Ou pèdi yon moun ki chè — epi yo nonmen ou kòm administratè (Trustee).

First, a word about pace

The first months after a death hold one early statutory clock for the trustee — the initial notice, 60 days after the acceptance and the funding (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-813(b)) — and several that run from the death or from the grant of letters to an estate. Nothing in the code asks a successor to distribute quickly. The trustee distributes within a reasonable time, keeping a reasonable reserve (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-817(a)), and the statute protects a trustee who distributes after the death unless a contest is known to be pending or has been threatened in writing (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-604(b)).

So the order is: find, read, secure, notify, value, and only then pay and distribute. A successor who writes down each step and its date from the first day is building the record that later protects the successor (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-810), and a beneficiary who receives a clear report is less likely to wonder what happened.

The first week: the instrument, the death certificate, the acceptance

A successor named in the instrument takes office by accepting — by the method the terms provide or, where none is exclusive, by accepting delivery of the trust property, exercising powers, performing duties or otherwise indicating acceptance (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-701(a)). A designated trustee may reject the office instead, and one who does not accept within a reasonable time after knowing of the designation and the trust's assets is deemed to have rejected it; without accepting, a designated trustee may act to preserve the property, sending a rejection within a reasonable time if declining, and may inspect it (§ 35-15-701(b), (c)). Record the date and the way you accepted; the initial notice counts from the acceptance and the funding. If you live outside Tennessee, the appointment of the Secretary of State as your agent for service of process comes before any act as trustee (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-50-107(b)(2)).

Gather the trust instrument and every amendment, certified copies of the death certificate, the deeds, the account statements and the beneficiary designations, and any written list of personal items the trust refers to (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-605). Where the settlor left a will, its custodian mails or delivers it to the named personal representative on learning of the death, with a copy to the clerk, or the original to the clerk where no representative is named, known or willing (Tenn. Code Ann. § 32-1-113). No bond is owed unless the court finds one needed or the terms require one and the court has not dispensed with it (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-702(a)).

Titles: what the trust holds, and what it does not

List every asset by how it was titled at the death, because the title decides who deals with it. A lifetime trust holds only what was transferred to it: real estate by a recorded deed, accounts and securities by registration in the trust's or the trustee's name, other property by a recital of assignment, and tangible personal property by a signed assignment naming the trust (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-402(d)).

• Titled to the trust or the trustee: the successor's to administer.
• In the settlor's name alone: it passes by the will — to the trust, where a pour-over will says so — or by intestacy, through the probate court (Tenn. Code Ann. § 16-16-201).
• Held with a right of survivorship: it belongs to the survivor.
• Passing by a beneficiary designation or a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death registration: it goes to whoever is named, the trust included where the trust is named.
• Personal belongings: the trust's assignment, any written list (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-605), and the trustee's presumption that no revocation exists where none reached the trustee within six months (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-402(d)(3)(B)).

Taking control, and the record

A trustee takes reasonable steps to take control of and protect the trust property (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-809), keeps adequate records of the administration, keeps the trust property separate from the trustee's own and has it designated as the trust's in third-party records (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-810), and takes reasonable steps to compel a former trustee or another person to deliver trust property and to redress a known breach (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-812). Within a reasonable time after accepting, the trustee reviews the assets and decides about retaining and disposing of them (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-14-106).

A bank, a brokerage or a title company may be given a certification of trust instead of the instrument — the nine items the statute lists, signed by the trustees with signatory authority and attested by a notary, with the trust's identification number only if essential to the transaction (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-1013). Secure the house, the vehicles and the valuables, keep the insurance in force, and stop or redirect the mail and the automatic payments.

The trust's own number and account

Once the trust is irrevocable it is usually a separate taxpayer: it obtains its own federal employer identification number and files the federal fiduciary income tax return (Form 1041) by tax year. Open an account in the trust's name with that number, and run every receipt and payment through it; trust money in the trustee's own account is the first thing a beneficiary's lawyer looks for (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-810). The settlor's final individual return is a separate filing, for the personal representative or, where no estate is opened, the trustee.

The initial notice: 60 days after the acceptance and the funding

The trustee of an irrevocable or nongrantor trust, within 60 days after the acceptance and the funding of the trust — nominal funding and insurance policies on a living person's life excluded — notifies each current income beneficiary, each vested ultimate beneficiary of a remainder interest and each nonfiduciary holder of a power of appointment that the trust has been established (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-813(b)(1)). A trust funded in the settlor's life makes the acceptance the later fact; a trust funded by a pour-over will or a beneficiary designation after the death counts from the funding.

The notice is sent by first-class mail or personal delivery, and consists of either a complete copy of the instrument with the trustee's name, address and telephone number, or an abstract whose contents the statute prescribes for each class of recipient, in the trustee's absolute discretion (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-813(b)(2), (3)). The duty is a default rule the terms or a written direction of a living settlor, trust advisor or trust protector may change (§ 35-15-813(e)), and it does not reach a trust that became irrevocable before July 1, 2004 (§ 35-15-813(f)). The recipients are the statute's own classes — not the qualified beneficiaries, and never an ultimate beneficiary who takes only if every other beneficiary fails (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-103(25)(D)).

