Selling inherited property in Mississippi depends on how title was held, whether probate is required, whether a surviving spouse has homestead rights, the value of the personal estate, and whether the heirs need a Chancery Court heirship decree before a title company will insure the sale.

• Mississippi has no estate tax, inheritance tax, or gift tax. A sale can still create federal and Mississippi income-tax consequences on the gain, plus property tax, closing, title, and probate costs.
• The surviving spouse share is a “child’s part,” not a fixed one-half. A surviving spouse inherits an equal share alongside each child, so the fraction changes with the number of children (Miss. Code § 91-1-7).
• Homestead rights can delay or block a forced sale while the surviving spouse occupies or uses the property during widowhood or widowerhood, unless the spouse consents (Miss. Code §§ 91-1-19, 91-1-23).
• A small estate affidavit cannot transfer real estate. It moves personal property only. Muniment of title can transfer real estate, but only when there is a will and the statutory conditions are met (Miss. Code §§ 91-7-322, 91-5-35).
• Intestate heirs may inherit ownership by operation of law, but title companies usually will not insure a sale until a Chancery Court decree adjudicates who the heirs are (Miss. Code §§ 91-1-27, 91-1-29).

A Mississippi inherited house needs probate or another title-clearing path unless it passed by survivorship, a recorded transfer-on-death deed, or a trust. Which category your property falls into depends almost entirely on how title was held at the moment of death:

• Sole ownership: needs probate or an alternative. Passes by the will or by intestacy, and title must be cleared before a sale.
• Tenancy in common: the deceased owner’s fractional share needs probate or an alternative. Mississippi presumes tenancy in common when a deed has no explicit survivorship language, so co-owned property is often in this category by default.
• Joint tenancy with right of survivorship: bypasses probate, but only if the deed contains explicit survivorship language (Miss. Code § 89-1-7). A deed that simply names two owners without survivorship words does not avoid probate.
• Tenancy by the entirety (married couples): bypasses probate and passes to the surviving spouse, if the deed validly created a tenancy by the entirety.
• Transfer-on-death (TOD) deed recorded before death: bypasses probate and passes to the named beneficiary (Miss. Code §§ 91-27-1 through 91-27-35).
• Property held in a trust: bypasses probate; the trustee distributes it under the trust terms.

If you are weighing how to keep future property out of probate, see our guide to how to avoid probate on inherited property.

One Mississippi catch: intestate heirs may inherit ownership interests by operation of law, but Mississippi title companies usually will not insure a sale until a Chancery Court decree adjudicates heirship. See “How to Get Marketable Title in Mississippi” below.

Mississippi is a common-law, separate-property state with no estate tax, no inheritance tax, and no gift tax. Probate runs through the Chancery Court of the county where the decedent had a fixed place of residence, or where the land is located if there was no fixed residence (Miss. Code § 91-7-1). Mississippi does not have a separate probate court. Its most distinctive inheritance rule is the “child’s part”: a surviving spouse inherits an equal share alongside each child rather than a fixed fraction. In practice, the hardest parts of selling inherited Mississippi property usually turn on title, Chancery Court authority, heirship, and homestead rights, not on taxes.

What Makes Mississippi Different for Inherited Property?

Three mechanics set Mississippi apart for inherited real estate: the child’s part rule that governs spousal shares, a blended-family homestead carve-out that surprises most families, and a protected homestead occupancy right that can stop a forced sale.

How Does Mississippi’s “Child’s Part” Rule Divide Inherited Property?

A surviving spouse takes a share equal to each child, not a fixed one-half (Miss. Code § 91-1-7). The fraction depends on the number of children:

• Spouse and 1 child: each takes one-half.
• Spouse and 2 children: each takes one-third.
• Spouse and 3 children: each takes one-fourth.
• Spouse and 4 children: each takes one-fifth.

