Art. 3353.Legacy to Executor

Being named a legatee in a testament does not, by itself, waive an executor's right to be paid for administering the succession. Article 3353 treats the legacy and the compensation as two separate entitlements, and the executor is entitled to both, unless the testator's own words in the testament say the legacy is meant to stand in place of a fee.

That default runs up against a limit built into Louisiana's forced heirship framework, which reserves a portion of the estate, the disposable portion, that a testator is free to give away, while the rest is protected for forced heirs regardless of what the testament says. An executor's legacy plus compensation cannot eat into that reserved portion. If adding the compensation to the legacy would push the executor's total take beyond the disposable portion, Article 3353 caps the executor's recovery at the disposable portion itself, whatever shortfall that creates compared to the full legacy and fee combined.

This cap works alongside Article 3351.1's limitation on a representative who also serves as attorney or corporate officer. Both provisions keep a fiduciary from using the position of succession representative to draw more value out of the estate than the testator, or Louisiana's forced heirship law, allows.