Mississippi Asset Search Services

Chancery Clerks, Circuit Clerks and State Records

1. Chancery clerks, all 82 counties: Land records are filed in chancery court, and a land transfer is complete against buyers when the deed is recorded with the chancery clerk where the land lies (15-3-109). Deeds and deeds of trust are searched under the subject, the spouse, trusts and every known entity.
2. Circuit clerk Judgment Rolls: Final judgments are enrolled by the circuit clerk (11-7-189). Because the lien binds only property in the county of enrollment, and reaches another county only when an abstract is enrolled there (11-7-195), each county’s roll is read separately.
3. Secretary of State: Corporations, LLCs and partnerships with their officers, members, managers and registered agents. The Secretary of State is also the filing officer for UCC financing statements.
4. Department of Revenue vehicle titles: The Department of Revenue issues titles and registrations; records are requested under a DPPA permissible purpose.
5. Federal court: Two federal districts (28 U.S.C. 104): DeSoto County sits in the Northern District, while Hinds, Madison, Rankin, Harrison and Jackson Counties sit in the Southern. PACER is searched in both for suits, bankruptcies and judgments.
6. Coast Guard and FAA registries: Documented vessels and registered aircraft, which no county index shows.
7. Other states: Property, entities and judgments under the same names nationwide.

Equitable Distribution in Chancery Court

Mississippi is not a community property state; it is absent from the nine listed in IRS Publication 555. Divorce is heard in chancery court, where the chancellor first classifies each asset as marital or separate under Hemsley v. Hemsley and then divides the marital estate by weighing the Ferguson v. Ferguson factors. An equal split is not required.

Classification turns on when and how each asset was acquired, so the report gives the recording date and grantor of every deed and the formation history of every entity, under both spouses’ names. Characterizing an asset is for counsel to argue and the chancellor to decide.

Fraudulent Transfers and Qualified Dispositions

The state enacted the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act effective July 1, 2006, codified at Miss. Code 15-3-101 to 15-3-121. It has not adopted the newer Uniform Voidable Transactions Act, and most claims under it must be filed within three years.

• Time limits (15-3-115): An actual-intent claim must be filed within three years after the transfer or, if later, one year after it was or could reasonably have been discovered. A no-value claim under 15-3-107(2)(l) or (m) has three years, and an insider-preference claim one year.
• When the clock starts (15-3-109): A land transfer counts as made when it is perfected against a good-faith purchaser, which means when the deed is recorded with the chancery clerk. Recording dates therefore matter.
• Intent factors (15-3-107(2)): A nonexclusive list that includes a transfer to an insider and the debtor keeping possession or control. Where only the no-value insolvency facts are shown, the act raises a strong presumption of fraud that can be rebutted only by clear and convincing evidence.
• Insiders (15-3-101): For an individual debtor: relatives, a term that includes a spouse, plus partnerships the debtor is a general partner in and corporations the debtor directs or controls.
• Remedies (15-3-111): Avoidance, attachment, an injunction, a receiver and, after judgment, levy on the asset transferred.
• Qualified dispositions in trust (91-9-707): Self-settled trusts under the Qualified Disposition in Trust Act, 91-9-701 to 91-9-723, can be attacked only under the fraudulent transfer act. An existing creditor has the later of 2 years after the transfer or 6 months after discovery, a later creditor 2 years, and either must prove intent to defraud that specific creditor by clear and convincing evidence. A recorded deed or UCC filing counts as discovery.
• Carve-outs (91-9-707(i)): Support, alimony and property-division claims of a spouse, former spouse or children; injury or property-damage claims arising on or before the transfer; claims of the State; and up to $1,500,000 for any creditor if the settlor failed to keep the required $1,000,000 umbrella policy.
• Other self-settled trusts (91-8-504): Outside that act, a settlor’s creditors reach revocable-trust property and the most an irrevocable trust could distribute to the settlor.
• In bankruptcy: A trustee can avoid transfers made within 2 years before the petition under 11 U.S.C. 548, and can use the state act through 11 U.S.C. 544(b).

Search Method

Each chancery clerk’s land index and each circuit clerk’s Judgment Roll is searched under the subject, known aliases, the spouse, trusts and every entity the Secretary of State links to them, followed by vehicle, vessel, aircraft and federal court records in both districts, and then the same names in other states.

An analyst confirms each match and reports it with the reference needed to pull a certified copy: deed book and page, Judgment Roll entry, entity ID, title record or federal case number.