Q: My mom just died without any will and she had 4 adult children. She only owned a house worth $750,000, but it had a mortgage balance of $500,000 on it. How much will the probate fees be?

A: Statutory probate fees are based on the “gross” value of the assets, not the “net” value. Here, the fees will unfortunately be based on the $750,000 amount, and NOT the $250,000 amount of equity in the house. Therefore, the total statutory fees will be $36,000 to administer the probate. To run an estimate of what the probate fees on your OWN estate might be (assuming you didn’t have a trust, for example), click this link to check out our Probate Fee Calculator tool: https://www.mynapalawyer.com/probate-calculator/