Can an estate trustee who is also a lawyer bill the estate for legal work they personally performed?

An estate trustee who happens to also be a lawyer can potentially be paid for genuine legal work they personally performed for the estate, separate from their compensation as trustee, but this situation invites extra scrutiny rather than being treated as routine. The core concern is making sure the estate isn't effectively paying twice for the same work — once as trustee's compensation and again as legal fees for the identical task.

To hold up, the trustee generally needs to keep the two roles clearly distinguished: proper time records and billing for the actual legal services performed, separate from the fair and reasonable allowance being claimed for administering the estate more broadly, and full disclosure of both to the beneficiaries and the court. A passing of accounts is exactly where this kind of arrangement gets tested, and a beneficiary who suspects overlap or double-billing has every right to object and ask pointed questions about what, specifically, the legal fees covered.

Because self-dealing concerns are taken seriously in fiduciary relationships, a trustee-lawyer in this position should get independent advice on how to bill and disclose this properly, rather than assuming their dual role gives them extra latitude.