§ 2-7-805 — Allowance and payment of personal representative's fees and attorney fees; limitations

Wyoming § 2-7-805

• Jurisdiction: Wyoming
• Title 02: Wills, Decedents' Estates and Probate Code
• Ch. 7: ADMINISTRATION OF ESTATES
• Art. 8: FINAL REPORT, ACCOUNTING, DISTRIBUTION AND DISCHARGE

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(a) No fees shall be paid to the personal representative
or the attorney for the estate except upon order of the court.
At any time during the administration of the estate the personal
representative or the attorney for the estate or both may submit
a written, verified application to the court for an order
allowing partial or total fees and expenses for ordinary
services, or partial or total fees and expenses for
extraordinary services, or both. Any application for expenses
shall be supported by a written itemization of the expenses. Any
application for fees for extraordinary services shall be
supported by a written itemization showing the kind, nature,
extent and time spent in connection with the services. If
satisfied that the fees and expenses applied for or as limited
by the court may be allowed and paid without detriment to any
party interested in the estate or to the administration and
conclusion of the estate, the court may enter an order allowing
fees and expenses and authorizing payment from the estate. Any
fees and expenses allowed by any order entered ex parte are
subject to timely objection upon hearing of the final report and
accounting.
(b) Only one (1) total fee for ordinary services of a
domiciliary personal representative, computed as provided in
W.S. 2-7-802, shall be allowed for any estate. Where more than
one (1) person serves as a domiciliary personal representative
either as co-fiduciaries or as a successor domiciliary personal
representative, the court shall apportion the total fee among
the parties in accordance with their agreement with each other,
or absent any agreement as the court deems fair and just. The
same rule shall prevail as to attorneys' fees for ordinary
services in domiciliary administration, computed in accordance
with W.S. 2-7-803, where more than one (1) attorney renders
ordinary services to the domiciliary estate.
(c) Where one (1) person, or a partner or employee of the
same professional corporation as that person, serves both as
personal representative and as attorney for the estate, no fee
shall be allowed as to the estate for ordinary services of a
personal representative.
(d) No contingent fee shall be allowed against an estate
or paid by an estate for legal services rendered to or for or on
behalf of an estate, except in a proceeding for recovery for
wrongful death under W.S. 1-38-101 and 1-38-102, unless before
commencement of the services a written contract is entered into
by the personal representative and the attorney with respect
thereto and the contract is submitted to the court upon written,
verified application of the personal representative and is
approved by the court. No contract shall be approved if it
violates any statute or rule of court. No contract shall be
approved unless it appears to the court, upon due consideration
of the size of the estate and the nature and extent of the legal
services to be rendered, that adequate compensation of the
attorney cannot be assured by allowance of fees for
extraordinary services pursuant to W.S. 2-7-803.
(e) The provisions of W.S. 2-7-801 through 2-7-804 apply
to personal representatives and attorneys serving in ancillary
administration in Wyoming, except as the probate court in which
the ancillary administration is pending may otherwise determine
for good cause shown.
(f) Any contract between the personal representative or
the attorney for the estate and any party interested in the
estate in contravention of W.S. 2-7-802 through 2-7-804 is void.