under that section apply to county courts exercising probate jurisdiction, so the six counties whose probate forum is the county court pay the same as the 30 whose forum is the circuit court. What choosing a county decides is the counter. ORS 111.075 vests jurisdiction of all probate matters in the county courts of Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Malheur, Sherman and Wheeler counties and in the circuit court for each other county, and in those six the filing office is the county clerk. Each of them also has a circuit court with no probate jurisdiction. Two charges do differ with the forum. A circuit court certifies a copy under Chief Justice Order 23-016, made under ORS 21.258, while ORS 5.125(6) routes a county court copy and certificate charge to ORS 205.320 instead, where an official certificate is $3.75 under (1)(c) and (1)(d)(C). Genuinely local costs sit outside the court altogether: newspaper publication of the ORS 113.155 notice, which no statute prices, and recording a deed out of the estate with the county clerk as the land records office under ORS 205.320 and ORS 205.323. Confirm the current total with the probate court for the county where the decedent lived.
Typical Total Cost Ranges
Estimate your county’s exact feesProbate Cost by Procedure
Swipe sideways to see the full table.
| Procedure | Estate Size | Court Fee | Timeline | Attorney? | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Administration | Any estate. ORS 21.170(1) reads the fee off the value of the estate rather than off the route | $278 for an estate under $50,000, $591 from $50,000 to under $1,000,000, $882 from $1,000,000 to under $10,000,000, and $1,176 at $10,000,000 or more (ORS 21.170(1)(a) to (d)), plus $35, $298, $591 or $1,176 on the same bands for every annual and final accounting (ORS 21.170(2)) | Usually 9 to 18 months | No statutory requirement; counsel is usual once there is real property, a contest or a business to wind up | Any estate over either simple estate cap, and any estate that needs letters, a creditor bar or a judgment of final distribution |
| Simple Estate Affidavit | Two caps that must both hold: not more than $75,000 attributable to personal property other than manufactured homes, and not more than $200,000 attributable to real property and manufactured homes combined, valued without reduction for liens or other debts | $124 under ORS 21.145 as applied by ORS 114.515(5), and no fee at all for an amended affidavit. It replaces the graduated schedule rather than discounting it, because ORS 21.170(1) opens Except as provided in ORS 114.515 | About 5 to 6 months, floored by the 30-day wait and the four-month claim window that opens at filing | No | A modest estate that clears both caps, including one holding a house worth $200,000 or less |
| Estate Set Apart for Support | No dollar threshold. The gate is that support of the surviving spouse and dependent children warrants setting the whole estate apart | The ORS 21.170(1) petition fee, because an administration is opened and the ORS 113.155 notice published before the four months can run | About 5 months | No statutory requirement; worth counsel because the order displaces the ordinary distribution | A small estate with a surviving spouse or dependent children whose support is the honest use for everything left |
| Bank Deposit Affidavit | A deposit of $25,000 or less at one insured institution or credit union | $0. No court is involved, and ORS 708A.430(7) says a probate proceeding is not necessary | About 2 months for anyone other than the surviving spouse, who may be paid at any time | No | A single account where the rest of the estate needs no administration |
| Appearance or Contested Filing Inside a Probate | Any estate. These are charges on top of the opening fee rather than routes of their own | $281 for an appearance in a probate proceeding (ORS 21.135(1), (2)(g), applied by ORS 21.170(4)), $281 for a petition for summary determination of a claim or summary review of a simple estate administration (ORS 114.552(1)), $281 for a petition to establish a writing as a will despite defective execution (ORS 112.238), and $111 for each of the five motions ORS 21.200(1) lists, charged to the moving party AND to the responding party | Runs alongside the administration | No statutory requirement; a contested probate is where counsel usually becomes the real cost | Nobody by choice. Budget for it where a claim is disallowed, a will is challenged, or a distribution is disputed |
Additional Costs to Expect
Opening a Probate
ORS 21.170(1) requires a probate court to collect a filing fee on the petition for appointment of a personal representative, in four bands: $278 where the value of the estate is less than $50,000, $591 where it is $50,000 or more but less than $1,000,000, $882 where it is $1,000,000 or more but less than $10,000,000, and $1,176 at $10,000,000 or more. The section does not define that value beyond one carve-out and does not say net of liens, so a mortgage is not deducted before choosing a band. The carve-out is ORS 21.170(3): the amount of a settlement in a wrongful death action brought for the benefit of the surviving spouse or dependents is not part of the estate for this purpose. ORS 21.105(2) adds the sequel most people never see coming, because an amended pleading that increases the value of the estate pays the difference between what was paid and what would have been collected had the higher value been pleaded originally.
