Last updated: September 7, 2026|General Mississippi probate bond information — confirm current requirements with the licensing authority.

20 chancery districts · no separate probate court

Mississippi Probate Bond

Mississippi runs two unrelated bond formulas out of two different legislative eras for what looks like one question. An executor or administrator bonds at the full value of the estate under decades-old Title 91 — Miss. Code Ann. § 91-7-41 — with no multiplier and no fractional discount. A conservator managing a ward's property bonds under an entirely different chapter: Title 93's Guardianship and Conservatorship (GAP) Act, in force only since January 1, 2020, which prices the bond at capital value plus a year of estimated income instead.

Which formula applies to you depends entirely on which role you hold — and both routes file through the same court system: one of Mississippi's 20 chancery court districts, since the state has no standalone probate court at all.

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There is no "Mississippi probate court"

Every Mississippi probate and conservatorship filing runs through chancery court

States that run a dedicated probate or surrogate's court system are the exception, not the rule, in Mississippi. Wills, estate administration, guardianships, and conservatorships all fall inside the general equity jurisdiction of the state's chancery courts under Miss. Code Ann. § 9-5-81 — the same courts that hear divorce, land title disputes, and other equity matters. There's no separate probate docket or a specialized probate judge; the chancellor who signs your Letters Testamentary the same week might also be finalizing an adoption or resolving a boundary dispute.

The state is divided into 20 chancery court districts, staffed by 52 chancellors elected in nonpartisan elections to four-year terms. Which district has jurisdiction over your filing, which chancellor hears it, and how strictly that chancellor scrutinizes a proposed bond amount or waiver petition can genuinely differ from one Mississippi district to the next — confirm your specific district's accepted bond form and filing practice before your hearing.

Executors and administrators bond at 100% of the estate — not a fraction of it

Some states discount the bond to a fraction of estate value, or limit it to personal property and exclude real estate. Mississippi's core statute does neither.

Official Mississippi Requirements

"He will also give bond in such penalty as will be equal to the full value of the estate, and with such sureties as may be approved of by the court or by the clerk."

Justia — Mississippi Code, Title 91, Chapter 7 • Miss. Code Ann. § 91-7-41

That language — “the full value of the estate” — covers an executor named in a valid will and an administrator with the will annexed (appointed because the named executor can't or won't serve, but a will still exists). A parallel provision, Miss. Code Ann. § 91-7-67, bonds a plain intestate administrator — no will at all — at the value of the personal estate instead, using the identical no-multiplier structure.

Because neither statute carves out an exception for real property the way some states' bond formulas do, don't assume your Mississippi bond will land smaller just because most of the estate's value sits in land rather than cash. Confirm the number against your specific inventory before you shop quotes.

Three ways off the full-value bond — and three different people who control each one

The full-estate-value rule isn't absolute. Mississippi gives three separate off-ramps, and each one is triggered by a different party — not the fiduciary.

The testator

Directs in the will that the executor need not give bond. Under § 91-7-45, that waiver stands unless the court or clerk has a specific reason to require bond anyway.

The heirs

For an intestate administrator, a sole heir — or all competent heirs jointly, by sworn petition — can ask the chancellor to waive or reduce bond under § 91-7-67.

A creditor

Can undo a will's waiver. A sworn petition alleging risk from mismanagement or insolvency, with five days' notice to the executor, lets the court require bond under § 91-7-45 anyway.

In practice: don't treat a will's “no bond required” clause as the final word. It controls unless a creditor with a real claim decides to challenge it — and the challenge only needs five days' notice to force the question back in front of the chancellor.

A 2020 law layered on top of a much older one

The GAP Act didn't change the executor bond — it built a separate track next to it

Mississippi's Guardianship and Conservatorship Act took effect January 1, 2020, after a two-year study by the 26-member Mississippi Commission on Guardianship and Conservatorship. It didn't touch Title 91's executor and administrator rules at all — it created a new, separate bonding regime under Title 93, Chapter 20, for guardians and conservators of minors and incapacitated adults.

