Executors owe a fiduciary duty to the estate they are administering. The Mississippi Supreme Court defines the obligations and duties of an executor to (1) reduce to possession the personal assets of the testator; (2) to pay the testator’s debts; (3) to pay legacies; and (4) to distribute the surplus to the parties entitled thereto. See Yeates v. Box, 198 Miss. 602, 22 So.2d 411 (1945).
Mississippi law clearly provides that when an executor violates his or her fiduciary duty to the estate, that executor should be removed. Likewise, where an executor has a conflict of interest with the estate, that executor should resign be removed.
“An executor may not take inconsistent positions which would be detrimental to the heirs on the one hand and beneficial to himself on the other. When an executor finds his own interest in conflict with those of the estate, the sanctity of the fiduciary relationship is invaded and he should immediately resign as executor.” See In the Matter of Chambers, 458 So.2d 691 (Miss. 1984), citing Ratliff v. Ratliff, 395 So.2d 956 (Miss. 1981).
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