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Mississippi doesn’t give a surviving spouse a fraction — it gives them “a child’s part.” Without a will, your spouse inherits an equal share alongside each of your children. With one child that is half the estate. With four children it is a fifth. The more children you have, the less your spouse receives, which is the opposite of how most people assume this works. Mississippi does still accept a will written entirely in your own hand with no witnesses at all. Online services prepare a Mississippi-specific will for $199–$299. Every rule below cites the Mississippi Code.
Most Mississippi adults can finish a legally valid will in under an hour.
Two witnesses, a signature, and clear wishes — that’s the whole requirement. An online service like Trust & Will prepares a Mississippi-specific will with the witness pages ready to sign.
Disclosure: we earn a commission if you buy through the Trust & Will links here, at no extra cost to you. Complex situations belong with an attorney and we say so below.
Mississippi Will Requirements (2026)
Miss. Code Ann. § 91-5-1 does all the work in a single sentence, and it hides the holographic-will rule inside a conditional clause:
| Requirement | Mississippi rule | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| In writing | Required — Mississippi has no electronic wills act | § 91-5-1 |
| Signed | By you, or by another person in your presence and by your express direction | § 91-5-1 |
| Witnessed | Two or more credible witnesses in your presence — required only if the will is not wholly written and subscribed by you | § 91-5-1 |
| Notarized | Not required for validity | § 91-5-1 |
Who can make a will: every person eighteen years of age or older, being of sound and disposing mind (§ 91-5-1). “Sound and disposing” is the older formulation — it asks not just whether you are of sound mind generally but whether you are capable of disposing of your property.
Note that the witnesses must sign in your presence. Mississippi does not additionally require them to sign in each other’s presence — a lighter rule than West Virginia’s or Kentucky’s, both of which demand mutual presence. But you have to be there when each of them signs.
Handwritten Wills Are Valid in Mississippi — If You Wrote and Signed Every Bit
You will not find a section of the Mississippi Code headed “holographic wills.” The rule lives in the conditional clause of § 91-5-1: the two-witness requirement applies only where the will is not wholly written and subscribed by the testator. A will that is wholly written and subscribed by you escapes it, and needs no witnesses at all.
Mississippi shares that drafting style with Kentucky and West Virginia — states whose holographic rule is invisible to anyone scanning a chapter’s table of contents for the word “holographic.”
“Wholly” is the trap, and it is a hard one. A preprinted will form with the blanks filled in by hand is not wholly written by you — the printed words belong to whoever produced the form. That document then needs two credible witnesses signing in your presence, and a form completed at the kitchen table without them is worth nothing. The same goes for a typed will you sign by hand.
The failure mode is always the same: people who intend a handwritten will produce a hybrid, and a hybrid satisfies neither route. A fully handwritten page is valid. A properly witnessed typed will is valid. The thing in between is not.
Electronic Wills Are Not Valid in Mississippi
Mississippi has not adopted the Uniform Electronic Wills Act. The wills chapter runs from § 91-5-1 to § 91-5-35 and contains no electronic-will provision. Mississippi also has no harmless-error statute of the kind Oregon adopted in 2025, so a defective document cannot be rescued on proof of intent.
An online service can prepare your Mississippi will — that is what these services do. The signing has to happen on paper, in front of two witnesses.
Dying Without a Will in Mississippi: “A Child’s Part”
Section 91-1-7 does not assign the surviving spouse a fraction. It gives them a share equal to each child’s:
“…his widow shall have a child’s part of his estate, in either case in fee simple.” — Miss. Code Ann. § 91-1-7
If there are no children, the surviving spouse takes the entire estate, real and personal, in fee simple, after payment of debts. If there are children, everyone shares equally:
| Your children | What your spouse receives | What each child receives |
|---|---|---|
| None | The entire estate | — |
| One | One-half | One-half |
| Two | One-third | One-third each |
| Three | One-fourth | One-fourth each |
| Four | One-fifth | One-fifth each |
The surviving spouse’s share shrinks as the family grows. Almost no other state works this way — most set a floor, a fraction, or a dollar amount that protects the spouse regardless of how many children there are. Mississippi treats the spouse as one more heir at the same table, so a large family produces the smallest spousal share. A widow with five children takes one-sixth of the estate.
The statute does not distinguish between children of this marriage and children from an earlier one — it counts children. Descendants of a deceased child inherit the share their parent would have taken, as coheirs with the surviving children.