Mississippi's two probate bond tracks

Which title governs, how the bond is priced, and who can waive it

Role	Governing law	Bond formula	Waiver path	Statute
Executor / administrator w/ will	Title 91, Ch. 7 (pre-1972 recodification lineage)	Full value of the estate — no multiplier	Yes, by will (§ 91-7-45), subject to court/creditor override	Miss. Code Ann. §§ 91-7-41, 91-7-45
Administrator — intestate estate	Title 91, Ch. 7	Value of the personal estate — no multiplier	Yes, sole-heir or all-heir sworn petition to chancellor	Miss. Code Ann. § 91-7-67
Conservator (property)	Title 93, Ch. 20 — GAP Act, effective Jan. 1, 2020	Capital value + 1 year estimated income, less restricted assets	Narrow waivers only; barred for paid professional conservators	Miss. Code Ann. §§ 93-20-416, 93-20-417
Guardian (person only)	Title 93, Ch. 20 — GAP Act	Not applicable — bond attaches to the conservator, not the guardian	N/A — no default bond to waive	Miss. Code Ann. § 93-20-416

A GAP Act guardian's authority runs to the ward's person, not property — Mississippi's bond requirement attaches to the conservator role, which is why the guardian row above shows no applicable bond formula.

How the GAP Act actually prices a conservator's bond

Unlike the flat full-value rule for executors, § 93-20-416 builds the conservator's bond from two components and then allows specific reductions.

Mississippi GAP Act Conservator Bond Formula (Miss. Code Ann. § 93-20-416)

Worked Example

Given$275,000 capital value + $18,000 estimated annual income

$275,000 + $18,000, before any court-ordered reduction

Bond Amount$293,000 (before reductions)

Given$275,000 capital value + $18,000 estimated annual income

$275,000 + $18,000, before any court-ordered reduction

Bond Amount$293,000 (before reductions)

Miss. Code Ann. § 93-20-416 — Justia Mississippi Code, Title 93, Chapter 20, Article 4. Courts may reduce this figure for deposits locked behind a withdrawal restriction and real property the conservator cannot sell without separate court authorization.

The statute also draws a hard line most states' conservator-bond rules don't: a court can waive bond for a family member serving without pay in narrow circumstances, but it cannot waive bond for a professional conservator who is being compensated for the role — no matter how strong the underlying facts for a waiver otherwise look. See the conservatorship bond calculator to run your own capital-plus-income figure, or compare Mississippi's formula against every other state's in the probate bond cost by state guide.

If a GAP Act bond lapses, Mississippi law puts the burden on the surety to speak up

Most fiduciary-bond statutes put the renewal obligation entirely on the fiduciary and leave silence as the default failure mode. Mississippi's GAP Act bond terms, Miss. Code Ann. § 93-20-417, add an affirmative duty on the surety instead: if a conservator fails to renew the bond, the surety “immediately must give notice to the court and the attorney for the conservatorship.”

The same section makes the conservator and surety jointly and severally liable, and by executing the bond, the surety submits to the personal jurisdiction of the appointing court — meaning a successor conservator or an affected party can sue the surety directly for a breach of the bond's obligations, with that exposure continuing “until liability under the bond is exhausted.” Working with a surety that treats Mississippi's notice duty as a real compliance obligation, not paperwork, matters more here than it does in states without this rule.

Getting your Mississippi bond filed

Identify the role — and the title it falls under

Executor, will-annexed administrator, or intestate administrator runs Title 91 Chapter 7. A GAP Act guardian or conservator runs Title 93 Chapter 20. The title decides the formula.

Get the estate or capital value figure

Title 91 bonds price off the full estate (or personal estate) value; GAP Act conservator bonds add a year of estimated income on top. We work from the inventory or your best estimate either way.

Confirm your chancery district

Tell us which of Mississippi's 20 chancery court districts and which chancellor is hearing your matter — local filing practice varies district to district.

Check for a waiver already in play

A will's no-bond clause, an heir waiver petition, or a GAP Act waiver finding can change or eliminate the number before we quote it.

File before your hearing

We deliver the executed bond on your district's accepted form in time for Letters — no bond on file, no authority to act on estate or ward assets.

Have a court-set figure, or just an estimate of the estate or ward's property? We'll write the bond to that number and file it on your chancery district's accepted form.

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All 20 MS chancery districts

We file on the accepted form for your district's elected chancellor

Both bond tracks covered

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What Mississippi fiduciaries ask about this bond

Why does Mississippi bond an executor at the full estate value with no discount?

Because Miss. Code Ann. § 91-7-41 ties the number to "the full value of the estate," full stop — it doesn't carve out real property the way some states' personal-property-only formulas do, and it doesn't offer a fractional multiplier the way states with a 1.25x or 1.5x rule do. That makes the Mississippi rule simple to state but, on paper, larger than a lot of states' defaults for the same estate. The number moves in two directions from there: down, if the will directs no bond under § 91-7-45, or up, if a creditor successfully petitions to force one back onto a will that waived it.

Can a Mississippi will actually eliminate the executor bond, or is that just a formality?

