Reviewed against the Tennessee Statutes on 2026-10-28. General information, not legal advice; the official text controls.
- Tennessee Uniform Trust Code
- Title 35, Chapter 15 of the Tennessee Code Annotated (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-101) — Tennessee's trust code, applying to express trusts, charitable or noncharitable, and to trusts created under a statute, judgment or decree that requires administration as an express trust (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-102); the common law of trusts and principles of equity supplement it, with the Restatement provisions the section names excluded (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-106). The chapter is cited by its own name, never as the Uniform Trust Code (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-1101). Guide: Tennessee Successor Trustee Duties After a Death
- Trustee
- The person who holds and administers trust property under the terms of the trust — an original, additional or successor trustee, or a cotrustee (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-103) — who takes office by accepting (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-701) and administers in good faith, in accordance with the terms and purposes, the interests of the beneficiaries and the chapter (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-801). Guide: Tennessee Successor Trustee: Accepting the Role
- Settlor
- A person, including a testator, who creates or contributes property to a trust; where more than one person creates or contributes, each is a settlor of the portion attributable to that person's contribution (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-103). Guide: The Tennessee Revocable Living Trust, Explained
- Qualified beneficiary
- A beneficiary who, on the date of determination, is a distributee or permissible distributee of trust income or principal, would be one if the current distributees' interests ended without ending the trust, or would be one if the trust ended that day — but no ultimate beneficiary or potential ultimate beneficiary is a qualified beneficiary (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-103(25)). A charity expressly designated to receive distributions has a qualified beneficiary's rights where it would qualify as an individual (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-110(a)). Guide: Tennessee Successor Trustee Duties After a Death
- Ultimate beneficiary
- A beneficiary the settlor did not reasonably anticipate would take absent the predecease of every other beneficiary — the taker of last resort — who is not a qualified beneficiary (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-103(25)(D)) and does not receive the initial notice (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-813(b)). Guide: Tennessee Successor Trustee Duties After a Death
- Current income beneficiary
- A beneficiary who currently receives, or may receive, distributions of trust income — a recipient of the initial notice within 60 days after the acceptance and the funding of the trust, with each vested ultimate beneficiary of a remainder interest and each nonfiduciary holder of a power of appointment (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-813(b)(1)); the abstract for an income beneficiary carries the number of other income beneficiaries, whether income distributions are required or discretionary, whether principal may be distributed and the two estimates ((b)(3)(B)). Guide: Successor Trustee After a Death in Tennessee: First Steps
- The initial notice
- The notice the trustee of an irrevocable or nongrantor trust gives within 60 days after the acceptance and the funding of the trust — nominal funding and insurance policies on a living person's life excluded — to each current income beneficiary, each vested ultimate remainder beneficiary and each nonfiduciary power holder, that the trust has been established: by first-class mail or personal delivery, a complete copy of the instrument with the trustee's name, address and telephone number, or an abstract (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-813(b)). A default rule the terms or a written direction may change ((e)); not for a trust irrevocable before July 1, 2004 ((f)). Guide: Successor Trustee After a Death in Tennessee: First Steps
- Abstract of the trust
- The alternative to a complete copy in the initial notice, in the trustee's absolute discretion: each trustee's name, address and telephone number and, for each class of recipient, the items Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-813(b)(3) prescribes — for an income beneficiary the number of other income beneficiaries, whether income is required or discretionary, whether principal may be distributed and two estimates; for a remainder beneficiary the number of other remainder beneficiaries, an estimate of the trust's value and the conditions to distribution; for a power holder what is needed to decide whether to exercise the power. Guide: Successor Trustee After a Death in Tennessee: First Steps
- Duty to inform
- The trustee's duty to keep the current mandatory or permissible distributees of income or principal reasonably informed about the administration and the material facts necessary to protect their interests, and to respond in a reasonable time to a qualified beneficiary's request for information related to the administration (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-813(a)); no periodic report is required by statute, any beneficiary may waive ((d)), and the terms or a written direction may change the duty ((e)). Guide: Tennessee Trust Accounting Requirements
- Written direction (information duties)