Dat limit administratè Tennessee: sa lwa yo prevwa

Verifye ak Tennessee Statutes yo nan dat 2026-10-28. Enfòmasyon jeneral, pa konsèy legal; tèks ofisyèl la ki kòmande.

The settlor's creditors: the trust answers, and the estate's clocks

After the death, and subject to the settlor's right to direct the source from which liabilities are paid, the property of a trust that was revocable at the death is subject to the claims of the settlor's creditors, the costs of administration of the settlor's estate and the expenses of the funeral and disposal of remains; a claim barred against the estate is barred against the trust, its trustee and its beneficiaries (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-505(a)(6)). Tennessee gives a trustee no publication of its own: the clocks are the estate's.

Where letters issue, the clerk publishes the notice to creditors within 30 days, in the statutory form (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-306(a)), and the personal representative mails it to known creditors (§ 30-2-306(d)); a claim is barred unless filed within four months from the first publication, or within 60 days from the creditor's receipt of actual notice where that came later (Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 30-2-306(b), 30-2-307(a)). Whether or not an estate is opened, a claim is barred twelve months after the death, taxes excepted (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-310(a)); the Bureau of TennCare's claim has its own windows — the later of twelve months from the death or four months from a notice received within twelve months, and otherwise 48 months (§ 30-2-310(c)) — and the personal representative gives the Bureau its notice and obtains its release before the estate closes (Tenn. Code Ann. § 71-5-116). Without an estate and a first publication, no statute sets a date that bars a creditor's claim against the trust.

The contest window, and distributing

A person contests the validity of a trust revocable at the settlor's death within the earlier of two years after the death, or 120 days after the trustee sent the person a copy of the instrument and a notice of the trust's existence, the trustee's name and address and the time allowed (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-604(a)). The trustee may distribute after the death, and is not liable for doing so unless the trustee knows of a pending contest or a potential contestant has given written notice of a possible proceeding and sues within 60 days (§ 35-15-604(b)); a beneficiary who received a distribution returns it or its value where the trust is later held invalid (§ 35-15-604(c)).

On termination the trustee distributes to the persons entitled within a reasonable time, keeping a reasonable reserve for debts, expenses, attorney fees and taxes (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-817(a)); the discharge notice the trustee may then give, with its 45-day objection period, is an attorney's document (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-817(c)–(k)).

A surviving spouse

A surviving spouse may elect an elective-share amount measured by the length of the marriage — 10, 20, 30 or 40 percent of the net estate (Tenn. Code Ann. § 31-4-101(a)) — reduced by the value of everything that passed to or for the spouse from the decedent's gross estate (§ 31-4-101(c)); the petition is filed within nine months after the death (Tenn. Code Ann. § 31-4-102(a)). Beside it stand the exempt property up to $50,000 (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-101), the year's support allowance (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-102) and the homestead (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-201). Whether and how far the share reaches trust property is a question for a licensed Tennessee attorney of your choosing.

Taxes: no Tennessee death tax; the federal returns

Tennessee's inheritance tax does not apply to the estate of a decedent who dies in 2016 or later (Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-8-318), no state estate tax applies beyond it (Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-8-314), and the tax on income from stocks and bonds is eliminated for tax years from 2021 (Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-2-124). The federal estate tax return is due nine months after the death where the gross estate exceeds the basic exclusion amount; the federal fiduciary income tax return is filed by tax year.

The record you keep from day one

A trustee who keeps a dated record from the first day — the acceptance, the date the trust was funded, the date each notice was mailed and to whom, each receipt and payment with its source or payee, each valuation and each decision with its reason — has the answer to every later question already written down (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-810). The same record starts the short limitation period: a beneficiary who was sent information that adequately disclosed the facts of a potential claim has one year to sue, and otherwise the period is three years from events such as the trust's termination (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-1005(a), (c)).

What waits for later

Distributions beyond what the terms make immediate wait for the claims, the taxes and the contest window to settle; the reserve the statute allows is for exactly that (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-817(a)). The investment decisions follow the review of the assets (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-14-106). The final report, the discharge notice and the closing of the accounts come at the end, and a trust that continues for a beneficiary's life is administered under its terms, with the information duty running to its current distributees (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-813(a)).

When a licensed Tennessee attorney is the right next call

An estate that has to be opened, a surviving spouse's election, a threatened contest, a TennCare claim, a creditor's claim the trustee disputes, a sale of real estate, the federal estate tax return, or a beneficiary who will not wait — each turns on the facts as much as on the statute. TrusteeClear organizes the record of what the successor did and when; the legal judgment belongs to a licensed Tennessee attorney of the successor's choosing.