If the decedent dies without a will and leaves no children or other descendants, the surviving spouse takes the entire estate in fee simple. The same rule reaches beyond the house: in Mississippi, undisposed personal property descends the same way real estate does (Miss. Code § 91-1-11), so the fraction that splits the family land also splits the family bank account. The practical result is that heirs frequently end up owning fractional, undivided interests in inherited Mississippi real estate by default, which is why coordinating a sale among several owners is so common here.

What Is the Mississippi Blended-Family Homestead Rule?

Mississippi has a homestead carve-out for blended families that most online sources miss entirely. Under the second clause of Miss. Code § 91-1-19, if the decedent’s children are only from a prior marriage and the surviving spouse already owns a residence comparable in value to the homestead, the surviving spouse does not inherit the marital homestead at all. It descends directly to the decedent’s children from the former marriage. The carve-out turns on two specific facts: that there are no children of the current marriage, and that the survivor has a comparable home of their own.

Can a Surviving Spouse Be Forced to Sell the Mississippi Home?

Generally not during the surviving spouse’s widowhood or widowerhood. Mississippi gives a surviving spouse a protected right to occupy or use qualifying homestead property, and that property generally cannot be partitioned or sold for partition while the spouse occupies or uses it, unless the spouse consents (Miss. Code §§ 91-1-19, 91-1-23). The protection can change if the spouse remarries, stops occupying or using the home, or agrees to a sale. It helps to separate ownership from possession: other heirs may hold a present ownership interest, but their ability to possess, partition, or force a sale is restricted during the protected period while the surviving spouse occupies or uses the home.

The form of ownership decides whether inherited property passes through probate and who has authority to sign a deed. The single rule to remember is that survivorship is not assumed: Mississippi presumes tenancy in common unless a deed says otherwise in explicit survivorship language (Miss. Code § 89-1-7).

• Sole ownership: does not bypass probate. Passes by will or intestacy; title must be cleared before a sale.
• Tenancy in common: does not bypass probate. The deceased owner’s fractional share passes by will or intestacy. This is the default when a deed lacks survivorship language.
• Joint tenancy with right of survivorship: bypasses probate only when the deed created survivorship in explicit writing; otherwise the share goes through probate (Miss. Code § 89-1-7).
• Tenancy by the entirety (married couples): bypasses probate and passes to the surviving spouse, if the deed validly created a tenancy by the entirety.
• Transfer-on-death (TOD) deed: bypasses probate and passes to the named beneficiary if the deed was recorded before death (Miss. Code §§ 91-27-1 through 91-27-35).
• Trust: bypasses probate; distributed by the trustee under the trust terms.

A few Mississippi-specific points on the TOD deed, because a simple yes or no misses them. It must be recorded before the owner’s death in the county where the property sits, or it is ineffective. It is fully revocable during life, but a will cannot revoke it (Miss. Code § 91-27-21). It requires the same mental capacity as making a will (Miss. Code § 91-27-15), the beneficiary does not need to know about it or consent, and the property remains subject to the decedent’s creditors. For jointly owned property, one joint tenant’s TOD deed takes effect only if that owner is the last surviving joint tenant, and tenants in common are excluded from the “joint owner” rule (Miss. Code § 91-27-3(c)).

When someone dies without a will in Mississippi, the surviving spouse and the children share the estate equally, on a per-person basis, under the child’s part rule (Miss. Code § 91-1-7). The spouse is treated as one more taker alongside each child, so the spouse’s share shrinks as the number of children grows. If there is no spouse, the children take in equal parts, with a deceased child’s share passing to that child’s descendants (Miss. Code § 91-1-3).

