Mississippi: Trustee Notice to Beneficiaries Requirements
The short answer
Mississippi does not use separate acceptance and irrevocability clocks. The trustee of an irrevocable or nongrantor trust must notify current income beneficiaries, vested ultimate remainder beneficiaries, and nonfiduciary power-of-appointment holders within 60 days after acceptance and substantive funding. The trustee chooses a complete establishing document with contact information or a recipient-specific statutory abstract; first-class mail or personal delivery is required. Trust terms have a protected age-25 floor but may use specified settlor-lifetime, alternate-age, or beneficiary-surrogate modifications.
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This is the general rule in Mississippi. Ezel applies current Mississippi law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law and initial-notice duty | Miss. Code Ann. §§ 91-8-105, 91-8-813; combined establishment notice for irrevocable or nongrantor trust, with age-25 mandatory floor and specified modification routes |
|---|---|
| Triggering events and knowledge rule | Acceptance and funding of irrevocable or nongrantor trust; nominal corpus and living-person life-insurance deposits excluded. Later termination of current-income interest triggers notice to takers and specified power holders (§ 91-8-813(b)-(c)) |
| Recipients and beneficiary class | Each current income beneficiary, vested ultimate remainder beneficiary, and nonfiduciary power-of-appointment holder; surrogate may receive under authorized modification. Initial class is not all qualified beneficiaries (§§ 91-8-103, -105(d), -813(b)) |
| Deadline after acceptance | No acceptance-only deadline; within 60 days after both acceptance and nonexcluded funding of an irrevocable or nongrantor trust (§ 91-8-813(b)) |
| Deadline after creation or irrevocability | No separate knowledge-of-irrevocability deadline; the combined acceptance-and-funding rule governs covered trusts (§ 91-8-813(b)) |
| Required notice contents | Trustee chooses complete establishing document plus trustee name/address/phone, or abstract: every trustee's contact information plus income-beneficiary, remainder-beneficiary, or power-holder details specified for that recipient (§ 91-8-813(b)) |
| Delivery, service, and publication | First-class mail or personal delivery only; no initial electronic or publication route stated (§ 91-8-813(b)(1)) |
| Waiver, modification, and confidentiality | Authorized settlor/trust-protector/advisor may waive/modify during settlor/spouse lifetime, set different notice age, or name good-faith surrogate; beneficiary/power holder may waive information and withdraw prospectively; written asset-confidentiality agreement may be required (§§ 91-8-105(d), -813(d), (g)) |
| Legacy exceptions and notice consequences | No § 813(a)(1)/(b) duty for trust agreement irrevocable before July 1, 2014; prior law continues. While revocable, duties run exclusively to settlor. No special initial-notice penalty stated (§§ 91-8-603, -813(f)) |
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Requirements one by one
Mississippi combines acceptance and substantive funding into one trigger
Miss. Code Ann. § 91-8-813(b) covers the trustee of an irrevocable or
nongrantor trust. The notice is due within 60 days after acceptance and funding,
not 60 days after acceptance alone and not after knowledge of irrevocability.
Nominal funding used only to give the trust corpus and a life-insurance policy on
a living person's life do not count as funding for this trigger. The statute's
“or” also means an irrevocable trust is not excluded merely because it remains a
grantor trust for tax purposes.
The initial recipients are three specific groups
The trustee notifies every current income beneficiary, every vested ultimate
beneficiary of a remainder interest, and anyone who holds a power of appointment
in a capacity other than fiduciary. The statute does not direct this initial
notice to every qualified beneficiary.
When a current income interest later ends, subsection (c) requires a similar
notice to the income beneficiaries taking that interest. If the initial period
has elapsed, the trustee also gives the notice to the covered power holder.
The trustee chooses a complete document or a tailored abstract
The first option is a complete copy of the document establishing the trust plus
the trustee's name, address, and telephone number. The second is a statutory
abstract, chosen in the trustee's absolute discretion.
Every abstract gives each trustee's name, address, and telephone number. A current
income beneficiary's abstract adds the number of other current income
beneficiaries, whether income distributions are required or discretionary, and
whether principal distributions are permitted and for what purposes. A remainder
beneficiary's abstract gives the number of other remainder beneficiaries and the
conditions for distribution. A power holder receives the information necessary
or beneficial to decide whether to exercise the power.
Only first-class mail or personal delivery is listed
Section 91-8-813(b)(1)(A) requires first-class mail or personal delivery. It does
not list electronic service, newspaper publication, certified-mail return receipt,
a process server, trustee signature, oath, notarization, or proof of service.
Mississippi protects an age-25 floor but permits structured modification
Section 91-8-105(b)(8) protects the establishment notice for an irrevocable-trust
beneficiary or power holder who has reached 25, subject to subsection (d).
Subsection (d) permits the trust instrument or an authorized settlor, trust
protector, or trust advisor to waive or modify duties for all qualified
beneficiaries during the settlor's or spouse's lifetime, set a different notice
age, or designate a beneficiary surrogate acting in good faith.
A beneficiary or covered power holder may waive reports or other information and
withdraw the waiver prospectively. If the trustee is bound by written
confidentiality restrictions for a trust asset, the trustee may require the
eligible beneficiary to accept the same restrictions in writing before receiving
information about that asset.
What trips people up
- The statute says “irrevocable or nongrantor.” It does not require an
irrevocable trust also to be a nongrantor trust. - Funding is part of the trigger. Acceptance alone does not start the stated
60-day period. - The recipient class is not “all qualified beneficiaries.” Current income,
vested ultimate remainder, and nonfiduciary power-holder categories control. - The abstract changes by recipient. One generic trust summary may omit the
distribution or power information the statute demands. - Older irrevocable trusts use prior law. Section 813(a)(1) and (b) do not
apply when the trust agreement became irrevocable before July 1, 2014.
Common questions
Must the trustee send the full trust document?
No. The trustee has absolute discretion to send either the complete establishing
document with contact information or the statutory recipient-specific abstract.
Does Mississippi require annual reports under this section?
No fixed annual-report schedule appears in § 91-8-813. It instead states ongoing
reasonable-information and request-response duties, subject to the statute's
recipient, expense, modification, waiver, and confidentiality rules.
Who receives duties while the trust is revocable?
Section 91-8-603 makes beneficiary rights subject to the settlor's control and
makes trustee duties exclusive to the settlor while the trust is revocable.
Statutes and sources
- Miss. Code Ann. §§ 91-8-103 and 91-8-105 — qualified beneficiary,
beneficiary surrogate, age-25 mandatory floor, and authorized modifications.
Official Code of Mississippi public-domain
transformation
(accessed 2026-07-31). - Miss. Code Ann. §§ 91-8-603 and 91-8-813 — revocable-settlor rule,
acceptance-and-funding trigger, recipients, full-document and abstract options,
later-interest notice, delivery, waiver, confidentiality, and legacy cutoff.
Official Code of Mississippi public-domain
transformation
(accessed 2026-07-31).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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