Rhode Island Probate Cost: One Per Cent of Personal Property, Floored and Capped
Rhode Island charges no flat fee to open an estate. R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-22-21 charges one per cent of the decedent’s personal property, never below $30 and never above $1,500, and the house is not in the base at all.
A Rhode Island estate pays one probate court fee, measured on value rather than charged per filing. R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-22-21(a) charges one per cent of the personal property of the decedent over which the court has jurisdiction, with a $30 floor and a $1,500 ceiling, and R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-8.1-20(b) adds a flat $4.00 Rhode Island Historical Records Trust assessment to every instrument filed under that section. So the counter total runs from $34 to $1,504. An estate with $25,000 of personal property pays $250, one with $100,000 pays $1,000, and anything at or above $150,000 pays the same $1,500 no matter how large it is.
The number that surprises Rhode Island families is what is NOT counted. R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-9-1 limits the probate inventory to personal property, claims, rights and causes of action other than real property, so the decedent’s home never raises this fee. A house-rich, cash-poor estate pays the $30 minimum. Rhode Island also fixes no statutory percentage for a fiduciary or an attorney: R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-14-8 allows an executor or administrator such compensation as the probate court considers just, and attorney fees are agreed with the client and approved with the account, so neither one can be quoted as a share of the estate.
Quick Summary
- Probate court fee
- $30 to $1,500One per cent of the decedent’s personal property (R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-22-21)
- Ceiling, reached at $150,000
- $1,500Above that the fee stops responding to estate size entirely
- Real property in the fee base
- ExcludedR.I. Gen. Laws § 33-9-1 keeps real property out of the inventory
- Small-estate total
- $35$30 statement plus $5 certification under R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 33-24-1(b), 33-24-2(c)
Rhode Island has no county probate court, so there is nothing to compare county by county. Probate is heard by a court in each of the 39 cities and towns under R.I. Gen. Laws § 8-9-9, and R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-22-29 forbids a local administrative rule from expanding, contracting or otherwise varying any provision of Title 33, so no municipality can set its own fee amounts. The amounts in Providence and in New Shoreham are the same. Choosing a city or town decides where the petition is filed, not what it costs. Two money items do move locally: newspaper advertising under R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-22-11, which the clerk collects in advance at the newspaper’s own price, and any purely administrative charge a municipality publishes on its own site. Some towns publish a bundled counter total that already includes the $4 records assessment and the advertising pass-through, so a published local figure can sit above the statutory one. Read the local number on that city or town’s own page, and never carry a neighbouring municipality’s figure across.
Typical Total Cost Ranges
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| Procedure | Estate Size | Court Fee | Timeline | Attorney? | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voluntary Informal Administration or Voluntary Executor | An estate consisting entirely of personal property, with $15,000 or less of value that would otherwise be listed on a R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-9-1 inventory, exclusive of tangible personal property (R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 33-24-1, 33-24-2) | $30 to file the statement plus $5 for the certification of appointment, so $35 in statutory fees and about $39 with the $4 records assessment | About 1 to 3 months, after the 30-day wait from the death | No | Small estates of accounts and belongings, with no house in the decedent’s sole name |
| Full Administration | No dollar cap. The route for any estate holding solely owned Rhode Island real property, or more than $15,000 of countable personal property (R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 8-9-11, 33-8-8) | One per cent of the decedent’s PERSONAL property, never below $30 and never above $1,500, plus the $4 records assessment. $250 on $25,000 of personal property, $1,000 on $100,000, and $1,500 on anything at or above $150,000 | About 9 to 15 months, including the six-month creditor-claim period | No statutory requirement; counsel is usual where there is real estate or a disagreement | Any estate with a house, a larger portfolio, or a need for court-issued fiduciary authority |
| Will Filed With No Assets | There is a will but no probate assets to administer (R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-7-5(b)) | $30 under R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-22-21(a)(4), plus the $4 records assessment | About a month | No | Putting a will on the record when everything passed by survivorship or beneficiary designation |
| Ancillary Administration | A nonresident decedent who owned Rhode Island real or personal property (R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 33-7-18 to 33-7-25) | The same one per cent, computed on the decedent’s personal property LOCATED IN RHODE ISLAND, with the same $30 floor and $1,500 ceiling | About 6 to 12 months, running alongside the home-state proceeding | Counsel is usual | Out-of-state decedents whose Rhode Island house, land or accounts have to be transferred |
Additional Costs to Expect
Probate Court Fee on the Petition
R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-22-21(a) charges one per cent of the personal property of the decedent over which the court has jurisdiction on every petition for the appointment of a custodian, administrator, guardian or conservator, and on every petition for the probate of a will. The fee is never less than $30 and never more than $1,500. One per cent of $3,000 is exactly $30, so any estate below that pays the floor, and one per cent of $150,000 is exactly $1,500, so every estate at or above that pays the same ceiling. R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-8.1-20(b) adds a flat $4.00 assessment on every instrument filed under the section, taking the counter total to $34 at the floor and $1,504 at the ceiling. The fee is paid BEFORE the petition is filed, on the petitioner’s own estimate, and is revised later with a further payment or a rebate if the estimate turns out to be wrong. It is expressly in lieu of all subsequent filing and recording fees in the same proceeding, apart from the separately enumerated charges below. Where a custodian is appointed first, that fee is credited against the later appointment fee.
