What Adult Guardianship Costs in Mississippi

Updated August 14, 2026. Quick answer: Mississippi fixes the petition filing fee at $85 by statute, and there is no single accounting interval — conservator annual; adult-guardian report is event-triggered, not calendar. Everything on this page is quoted from the jurisdiction’s own statute or an official court schedule, and where Mississippi publishes no figure this page says so rather than printing an estimate. What drives the rest of the bill — lawyers, an investigation, a capacity evaluation — is on what guardianship costs.

What Mississippi fixes by statute

What the proceeding is called here. Guardian (adult, art. 3) and conservator (art. 4) under the Mississippi Guardianship and Conservatorship Act of 2019, Miss. Code Title 93, ch. 20, effective 2020-01-01. Proceedings are in chancery court.

The filing fee

$85.00 as a total fee. ‘The following fee shall be A TOTAL FEE FOR ALL SERVICES PERFORMED BY THE CLERK with respect to any civil case filed that includes, but is not limited to, divorce … GUARDIANSHIP OR CONSERVATORSHIP, estate of deceased … which shall be payable upon filing and shall accrue to the chancery clerk at the time of filing. The clerk or his successor in office shall perform all duties set forth without additional compensation or fee … $85.00.’ On top of that, every civil case carries additional statutory fees, beginning with $10.00 to the Comprehensive Electronic Court Systems Fund under s.9-21-14.

total fee for all services … without additional compensation or fee

Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: Miss. Code s.25-7-9(2), (3)(a).

The bond

‘Except as otherwise provided in subsection (3), the court SHALL require a conservator to furnish a bond with a surety the court specifies, OR require an alternative asset-protection arrangement, conditioned on faithful discharge of all duties.’ The court may waive or partially waive only if (a) the respondent is a minor whose parent waived the requirement in a valid holographic will or attested instrument taking effect at the parent’s death, or (b) part of the estate is deposited in Mississippi financial institutions with deposits fully federally insured. S.93-20-417 sets the bond’s terms and requirements.

Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: Miss. Code ss.93-20-416(1)-(3), 93-20-417.

Who pays the premium is not answered. A surety bond carries a recurring premium and it is usually the largest ongoing cost of a guardianship of the estate. Mississippi states no express rule on who bears it in the chapter read for this page, and no figure for what one costs is published anywhere this project could verify. That is a gap in the law and in the published record, not a gap we have filled with a guess.

Guardian ad litem and attorney fees

‘The court MAY appoint a guardian ad litem to any respondent AND ALLOW SUITABLE COMPENSATION PAYABLE OUT OF THE ESTATE OF THE RESPONDENT, but the appointment SHALL NOT BE MADE UNLESS THE COURT CONSIDERS IT NECESSARY; A JUDGMENT OF ANY COURT IS NOT VOID OR ERRONEOUS BECAUSE OF THE FAILURE TO HAVE A GUARDIAN AD LITEM.’ Attorney appointment is governed separately by s.93-20-406.

Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: Miss. Code s.93-20-405.

How often you have to account

There is no single interval here. Mississippi runs two tracks at different cadences — Conservator annual; adult-guardian report is event-triggered, not calendar — so which one binds you depends on what you were appointed to be. A table with one interval per state cannot represent this, and most published ones try. Your appointing court can order more often than the statutory minimum; the document that governs you is your order.

Conservator annual; adult-guardian report is event-triggered, not calendar. Conservator: ‘a conservator MUST FILE A REPORT … with the court ANNUALLY unless the court otherwise directs, if provided by will, or made necessary by resignation or removal, or termination’, and ‘A conservator MUST PETITION THE COURT FOR APPROVAL of a report filed under this section’ – the report must contain an accounting of receipts, disbursements, liabilities and distributions, a list of services provided, any deviation from the plan and why, and a recommendation on continued need. Guardian of an adult: ‘if there is A significant change in circumstances, or if the guardian seeks to deviate significantly from the guardian’s plan, a guardian must file … a report … within ninety (90) days after being so ordered by the court.’

Read at statute source on 2026-08-12: Miss. Code ss.93-20-423(1)-(2), 93-20-316(1)-(2).

What an accounting has to contain, and the duties that come with it, are on the guardian accounting duties page.

What this page does not tell you

All four items this page set out to establish were read at primary and are stated above with their cites. What is missing everywhere, in every state, is a price: what an attorney charges to bring an uncontested petition, what a court-ordered capacity evaluation or investigation costs, and what a surety charges for the bond. None of it is published by any authority, and this page does not estimate it.

Where this fits

The filing fee is the smallest part of what a guardianship costs, and the national page sets out the costs that are larger and are not published anywhere. If nobody has been appointed yet, the comparison that actually matters is against the document that avoids this proceeding entirely — guardianship against a power of attorney.

Sources

General consumer information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Guardianship and conservatorship are governed by STATE law and differ materially between states; every figure here is quoted from the cited source as read on the date shown and changes without notice. Read as of August 14, 2026.