A few Mississippi-specific rules sit on top of these formulas. Half-blood relatives inherit only when there are no whole-blood relatives of the same degree (Miss. Code § 91-1-5). A nonmarital child can inherit from a natural father in defined circumstances, but a paternity action generally must be filed within one year of the death or within 90 days after the first publication of notice to creditors, whichever is less (Miss. Code § 91-1-15). Adopted children inherit from their adoptive parents and, in some situations, from natural parents (Miss. Code § 93-17-13). Three more rules round out the chapter: a lifetime gift counts against an heir’s share only if the decedent put it in writing at the time (Miss. Code § 91-1-17), anyone who willfully causes a person’s death cannot inherit from them (Miss. Code § 91-1-25), and property escheats to the state only when no heirs exist (Miss. Code § 89-11-1). For how intestate succession works as a general concept, see our guide to probate and real estate.

Probate in Mississippi commonly runs from a few months to well over a year, depending on whether there is a will, whether real estate is involved, and whether an intestate estate needs an heirship suit. A typical uncontested timeline looks like this:

1. Date of death.
2. Estate opened in the Chancery Court of the proper county, usually within about six months (Miss. Code § 91-7-1).
3. Notice to creditors published and mailed by the personal representative (Miss. Code § 91-7-145).
4. 90-day creditor claim period runs from the first publication; claims not registered in time are barred (Miss. Code § 91-7-151).
5. Heirship decree, if the estate is intestate, which commonly adds another three to six months (Miss. Code §§ 91-1-27, 91-1-29).
6. Title review and clearance.
7. Sale or distribution.

A contested estate, a will challenge, missing or unknown heirs, or a dispute among co-owners can stretch this well beyond a year. Mississippi probate moves through the Chancery Court in one of three main tracks: probate of the will with Letters Testamentary, administration with the will annexed, or Letters of Administration for intestate estates. The intestate track requires an heirship suit to establish who the heirs are before the real estate can be sold with insurable title. Two cost realities catch heirs by surprise: because the 90-day creditor period does not start until notice is published, delaying the opening of the estate simply delays the date it can safely close (Miss. Code §§ 91-7-145, 91-7-151); and in an intestate administration, a bond is required as a matter of law unless all heirs join the petition to waive it, which is one reason families with an eligible will sometimes prefer muniment of title.

Mississippi offers several ways to transfer inherited property, from an instant pre-death transfer to a full court-supervised administration. The right path depends on whether there is a will, whether the asset is real estate, the value of the personal estate, and whether a title company will insure the result.

A nonresident decedent’s Mississippi real property usually runs through ancillary administration rather than the paths above, covered in “What Do Out-of-State Heirs Need to Sell Mississippi Property” below. Three of these paths deserve a closer look, because the limits are where heirs most often go wrong:

• Small estate affidavit (Miss. Code § 91-7-322). Collects personal property only and cannot transfer real estate. Available when the estate measured under the successor-affidavit statute does not exceed $75,000, excluding liens and encumbrances, at least 30 days have passed since death, and no personal representative is pending or appointed. There is no court filing; the affidavit is presented to whoever holds the property, who is then released from liability.
• Muniment of title (Miss. Code § 91-5-35). Transfers real estate and is available only when there is a will, never for an intestate estate. The threshold is tied to the value of the decedent’s Mississippi probate estate excluding real property and exempt property, not the value of the inherited house itself. In plain terms, a valuable home does not automatically disqualify muniment, because the house is excluded from the figure being measured. A muniment order may transfer record title, but because it does not start the ordinary creditor-notice process, a title company may still ask about creditor exposure, Medicaid recovery, or the passage of applicable limitation periods before insuring a later sale.
• Formal administration (Title 91, Chapter 7). The default for most estates with real estate, especially intestate estates.

Heads up on stale numbers: sources citing a $50,000 small-estate limit or a $10,000 muniment-of-title figure are outdated. Both thresholds were updated by Senate Bill 2850 (2020). The current small-estate figure is $75,000, and muniment is tied to the same statutory sum.

When Does Selling an Inherited Mississippi Property Make Sense?

