Executor Fee in Mississippi: The Same Statute Shields Against Loss but Bars Profit

Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: Miss. Code Ann. § 91-7-299 lets the chancery court allow the executor or administrator such sum as it deems proper, considering the value and worth of the estate and the difficulty of the duties discharged. That compensation can be set at partial or final settlements, not only at the close of the estate. The same section separately allows necessary expenses, including a reasonable attorney’s fee, in an amount the court determines.

The statute, and what it does not do

Miss. Code Ann. § 91-7-299 sets no percentage and no fee schedule. It directs the court to allow the executor or administrator such sum as the court deems proper for their trouble, weighed against two things named in the statute: the value and worth of the estate, and the extent or degree of difficulty of the duties the executor or administrator discharged. Beyond those two considerations, the statute leaves the amount to the chancery court’s judgment.

Who decides, and the loss-shield, profit-bar pairing

The chancery court sets the fee, weighing the value of the estate against the difficulty of the work. The same section also does something distinctive: on final settlement, the court allows the executor or administrator for estate property that was lost, perished, or decreased in value without the fiduciary’s fault, a shield against being charged for losses that were not their doing. Paired with that shield is a bar: the executor or administrator is not allowed to keep any profit resulting from an increase in the estate’s value. The statute also allows necessary expenses, including a reasonable attorney’s fee, assessed out of the estate in an amount the court determines, and it lets the court make these allowances at partial settlements along the way, not only at the final one.

What that means in practice

Document the estate’s value and the actual difficulty of the administration, those are the two factors the chancery court weighs under the statute. If estate property lost value through no fault of the executor or administrator, that loss is not charged against them, but any gain in value is not theirs to keep either. Keep expense records and attorney time separate from the compensation request, since the statute allows necessary expenses and a reasonable attorney’s fee as their own court-determined item. And there is no need to wait until the estate closes to ask the court for an allowance; partial settlements are available too.

What the whole process costs in this state: Mississippi probate cost. Every state’s fee model side by side: probate cost by state.

Work out the number: the executor fee calculator. How the standard is applied where no schedule exists: reasonable-compensation states. Whether to take the fee at all: when the executor is also an heir, and how the fee is taxed.

Statutory text read at each state’s own legislature or official code publisher. General information, not legal advice; a court retains the final say on what compensation is allowed.