Legal Fees Reduced to Local Rates, and to Exclude Surcharge Defenses (Pa. Super. NP)

It was neither an error of law nor an abuse of discretion for the Orphans’ Court to:

Reduce legal fees charged to an estate to an hourly rate more consistent with local rates;
Surcharge the executor for interest and penalties incurred by filing late income tax returns for the estate;
Reduce the commissions claimed by the executor when the executor presented little evidence of her services and the claimed “complexity” of the administration of the estate was mainly due to the executor’s own lack of diligence;
Deny legal fees paid by the executor to defend the legal fees paid by the executor; and
Require the estate to pay the legal fees of the beneficiaries whose objections benefitted the estate.

In the Matter of the Estate of Walter Weseman, 961 MDA 2025 (Pa. Super. 7/23/2026) (non-precedential), aff’g, 2 Fid.Rep.4th 395 (Susquehanna O.C. 2024).

[Note: A citation to this opinion has been added to the article “Non-Reimbursable Legal Fees of Fiduciaries.”]