Selling makes sense when the property is harder to manage than to convert into cash. For many Mississippi heirs, that means the heirs live out of state and cannot easily manage a property in Jackson, Hattiesburg, Tupelo, Oxford, or Meridian; the house is vacant and the costs are mounting; the property needs repairs that exceed what the heirs want to spend; several co-heirs want to divide the value cleanly; or title issues, a surviving spouse’s rights, or a co-heir disagreement make a normal listing complicated. Vacant-property risk in Mississippi is real: an unoccupied home can lose ordinary insurance coverage or require a more expensive vacancy policy, and in the state’s humid climate it can develop moisture, mold, and roof or HVAC problems quickly. Coastal property in Gulfport, Biloxi, and the rest of Harrison and Jackson counties carries added wind, flood, and hurricane exposure that affects both insurability and value.

Listing, Selling As-Is, or Using an Inherited-Property Broker

Heirs in Mississippi generally have three ways to sell. None is automatically best; the right choice depends on the condition of the property, whether the heirs agree, and whether the title is ready.

Mississippi protects a surviving spouse against disinheritance mainly through the elective share (also called renunciation) and through homestead rights. Dower and curtesy, the old common-law spousal interests, were abolished in Mississippi in 1880, so the elective share is the exclusive statutory protection against being written out of a will (Miss. Code § 93-3-5).

When a will fails to make satisfactory provision for the surviving spouse, the spouse may renounce the will and instead take the share they would have received under intestacy, with one important limit: even if the decedent left no descendants, a renouncing spouse is capped at one-half of the real and personal estate (Miss. Code § 91-5-25). If the will leaves the spouse nothing, the spouse is treated as having renounced without having to act. Because intestacy would give a childless surviving spouse the entire estate, renouncing in that situation actually caps the spouse at half, so the decision is fact-specific.

90-day deadline: the renunciation must be filed within 90 days after the will is admitted to probate. The clock runs from probate, not from the date of death, and the window is jurisdictional. Missing it by even one day forfeits the election (Miss. Code § 91-5-25).

The calculation runs in four steps: determine the intestate share the spouse would have received under the child’s part rule; apply the one-half cap if the spouse is renouncing under a will; value the spouse’s separate estate at the date of death; then apply the statutory offset and the one-fifth rule. The separate-estate offset works like this: if the surviving spouse already owns separate property equal in value to the lawful share, the spouse cannot renounce; if it is less, the spouse can renounce only for the difference (Miss. Code § 91-5-29). A one-fifth rule of administrative convenience says that if the spouse’s separate estate is worth less than one-fifth of the decedent’s estate, the spouse takes the full legal share without an appraisal. Property the spouse inherits from the decedent and the spouse’s homestead rights do not count against the elective share.

Two more spousal points matter at a sale. Mississippi requires the signed consent of both spouses to convey or mortgage homestead property during life; a transfer of homestead without the other spouse’s written consent is void (Miss. Code § 89-1-29), which is a frequent source of title problems on older deeds signed by only one spouse. And a child born or adopted after the will was signed, and not provided for, may claim an intestate share that can reach real estate (Miss. Code § 91-5-3).

Does Mississippi Have an Estate or Inheritance Tax?

No. Mississippi has no estate tax, no inheritance tax, and no gift tax. The state estate tax was effectively repealed in 2005. For very large estates, the only death tax that can apply is the federal estate tax, which reaches few estates. Mississippi does have an Estate Tax Apportionment Act that governs how any federal estate tax is allocated among Mississippi beneficiaries when an estate is large enough to owe it, and that default allocation can be overridden by a direction in the will or trust (Miss. Code §§ 91-25-1 through 91-25-27).

What Income Tax Applies When You Sell Inherited Mississippi Property?

