administering estate

What is the name of your state? pennsylvania. How much should it cost to administer an estate? Our parents' estate is medium sized and we were wondering what we should expect to pay percentage wise

Be careful. Do as much yourself as you can.
I had two uncles pass away last year. One attorney left in charge to administer estate charged $26,000.00. This was for a very simple Living Trust with no property involved and all cash and CDs. Other uncle had a very simple will and similar sized estate (about $800,000.) of CDs and land. That attorney charged less than $1,000. because much of the simple "stuff" was taken care of by us.
If you give most attorneys a half of a chance they will ding you for the most trivial things. I have several friends who are attorneys and we talk about this all the time.

The law only mentions that executor fees in Pennsylvania are defined as "reasonable compensation". You would need to speak to a local probate attorney or look at a probate file at the county courthouse to get an idea of what the charges would be. Generally speaking it will probably be less than 6% of the total value of the estate.

Dandy Don explained it well except what you would consider reasonable compensation and what most attorneys would call reasonable compensation are MILES apart. Most will charge the maximum the law(written by attorneys,for attorneys)will allow, even if it is a "clean" estate. Then they will tell you that the law dictates what they can charge and you are stuck. It is no different than when you go to buy a new or used car. The car salesman will charge the top price if you are willing to pay and they will smile all the way to their bank.

The reasonable compensation of 6% can be totally outrageous for a simple estate. I have been involved in many that can easily take less than 8 hrs. and the last one I was involved in took less than 20 minutes for a $200,000.00 all cash assets.

Choose an attorney carefully, and discuss fees up front or there is a good chance you will get "cleaned".