The Accounting Fee, Charged Every Year
This is the Oregon charge a single-number cost estimate always misses. ORS 21.170(2) sets an annual or final accounting fee on the same four estate-value bands as the petition, and ORS 116.083(1) makes an account due annually within 60 days after the anniversary of appointment, within 30 days of a resignation, within 30 days of a removal or revocation of letters, when the estate is ready for final settlement, and at any other time the court orders. An estate of $400,000 open for three years therefore pays $591 once and $298 several times. The final account also carries a notice cost that is not a fee: ORS 116.093(1) requires it, the petition for judgment and notice of the objection date to reach every distributee and every creditor not paid in full at least 20 days before that date.
The Simple Estate Affidavit Costs $124, Not a Discount
ORS 114.515(5) directs the clerk to collect the fee established by ORS 21.145 on a simple estate affidavit, and adds that a fee may not be charged or collected for the filing of an amended affidavit. The Oregon Judicial Department fee schedule cites the same pair of provisions and prints $124. Read it as a different fee under a different section rather than as a reduction: ORS 21.170(1) opens with the words Except as provided in ORS 114.515, so a qualifying estate never enters the graduated schedule and never pays an accounting fee either. A first appearance by anyone else in that proceeding is a separate $281 under ORS 114.552(1), and a petition for appointment of a personal representative inside a simple estate proceeding goes back to the ORS 21.170 ladder under ORS 114.552(2).
Certified Copies and Certificates
No Oregon statute sets a copy price. In a circuit court the amounts come from Chief Justice Order 23-016 under ORS 21.258, and the 2026 fee schedule row for certified copies of letters of administration or letters testamentary reads $5 plus 25 cents per page on paper, $0 if delivered electronically, $1 per CD, or the actual cost of court-provided media. One discrepancy is worth carrying rather than hiding: CJO 23-016 section 2.a.(1) also charges $3.00 per request in a case for a paper copy, which the schedule summary omits, and section 2.b.(1) adds the $5.00 certification on top of that. Both documents are official. In the six county-court counties a different regime applies, because ORS 5.125(6) routes any service the section does not enumerate to ORS 205.320, where an official certificate is $3.75. Order several certified copies at the outset, since a bank, a title company and a transfer agent will each want their own.
Publication of the Notice to Interested Persons
Left unpriced rather than estimated. ORS 113.155(1) requires the personal representative, upon appointment, to publish a notice to interested persons once in a newspaper of general circulation, unless the petition states that no assets are known. The newspaper sets that price, no Oregon statute fixes it, and no court schedule carries a line for it, so any number here would be invented. What the publication buys is the creditor bar: ORS 115.005(2)(a) runs the claim period four months from publication. Publication is mandatory in Oregon, and failing to publish does not shorten anyone rights, so skipping it is a breach of duty rather than a saving.
Bond Premium and Appraisals
ORS 113.105(1) makes a bond the default: a personal representative may not act and letters may not issue until a bond in an amount the court sets is provided to the clerk, executed by a surety qualified under the civil rules, for the security and benefit of all interested persons. The court weighs the nature, liquidity and apparent value of the assets, the anticipated income and the probable indebtedness and taxes. Four situations excuse it: the will so provides, the personal representative is the sole heir or devisee, the appointee is one of the listed state officers or an approved attorney, or the petition states that no assets are known. The premium is a surety-market price and no Oregon official source publishes a rate, so none is estimated here. An appraisal is optional too, because ORS 113.185 lets the personal representative employ a qualified and disinterested appraiser and lets the court direct one, without making either mandatory.