Mississippi does not have a separate capital gains tax. It taxes the gain on a sale through its individual income tax, and that rate is changing on a published schedule, so the tax year matters. For tax year 2026, Mississippi taxes taxable income above $10,000 at a flat 4.0% rate, with the first $10,000 taxed at 0%. Be careful not to confuse the filing year with the tax year: 2025 Mississippi returns filed in 2026 use the 4.4% rate, while 2026 income is generally subject to the 4.0% rate. The rate is scheduled to step down further in later years, so confirm the current rate for your tax year with the Mississippi Department of Revenue before closing. The federal basis rule is often the starting point for calculating any gain: inherited property generally receives a stepped-up basis to its fair market value at the date of death, so federal capital gains tax typically applies only to appreciation after that date. For how the federal stepped-up basis works, see our guide to capital gains tax on inherited property.

What Property Tax Issues Affect Inherited Mississippi Property?

• Do not confuse the two “homestead” figures. The $75,000 number is an asset-protection equity limit for the homestead in probate and against creditors (Miss. Code § 85-3-21). The separate $7,500 figure is an additional ad valorem tax exemption for homeowners who are 65 or older or totally disabled (Miss. Code § 27-33-67).
• Watch for delinquent property taxes. Unpaid Mississippi property taxes can lead to a tax sale, and the redemption and title questions that follow can cloud title and delay a sale. Check the tax status early, especially on long-vacant property.
• A new owner who lives in the home should file for the homestead exemption if eligible.

What Are the Common Non-Tax Costs of Selling?

Heirs often focus on taxes and forget the everyday costs of getting an inherited Mississippi property sold. Depending on the situation, these can include probate attorney fees, court costs, a bond premium for an intestate administration, title curative work to clear old defects, recording fees, ongoing property taxes and insurance, repairs and cleanup, and the broker commission or the discount that comes with an as-is sale. Together these shape what a sale actually nets.

To sell inherited property in Mississippi, the title company needs proof that the person signing the deed has legal authority, and what counts as proof depends on how the property is passing.

Who Has Authority to Sell Inherited Property in Mississippi?

It depends on the path the property is taking: the executor signs for a testate estate, the adjudicated heirs sign after an heirship decree, the trustee signs for trust property, and the surviving owner or beneficiary signs for survivorship or TOD property.

The heirship decree is the intestate title gatekeeper. When a Mississippi resident dies intestate owning real property, the heirs may inherit interests by operation of law, but a title company commonly will not insure a sale until a Chancery Court enters a decree adjudicating who the heirs are (Miss. Code §§ 91-1-27, 91-1-29). Known heirs are served, and unknown heirs are notified by publication. The decree clears title for sale purposes, though it does not by itself resolve creditor claims. Title requirements can also differ by county, closing attorney, and underwriter, so what clears title in DeSoto or Madison County may not be handled the same way elsewhere.

Can You Sell Inherited Mississippi Property Before Probate Closes?

Sometimes, but only if the signer has legal authority and the title company will insure the buyer’s title. A personal representative’s power to sell is not automatic. It may depend on the terms of the will, the scope of the Letters issued, the estate’s debts, any court orders, and the title company’s requirements. Do not assume that every executor or administrator can sell real estate without court involvement; an administrator selling estate real property, or an executor under a will that does not grant broad sale authority, may need a court petition and approval first.

What If the Property Includes Land, Timber, or Mineral Rights?

Inherited Mississippi property is often not a single-family house. Many heirs inherit rural acreage, timberland, farmland, or hunting land in north or central Mississippi, sometimes with mineral interests severed from the surface generations ago. These raise their own valuation, title, and co-heir questions. One Mississippi point to keep in mind: a life tenant generally cannot commit waste, and large-scale timber harvesting for personal profit can create disputes with the remaindermen unless the governing will or deed, prior use of the land, or a court order supports it (Miss. Code § 89-1-9). For inherited rural property generally, see our guide to selling inherited land, and for severed minerals and similar interests, see other inherited assets. If the property includes a manufactured or mobile home, confirm whether it has been legally converted to real property or still carries a separate certificate of title, because that status changes how it transfers and sells.

