) The executor, when no compensation is provided by the will or he renounces all claim thereto as provided in Section 2801 of this Title, or the administrator, or the administrator with the will annexed, shall receive commissions upon the amount of the estate accounted for by him, as follows: For the first five thousand dollars ($5,000.00) at the rate of eight percent (8%); for the next ten thousand dollars ($10,000.00) at the rate of five percent (5%); for the next fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000.00) at the rate of four percent (4%); for the next twenty thousand dollars ($20,000.00) at the rate of three percent (3%); for the next one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000.00) at the rate of two percent (2%); for the next three hundred fifty thousand dollars
($350,000.00) at the rate of one and one-half percent (12%); and for all
above five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000.00) at the rate of one

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15 Guam Code Ann. ESTATES AND PROBATE
CH. 28 COMPENSATION

percent (1%); provided, that the allowance of such commission shall be subject to the provisions of Section 2811(a) of this Title. If there are two or more personal representatives, the compensation shall be apportioned among them by the Superior Court according to the services actually rendered by each.
(b) The commission to which the personal representative is entitled pursuant to subsection (a) of this Section shall be based upon the total amount of the inventory plus gains over appraisal value on sales, plus receipts, less losses on sales, without reference to encumbrances or other obligations on property in the estate, if any. This subsection shall apply whether or not a sale of property has taken place during the administration of the estate.

SOURCE: California Probate Code, § 901 (as amended); Guam Law Revision
Commission.

COMMENT: Two alterations have been made to § 901 of the Probate Code of Guam (1970). One is the addition of subsection (b), delineating exactly what incre- ments of the estate the commission is to be based on. An identical provision was added to California law in 1965, and the Commission believes that it is a useful provision in Guam as well; the issue of whether encumbrances on estate property should be taken into consideration in determining the value of the estate for fixing the personal representative’s commission, for example, is one that should in the Commission’s opinion be dealt with by legislation rather than by court decision.

The second alteration to § 901 of the Probate Code of Guam (1970) is the increase in the amounts of the commissions at the lower end of the scale. When taking testimony on this Title, the Commission was told by several practitioners that the low amounts of commissions (which, it should be noted, are the same as the amounts of attorney’s fees allowable under prior § 910) often make it impracti- cal for an attorney to serve as counsel for the personal representative in an estate of relatively low value. In recognition of this, the Commission has substantially raised the commissions at the lower end of the scale. Note, however, that in the range above $50,000, the percentages are the same under § 2803 as they were under prior