Art. 3351.1.Amount of Compensation; Limitation When Serving As Attorney, Corporate Officer, Or Managing Partner

Article 3351.1 addresses a conflict that can arise when a succession representative wears more than one hat. If the representative also becomes an officer of a corporation the decedent majority-owned, or the managing partner of a partnership the decedent majority-owned, the representative can end up doing overlapping work and drawing two paychecks from assets that ultimately belong to the same estate. Louisiana does not flatly forbid holding both roles; it prevents the double payment. The representative's compensation as succession representative gets reduced by whatever amount was received as an officer or managing partner that is attributable to performing those duties.

Paragraph B applies the identical logic to a representative who also serves as attorney for the succession or for the representative personally. Compensation as succession representative is reduced by whatever was earned as attorney's fees for that legal work, so the estate is not paying twice for the same effort under two different titles.

Both limitations are defaults, not absolutes. A testament can expressly authorize full compensation in both roles, and even without that testamentary language, heirs and legatees who together own two-thirds of the succession's interest can waive the limitation in writing. Either path lets the people whose inheritance the rule protects decide the offset does not serve their interests in a particular case.

Paragraph D adds a final checkpoint. Even compensation properly computed under this article, offset and all, cannot be paid without the court's approval first. That layers judicial oversight on top of the offset itself, so the arrangement gets a second look before any money changes hands.