Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in New Jersey

In general there are two types of trustee commissions: Initial and on-going: These are as follows:

Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 3B:18-13, without court allowance, income commissions in the amount of 6% may be taken on �all income received by the fiduciary.� The statute is silent as to whether the income commission may be taken annually, but legal commentary indicates that it may. Apfel, K., Revocable Trusts, 16A N.J. Practice �57.10.

Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 3B:18-14 commissions on all corpus received by the fiduciary may be taken as follows:

5% on the first $200,000;

3.5% on amounts between $200,000 and $1,000,000; and

2% on excess over $1,000,000.

In addition, a corpus commission of 1% may be taken for each additional fiduciary; however, no one fiduciary shall be entitled to any greater commission than that which would be allowed if only one fiduciary were involved.

Additional corpus commissions may be allowed for unusual or extraordinary services, upon an intermediate or final settlement of the account. N.J.S.A. 3B:18-16.

Corpus commissions may be taken annually, without court allowance, as follows: if there is one fiduciary, 1/5 of 1% of the value of the corpus may be taken; if there are two or more fiduciaries, an additional 1/5 of that commission amount may be taken for each fiduciary in excess of one. N.J.S.A. 3B:18-17. When annual corpus commissions are taken, they are subject to review upon intermediate and final accountings, and may be disallowed to the extent that the aggregate amount taken exceeds the commissions allowable pursuant to N.J.S.A. 3B:18-14 and -15.