Knowing what assets are included in the Mississippi probate estate is important for several reasons. First, as executor or administrator of an estate, you have responsibility to gather and manage the assets of the Mississippi probate estate. This responsibility includes the duty to reduce to possession the personal assets of the decedent and ultimately distribute them to their intended beneficiaries. To fulfill these responsibilities, you must be able to ascertain which assets are part of the Mississippi probate estate and which are not.
Second, the claims of creditors of the estate attach to the assets of the estate. Assets that pass outside of the estate – such as life insurance proceeds made payable to a specific beneficiary – may be beyond the reach of creditors and are not the responsibility of the executor.
Finally, the need for a Mississippi probate proceeding and the type of probate proceeding may depend on what assets are included in the Mississippi probate estate. As discussed in Is Probate Necessary?, the need for a Mississippi probate depends on whether there are assets that need to be passed through the Mississippi chancery courts. An examination of the decedent’s asset profile will indicate whether or not a Mississippi probate proceeding is required.
Because the executor owes fiduciary duties to both the creditors and the heirs, one of the executor’s first acts should be to determine the assets under his or her care. If the executor has reason to believe that any of the assets of the estate are being improperly concealed or withheld, it is the executor’s duty to file a summary petition against the suspected wrongdoer demanding discovery of the assets and the claims related to the assets.
Property that is held as joint tenants with rights of survivorship will pass to the surviving joint owner outside of the probate estate. The executor’s role with respect to jointly owned property is to find out whether it was owned with rights of survivorship (as opposed to tenancy in common) and, if so, to determine whether the joint tenant(s) survived the decedent. If any one of the joint tenants survive the decedent, the property will pass to the joint tenant without any act by the executor.
As noted in Mississippi Probate and Real Estate, the executor’s duties with respect to real estate owned by the decedent can be tricky. At a minimum, the executor should take whatever steps are necessary (including a title search in some cases) to be sure of the real estate that the decedent owned and determine its ultimate disposition.
If there are insurance policies payable to the estate, the executor must prepare proofs of loss to collect the proceeds from those policies. Policies payable to specific designees are not part of the Mississippi probate estate.