It genuinely works, with one built-in check. Miss. Code Ann. § 91-7-45 says that if the testator's will directs the executor "shall not be required to give bond," then none is required — unless the court or clerk has a specific reason to require it anyway when granting letters, or afterward. The check is a creditor petition: any creditor of the testator can file a sworn statement with the court or clerk in vacation stating their claim and their belief that bad management or the executor's personal insolvency puts their claim at risk. Give the executor five days' notice, and the court can require bond with sureties even over a will's explicit waiver.

I'm the sole heir named administrator of a Mississippi intestate estate — do I still need a bond?

Not automatically forced on you, but it's not automatic waiver either — a chancellor has to sign off. Miss. Code Ann. § 91-7-67 lets the chancellor waive or reduce an administrator's bond in two situations: the administrator is the decedent's sole heir, or all heirs are competent adults and file a sworn petition asking for the waiver or reduction. The chancellor can act on this during a court term or in vacation. If even one heir is a minor, incapacitated, or simply won't join the petition, the full-value bond under § 91-7-67 stands.

What's the difference between a Mississippi guardian and a conservator under the GAP Act?

Since Mississippi's Guardianship and Conservatorship (GAP) Act took effect January 1, 2020, the two roles split cleanly by what they control. A guardian has authority over the ward's person — custody, medical care, living arrangements. A conservator has authority over the ward's property — bank accounts, investments, real estate, income. Because the bond exists to protect assets, Mississippi ties the bond requirement to the conservator role under Miss. Code Ann. § 93-20-416, not the guardian role. A person appointed guardian-only in a GAP Act order typically isn't bonded at all; if you're managing the ward's money, confirm the court appointed you conservator too.

How does Mississippi's GAP Act price a conservator's bond?

Off a completely different formula than the executor/administrator rule. Miss. Code Ann. § 93-20-416 sets the bond at the aggregate capital value of the conservatorship estate plus one year's estimated income, then lets the court reduce that figure by the value of deposits locked behind a court-ordered withdrawal restriction and by real property the conservator can't sell without separate court authorization. Courts can waive bond in narrow situations — a minor's parent waived it in a valid holographic will, deposits are fully FDIC-insured with court documentation on file, or the court affirmatively finds bond unnecessary — but § 93-20-416 blocks that waiver outright for a professional conservator being paid for the role, no matter how the facts otherwise line up.

What happens under Mississippi law if my conservator's bond lapses without renewal?

The obligation to speak up falls on the surety, not just the conservator. Miss. Code Ann. § 93-20-417 requires that if a conservator fails to renew the bond, "the surety or sureties immediately must give notice to the court and the attorney for the conservatorship." The same section makes the surety and conservator jointly and severally liable, and by executing the bond, the surety submits to the personal jurisdiction of the court that issued the conservator's letters — so a successor conservator or an affected party can sue the surety directly for a breach, with that exposure running "until liability under the bond is exhausted."

Related Mississippi and probate bonds

Mississippi fiduciaries, estates, and conservatorships often need more than the probate bond itself:

Surety bonds by stateFind every other bond type Mississippi and other states require Conservatorship bonds nationwideSee how other states price the property-management role Guardianship bonds nationwideHow other states handle the person-vs-property split Executor bonds nationwideThe will-named role, compared state by state Administrator bonds nationwideThe intestate-estate role, compared state by state Probate bond cost by stateSee Mississippi's two formulas next to every other state's Administrator vs. executor bondsHow the two fiduciary roles differ and which bond each carries Conservatorship bond calculatorRun your capital-plus-income figure through the live estimator Fiduciary bonds overviewCourt-appointed, bank, and pension fiduciary bonds

Reviewed by

Eric Drummond, Licensed Surety Producer

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All content is researched from official state and federal sources (.gov). BuySuretyBonds.com works with Treasury-certified, A-minimum rated surety carriers.

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General information, not legal, tax, or underwriting advice. Mississippi probate and conservatorship bond requirements, amounts, and waivers are set by statute (Miss. Code Ann. §§ 9-5-81, 91-7-41, 91-7-45, 91-7-67, 93-20-416, 93-20-417) and by each chancery court district's local practice, and they change over time. Confirm the current requirement with the chancery court handling your matter — and with Mississippi probate counsel on appointment and waiver questions — before relying on this page, then request a quote for your specific bond form and amount.

One quote desk, both Mississippi bond tracks

Tell us your role, your chancery district, and your estate or ward's figures or a court-set amount. We write the bond under the statute that actually applies — Title 91 or the GAP Act — and get it filed before your hearing. Free quote, no obligation.

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