Liens, Mortgages, and Creditor Claims at Closing

Inheriting a property does not erase the debt secured by it. A mortgage, reverse mortgage, home equity line, judgment lien, or property tax lien generally stays with the property and is typically paid off at closing out of the sale proceeds. A secured claim like a mortgage or tax lien is different from an ordinary unsecured probate claim and may still have to be handled before or at closing, even though a lienholder does not lose its lien by failing to file a probate claim (Miss. Code § 91-7-167). A reverse mortgage often becomes due when the borrower dies, so confirm the payoff timeline early. The probate alternatives are also not creditor shields: a small estate affidavit and a muniment of title do not resolve creditor claims, and a TOD deed leaves the property exposed to the decedent’s creditors. Separately, Mississippi homestead and exempt-property rules may protect certain property passing to a surviving spouse, children, or grandchildren from ordinary probate creditor claims (Miss. Code § 85-3-21), but those rules do not automatically eliminate mortgages, tax liens, Medicaid estate recovery questions, or other title issues. For how Medicaid recovery works in general, see our guide to whether Medicaid can take an inherited house.

Before listing, it helps to gather and confirm the following:

1. The deed and how title is vested.
2. The death certificate.
3. The will, if there is one.
4. Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration, if an estate has been opened.
5. An heirship decree, if the property is intestate.
6. A homestead and spousal-consent review, especially on older deeds.
7. The status of any creditor claims.
8. The mortgage, reverse mortgage, or lien payoff information.
9. The property tax status, including any delinquency.
10. A co-heir agreement, or an honest read on partition risk if owners disagree.
11. Whatever the title company specifically requires for your situation.

For the full document checklist that applies in any state, see our guide to the documents you need to sell inherited property.

If you live outside Mississippi and inherited property in the state, you usually have to solve the Mississippi title question in Mississippi, even when the main estate is being handled elsewhere. Mississippi added a streamlined path in 2020. Before then, a nonresident who owned Mississippi property generally had to go through full Mississippi probate. Since July 1, 2020, the ancillary administration framework gives out-of-state estates a faster route in many cases (Miss. Code §§ 91-7-501 through 91-7-523). There are three tiers:

1. Personal property only. A foreign personal representative can collect Mississippi personal property by providing proof of appointment plus an affidavit stating the date of death, that no local administration is pending, and that the representative is entitled to the property (Miss. Code §§ 91-7-503, 91-7-505, 91-7-507). A Mississippi resident creditor can block the transfer by serving notice.
2. Real property. For real estate, a domiciliary foreign personal representative files authenticated copies of the appointment, including the admitted will and the letters, in the Mississippi county where the property sits, and can then exercise Mississippi powers without a separate Mississippi probate hearing (Miss. Code § 91-7-509). This is a real simplification, but not a complete bypass: the foreign representative is still subject to Mississippi’s estate-administration obligations, including creditor notice and the 90-day claim period.
3. Local administration when needed. If a resident creditor blocks the streamlined path, or there is a dispute, or no foreign administration exists, the family opens a local Mississippi administration (Miss. Code § 91-7-515).

A foreign personal representative is subject to Mississippi court jurisdiction to the extent the decedent was (Miss. Code § 91-7-519), and Mississippi law provides a pathway for an authenticated foreign will to be admitted or recorded for Mississippi real-property purposes, though the will can still be contested in Mississippi as the original could have been (Miss. Code § 91-7-33).

For out-of-state heirs: since 2020, you may not need a full Mississippi probate to sell inherited Mississippi property. A foreign personal representative often has a streamlined ancillary path, but Mississippi real property still usually requires Mississippi title-clearing steps before a sale can close.

For the general mechanics of probating an estate across state lines, see our guide to ancillary probate, and for the practical side of a long-distance sale, see selling inherited property out of state.