Section 91-1-7 is written in older gendered language, but it operates symmetrically: where a married woman dies intestate her estate descends to her husband and her children in equal parts, and if she has no children her husband inherits all of her property.
Mississippi Has No Death Tax
Mississippi has no estate tax, no inheritance tax and no gift tax. The Mississippi Department of Revenue states that no Mississippi estate tax return is required for decedents dying on or after January 1, 2005. Only the federal estate tax can reach a Mississippi estate, and it applies to very few. Compare the states in our state-by-state comparison.
What a Will Costs in Mississippi
| Route | Typical cost | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Handwritten | $0 | Valid if wholly written and subscribed by you — no witnesses needed, but easily contested |
| Online service | $199 individual / $299 couple | Mississippi-specific will with witness pages, done in about an hour |
| Mississippi attorney | Flat fees vary — Jackson and the Gulf Coast run above rural counties | Custom drafting and counsel, particularly where farm or timber land is involved |
Online pricing verified against Trust & Will’s published rates (August 2026). The Mississippi Bar publishes no fee survey, so we quote no attorney figures we can’t source. See how Mississippi compares with the rest of the country for national cost ranges and a state-by-state table of will requirements.
What a Mississippi Will Does Not Do
1. A will does not avoid probate. Mississippi probate is a chancery court process on the public record. For the comparison, see what a living trust costs in Mississippi and our guide to avoiding probate.
2. A will does not remove a spouse’s right to claim against it. Mississippi allows a surviving spouse to renounce the will and take a statutory share instead. Disinheriting a spouse is not something a will accomplishes on its own.
3. A will does not cover incapacity, and does not override beneficiary designations. Pair it with a durable power of attorney and an advance health-care directive — see the five documents every family needs — and keep your beneficiary forms current.
Will vs. Trust for Mississippi Families
Every Mississippi adult needs a will, and large families need one most. The child’s-part rule means that the more children you have, the smaller the share your surviving spouse receives without one — a result almost nobody intends. No default rule names a guardian for your children either.
There is no state death tax pushing Mississippians toward a trust, so the trust question here is about probate avoidance, privacy, and keeping land intact across generations rather than fractured among a spouse and several children as co-owners. Start with Trust vs. Will: Which Does Your Family Need? and the numbers in our Mississippi living trust cost guide.
If the will is what you need today, Trust & Will’s Mississippi package includes the witness pages, guardianship nominations, and healthcare documents — build your Mississippi will here.
FAQ
Does a will have to be notarized in Mississippi?
No. Validity takes your signature and two or more credible witnesses attesting in your presence (§ 91-5-1) — and no witnesses at all if the will is wholly written and subscribed by you. A notary is not required.
Are handwritten wills legal in Mississippi?
Yes, with no witnesses, but only if the will is wholly written and subscribed by you. Section 91-5-1 imposes the two-witness requirement only where the will is not wholly in your hand. A preprinted form with handwritten blanks does not qualify and still needs two witnesses.
Can I make an electronic will in Mississippi?
No. Mississippi has not adopted the Uniform Electronic Wills Act; the wills chapter (§§ 91-5-1 to 91-5-35) contains no electronic-will provision.
What happens if I die without a will in Mississippi?
If you leave no children, your spouse takes the entire estate in fee simple. If you leave children, your spouse takes “a child’s part” — an equal share alongside each child (§ 91-1-7). With three children that is one-fourth of the estate; with four, one-fifth.
Does Mississippi have an estate or inheritance tax?
No. Mississippi has no estate tax, inheritance tax or gift tax, and no Mississippi estate tax return has been required for decedents dying on or after January 1, 2005.
Does a will avoid probate in Mississippi?
No — a will goes through chancery court probate. Living trusts, joint ownership, and beneficiary designations are the tools that pass property outside the court process.
Mississippi Law Cited on This Page
- Miss. Code Ann. § 91-5-1 — who may execute a will; signature and witness requirements
- Miss. Code Ann. § 91-1-7 — descent of the estate of an intestate; the surviving spouse’s child’s part
- Mississippi Department of Revenue — estate tax
Update log — August 2026: page created. A note on sourcing: Mississippi does not publish its code as plain statutory text on a free state-run site, so the statutory text above was read from a published reproduction of the Mississippi Code and cross-checked across sources; the tax position comes from the Department of Revenue directly. Reviewed when Mississippi law changes.