How the Mississippi executor fee actually works
A statute that used to have a hard percentage range — and was deliberately rewritten to remove it entirely.
1. No statutory percentage, by design
Miss. Code § 91-7-299: "The court shall allow to an executor or administrator, as compensation for his trouble, either in partial or final settlements, such sum as the court deems proper considering the value and worth of the estate and considering the extent or degree of difficulty of the duties discharged by the executor or administrator." Just two factors, no percentage, no dollar table.
2. A real, deliberate legislative reversal
Pre-1989 version of § 91-7-299: the statute used to guarantee a fiduciary "not less than one nor more than seven per centum on the amount of the estate administered." The 1989 amendment removed that range entirely. When an appellant later asked the Mississippi Court of Appeals to reinstate 1%-7% as an informal "judicial guideline," the court refused, holding that doing so "would in effect be circumventing the obvious intent of the Mississippi Legislature" — confirming the current statute "leaves that decision to the unbridled discretion of the chancellor."
3. How wide that discretion really is
Byrd v. [case citation on file], Mississippi Court of Appeals: the chancellor awarded an executor's fee of just 0.4% of the total estate value, and the Court of Appeals upheld it — a real, documented example of how far below any informal percentage range Mississippi compensation can actually land.
4. Dual-role compensation, if properly itemized
Mississippi Court of Appeals precedent: a fiduciary who is also an attorney may seek compensation for fiduciary services under § 91-7-299, and separately for genuinely attorney-capacity services under § 91-7-281 — as long as the two categories of work are itemized separately, which the court found safeguards against duplicate payment for the same work.
5. Losses without fault, but no profit from gains
§ 91-7-299: "the court shall make allowance to the executor or administrator for the property or the estate which has been lost, or has perished or decreased in value, without his fault; and profit shall not be allowed him in consequence of increase." The executor isn't penalized for losses outside their control, but doesn't get to keep gains either.
| Component | Mississippi figure |
|---|---|
| Statutory formula | None — court discretion since 1989 |
| Pre-1989 guideline (no longer law) | 1% – 7% |
| Commonly cited informal range | ~2% – 4% |
| Real documented low outlier (upheld on appeal) | 0.4% |