Mississippi adopted the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act in 2020 (Senate Bill 2553, effective July 1, 2020; Miss. Code §§ 91-31-1 through 91-31-25). The Act protects family-inherited land from forced, below-value partition sales. When property qualifies as heir property and any co-owner files to partition, the court follows a protective sequence rather than sending the land straight to auction:

• Is it heir property? The court first decides whether the property qualifies. Broadly, heir property is land held in tenancy in common, with no written agreement governing partition, where at least one co-owner acquired title from a relative and a threshold share of the co-owners are relatives (Miss. Code §§ 91-31-3, 91-31-5).
• The cotenant buyout right. If a co-owner asks for a partition by sale, the court sets a value, and the other co-owners then have 45 days to elect to buy out the interest of the co-owner who requested the sale, at a price equal to the parcel’s value multiplied by that co-owner’s fractional share (Miss. Code § 91-31-13). This is a significant protection, and a significant obstacle to the old strategy of buying one heir’s fractional interest and forcing a sale.
• Open-market sale preferred. If the property is ultimately sold, the Act prefers an open-market sale through a court-appointed broker over a courthouse auction.

What happens if one heir lives in the inherited house, or one sibling refuses to sell? A single co-owner usually cannot force an instant auction, and cannot easily be forced into one either. When one heir occupies the home, the practical questions are whether that heir pays rent to the others and who covers taxes, insurance, and upkeep, and the common outcomes are a buyout of the other heirs, a coordinated sale, or, if no one agrees, a partition action. For how a forced sale works as a concept, see our guide to whether a sibling can force the sale of inherited property.

Some online sources, including a few attorney-authored pages, repeat outdated or incorrect information about inherited Mississippi property. The following corrections are stated against the current statutes.

• “The surviving spouse always gets one-half.” Wrong as a general rule. Mississippi uses the child’s part rule, so the spouse takes an equal share with each child. The one-half figure is correct only when there is a spouse and exactly one child (Miss. Code § 91-1-7).
• “The spouse gets the first $50,000 plus one-half.” This is the Uniform Probate Code formula, and Mississippi is not a UPC state. That rule does not apply here (Miss. Code § 91-1-7).
• “A small estate affidavit can transfer the house.” It cannot. The small estate affidavit moves personal property only. Real estate requires muniment of title, formal administration, or another path (Miss. Code § 91-7-322).
• “The small-estate limit is $50,000 and muniment is $10,000.” Both figures are outdated. They were updated by Senate Bill 2850 in 2020; the small-estate threshold is $75,000, and muniment is tied to the same statutory sum (Miss. Code §§ 91-7-322, 91-5-35).
• “Mississippi still has dower and curtesy.” It does not. Mississippi abolished dower and curtesy in 1880, and the elective share is the exclusive statutory protection against disinheritance (Miss. Code § 93-3-5).

• This page reflects current 2026 Mississippi law.
• The 2026 Regular Session of the Mississippi Legislature convened in January and adjourned in early April 2026 without passing any bill that materially changes Mississippi inheritance, intestate succession, elective share, summary administration, ancillary probate, homestead, or estate tax law.
• The major reforms that shaped the current landscape all took effect in 2020 and remain in force: Senate Bill 2850 (small estate and muniment changes), Senate Bill 2851 (the Transfer-on-Death Act, ancillary administration, revocation by divorce, and estate tax apportionment), and Senate Bill 2553 (the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act).
• House Bill 164 (2025) proposed raising the small-estate threshold from $75,000 to $100,000 but died in committee on February 4, 2025; the threshold remains $75,000.
• House Bill 1542 (2024) updated the personal-property descent statute to incorporate Mississippi’s assisted-reproduction rules (Miss. Code § 91-1-11).
• Proposed amendments to Rules 4 and 81 of the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure were posted for public comment in spring 2026 and had not been finally adopted as of mid-2026. Rule 81 governs Chancery Court estate procedure and the citation of heirs in heirship suits.