Personal Representative Compensation
Oregon does set a commission, and it is payable only on application to the court. ORS 116.173(3)(a) allows 7 percent of any sum not exceeding $1,000, 4 percent of all above $1,000 and not exceeding $10,000, 3 percent of all above $10,000 and not exceeding $50,000, and 2 percent of all above $50,000, measured on property subject to the jurisdiction of the court as ORS 116.173(1) defines it. ORS 116.173(3)(b) adds 1 percent of property, other than life insurance proceeds, that is not subject to the jurisdiction of the court but is reportable for Oregon or federal estate tax, which is why the base is wider than the probate inventory. ORS 116.173(2)(a) values each asset at its highest value shown in the inventory, any amended or supplemental inventory, any interim account or the final account. ORS 116.173(4) allows further just and reasonable compensation for extraordinary and unusual services with no cap, and ORS 116.173(5) makes a compensation clause in the will controlling unless the personal representative signs and files a written renunciation with the clerk BEFORE appointment.
Attorney Fees
Oregon does not price probate representation as a share of the estate. ORS 116.183(1) allows the personal representative, in the settlement of the final account, all necessary expenses incurred in the care, management and settlement of the estate, and the section governs how attorney fees are determined rather than setting a schedule. No hourly or flat range appears here because no official Oregon source publishes one, and importing a figure from another state would misstate this market. Attorney fees and the personal representative commission are separate charges, and both are administration expenses paid from the estate.
Recording a Deed Out of the Estate
This is a land records charge rather than a court charge, and it goes to the county clerk in all 36 counties, including the 30 whose probate forum is the circuit court. ORS 205.320(1)(d)(A) charges $5 per page for recording an instrument, and ORS 205.323 adds surcharges of $1, $10 and $60 per instrument. The composite total is deliberately not reduced to one number here, because the surcharges attach per instrument while the page fee attaches per page, and a single figure would be wrong for any deed longer or shorter than the one it was computed from.
Fee Waiver or Deferral
Oregon runs one statutory scheme covering both remedies, and it reaches the county courts as well as the circuit courts. ORS 21.682(1) lets a judge waive or defer all or part of the fees and court costs payable by a party in a civil action or proceeding on a finding that the party is unable to pay, which reaches the ORS 21.170 filing fee, the ORS 21.170(2) accounting fees and the ORS 21.145 affidavit fee alike. ORS 21.680(3) defines judge to include a judge of a county court, so the six county-court counties are inside the scheme. Applying is free: ORS 21.685 requires the court administrator to provide the application on request and says a fee may not be charged for providing it or for filing it, and the 2026 fee schedule prints the same $0. Know the difference before choosing, because a waiver extinguishes the charge while a deferral only postpones it and can become a money judgment under ORS 21.692(1).
Certified Death Certificates
The Oregon Health Authority prices certified copies of the death record at $25 for the first copy by mail, drop box or appointment, $28.00 in person, $47.50 online and $49.20 by phone, with each additional copy $25.00. This is not a court charge and it is not in any filing-fee total, but it is an early and unavoidable cost: a personal representative needs one for the ORS 113.145(6) notice to the Department of Human Services and the Oregon Health Authority within 30 days of appointment, and every bank, insurer and transfer agent will want one of its own.
Estate Tax, Which Is Not a Court Fee
Oregon levies an estate transfer tax under ORS 118.010 and no inheritance tax, so nothing is taxed by reference to who receives it. ORS 118.160(1)(c) requires a return where the gross estate is $1 million or more, and the ORS 118.010(4) rate table starts at 10 percent of the Oregon taxable estate above $1,000,000, which makes the million a filing threshold and the bottom of the table rather than a deduction off the top. Watch the deadline, because an Oregon executor faces two dates three months apart: ORS 118.100(1) makes the Oregon return and payment due 12 months after the death for a death on or after January 1, 2022, while the federal return is due at nine months. None of this belongs in a court filing total.
Appealing a Probate Decision
ORS 111.105(2) routes a probate appeal into the ordinary appellate scheme, where ORS 21.010(1) charges $391 for the appellant and $391 again for a respondent or other person appearing, paid to the Court of Appeals through the State Court Administrator. Appellate motions are $53 each side under ORS 21.025. An appeal from one of the six county courts is different: ORS 5.120 runs it through the circuit court first, and no official source prices that first step, so it is left null here rather than guessed at.
One more cost source to check: if the person who died received Medicaid long-term care benefits, the state may file a recovery claim against the estate. The Oregon Medicaid estate recovery guide explains when that applies.