The Fee Base Excludes Real Property
This is the single most useful thing to know about a Rhode Island probate cost. R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-9-1 requires an inventory of all the personal property, both tangible and intangible, and of all claims, rights, causes of action and other assets OTHER THAN REAL PROPERTY. The house is in neither the inventory nor the fee base, which is why an estate whose main asset is a home pays the $30 minimum. An estimate that puts the house into the base produces a number many times the ceiling, and the $1,500 cap then quietly clamps it, so the error hides. Count bank and credit union accounts, brokerage accounts, vehicles, household goods and money owed to the decedent, and leave the real estate out.
Enumerated Flat Fees, Copies and Certifications
R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-22-21(a)(1) through (10) sets ten flat charges, each $30: a petition to file a claim out of time, to remove a fiduciary, to appoint a successor guardian under the uniform gifts to minors act, to file a will with no probate, an affidavit of complete administration, a petition to remove or replace a testamentary trustee or terminate the trust, a petition for tax minimization or estate planning, a petition for change of name and a petition for adoption. A certificate of appointment is $5 under subdivision (a)(6). R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-22-21(c) charges $1.50 per page for copies and $3.00 to certify any probate document on file, which is what an executor pays for the certified certificates a bank or transfer agent asks to see. Each of these filings also carries the $4 records assessment, which is why towns publish $34 for a petition to file a claim out of time.
Executor or Administrator Compensation
R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-14-8 is one sentence: executors and administrators are allowed in their accounts such compensation for their services as the probate court shall consider just. There is no fee schedule and no percentage anywhere in Title 33, so a share-of-the-estate figure has no Rhode Island basis. Fiduciary and attorney fees are submitted together for approval on form PC-7.4, Application for Approval of Fiduciary’s and Attorney’s Fees, and the court reviews them when the account is allowed, which means compensation is decided at the end of the administration rather than fixed at the start. A voluntary administrator under R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-24-1(e) serves without any fee at all.
Attorney Fees
Rhode Island sets no statutory attorney-fee schedule for ordinary estate administration. The fee is a matter between the fiduciary and counsel, presented for approval with the account on form PC-7.4, and it is payable out of the estate as an expense of administration, deducted before the R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-12-11 order of preference is applied to creditors. The hourly and flat ranges here are market estimates rather than statutory or court-published figures. In a CONTESTED matter, or on appeal, R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-22-26 lets the court award costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees in its discretion to either party to be paid by the other, or out of the estate that is the subject of the controversy, and R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-22-27 lets the probate court issue execution for those costs like a court of common law.
Newspaper Advertising and Surety Bond
R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-22-11 requires notice by advertisement once a week for at least two weeks, with the first advertisement at least 14 days before the first hearing date. Where the newspaper has filed a price schedule with the court, the court requires the cost to be paid to the clerk IN ADVANCE and pays the newspaper monthly on proof the notice ran. The amount is the newspaper’s rate rather than a statutory figure, and it is the one probate charge that genuinely differs from one city or town to the next. Form PC-9.1 is the waiver of advertising where all interested parties sign. A surety bond may be required of a fiduciary under chapter 33-17 on the universal appointment bond forms PC-3.1A and PC-3.1B; the premium is a commercial surety charge, not a statutory fee.
Certified Death Certificates and Recording
R.I. Gen. Laws § 23-1-54 sets a certified death certificate at $20 for the first copy and $15 for each duplicate issued at the same time, at both the state registrar and the local city or town registrar. R.I. Gen. Laws § 23-3-25(e) adds an electronic-registration surcharge of up to $5 for a mail request, $3 per duplicate and $2 for a walk-in, which is why the Department of Health publishes $22 in person at its Cranston records counter, $25 by mail or drop box, and $18 for each extra copy ordered the same day. An extra search year is $2 and a rush request is $7. Recording is municipal: R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-13-7 charges $80 for a deed of an executor, administrator, trustee, conservator, receiver or commissioner, $45 for any instrument not otherwise provided for, and $1 for each additional page, filed in the land evidence records of the city or town where the land sits.
Estate Tax Statement, Appeals and Fee Waivers
R.I. Gen. Laws § 44-23-1 requires every executor, administrator and heir-at-law to file a sworn statement with the tax administrator within nine months of the death. Subsections (b) and (c) band the filing fee by date of death: $50 before January 1, 2025 and none on or after. R.I. Gen. Laws § 44-23-36 blocks allowance of the final account until the chapter 44-22 taxes then payable are paid, extended, or certified not to apply. On an appeal, the appellant files a claim of appeal and a request for a certified copy in the PROBATE clerk’s office within 20 days of the decree and pays the § 33-22-21(c) charges, then files in the Superior Court within 30 days; both deadlines are jurisdictional and cannot be extended, and the Superior Court fee is set by cross-reference to the civil-complaint fee rather than by a stated amount. Every fee-excusing provision in Title 33 is a GUARDIANSHIP provision, so a person settling a decedent’s estate should not be promised a statutory waiver; ask the probate clerk of the city or town instead.