Art. 3351.Amount of Compensation; When Due

Chapter 10 addresses what a succession representative gets paid for the work of administration. Article 3351 sets the baseline. An executor's compensation follows whatever reasonable amount the testament that appointed the executor provides, since the testator is free to set the fee in the will itself. An administrator, who serves without a testament's guidance, is instead compensated according to whatever reasonable amount the administrator and the surviving spouse and all competent heirs or legatees agree to.

When neither a testamentary provision nor an agreement exists, Louisiana supplies a default: the administrator or executor is allowed a sum equal to two and one-half percent of the amount shown on the inventory, the appraised value of the estate's property compiled earlier in the administration. That percentage is not automatically adjustable because the estate is large or complex; the court can increase it, but only on a proper showing that the usual commission is inadequate for the work involved.

A provisional administrator, or an administrator of a vacant succession, does not fit neatly into the testament-or-agreement framework, since those roles typically arise before the ordinary structure of an administration is in place. Article 3351 gives the court direct authority to set fair and reasonable compensation for that kind of representative instead of applying the percentage formula.

Timing matters too. Compensation technically becomes due only upon homologation of the representative's final account, tying payment to the same milestone that closes out the administration under Article 3337. Because an administration can run for years, the court retains discretion to authorize an advance on that compensation at any point along the way, so a representative is not left unpaid until the end.