Unfortunately, no. The fees were payable by the estate and deductible only by the estate. If there had been a federal estate tax, you would have been entitled to a write-off for the federal estate tax with respect to the IRA. This is because the IRA is income in respect of a decedent (income earned by the person before death that is taxed to someone else after the person’s death). However, since there was no estate tax, you don’t get any deduction.
Compensation for performing personal services. You must have earned income for a deductible IRA or to claim the earned income credit.