- A writing delivered to the trustee by a living settlor, a trust advisor or a trust protector that changes the information duties of Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-813 as the terms of the trust could; a settlor's direction ends at the settlor's death or incapacity, and the settlor may designate a representative to receive the reports and information in a beneficiary's place ((e)). Guide: Tennessee Trust Accounting Requirements
- Mandatory, support and discretionary interests
- Tennessee's three classes of distribution interest, classified by the instrument's words (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-103(11)): a mandatory or support interest is enforceable as the instrument states it, while a discretionary interest is neither a property interest nor an enforceable right but a mere expectancy, reviewed only for dishonesty, improper motive or failure to act when under a duty — never for reasonableness (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-814). Guide: Tennessee Trustee Powers (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-815)
- Nongrantor trust
- A trust whose income is not taxed to the settlor under the federal grantor-trust rules — the initial notice reaches the trustee of an irrevocable or nongrantor trust (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-813(b)(1)); which trusts are nongrantor is a question of the federal rules and the instrument for a licensed Tennessee attorney or a tax adviser. Guide: Successor Trustee After a Death in Tennessee: First Steps
- Funding of a trust
- The transfer of property to the trustee that gives a trust its corpus (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-401) — the second of the two facts the initial notice counts from; nominal funding for the trust to have corpus, and the depositing of insurance policies on the life of a living person, are not the funding the notice counts from (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-813(b)(1)). A written assignment of tangible personal property to the trust is presumed delivered where no revocation or amendment was delivered within six months after the death (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-402(d)). Guide: After You Sign Your Tennessee Trust: What Happens Next
- Revocable trust
- A trust the settlor may revoke or amend: for a trust created on or after July 1, 2004, every trust unless its terms expressly provide that it is irrevocable (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-602(a)). While it is revocable and the settlor has capacity, the beneficiaries' rights are subject to the settlor's control and the trustee's duties are owed exclusively to the settlor (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-603(a)); the settlor may remove and appoint trustees by written notice (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-606). Guide: The Tennessee Revocable Living Trust, Explained
- Contest window
- The time to contest the validity of a trust that was revocable at the settlor's death: 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 unless a contest is pending or a potential contestant's notice is followed by a proceeding within 60 days ((b)). Guide: Successor Trustee After a Death in Tennessee: First Steps
- Claims against the settlor
- During the settlor's life, the property of a revocable trust is subject to the settlor's creditors' claims; after the death, the property of a trust revocable at the death is subject to the settlor's creditors' claims, the costs of administration of the estate and the funeral expenses, and a claim barred against the estate is barred against the trust (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-505(a)(1), (6)). The estate's bars are four months from the first publication or 60 days from receipt (Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 30-2-306, 30-2-307) and twelve months from the death regardless (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-310). Guide: Successor Trustee After a Death in Tennessee: First Steps
- Spendthrift provision
- A term of a trust that restrains both the voluntary and the involuntary transfer of a beneficiary's interest — the words “spendthrift trust” suffice — under which no creditor or assignee may reach the interest or a present, future or prospective distribution at the trust level or force a distribution (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-502); the one statutory exception is a claim of the State to the extent a Tennessee statute so provides (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-503). Guide: Tennessee Asset Protection: The Basics
- Excluded fiduciary
- A trustee, cotrustee or other fiduciary required by the terms of the trust, a nonjudicial settlement agreement or a court order to follow the direction of a trust advisor or trust protector (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-710) — who acts in accordance with the direction (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-808(b)), has no duty to review, monitor, advise or warn (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-1204) and is not liable for a loss from compliance (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-1205). Guide: Tennessee Trustee Powers (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-815)
- Trust advisor; trust protector
- A person the terms of the trust, a nonjudicial settlement agreement or a court order give one or more of the powers Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-1201 lists, exercised in sole and absolute discretion and binding on all persons; a nonbeneficiary advisor or protector is a fiduciary as to each power unless the instrument makes the appointment a nonfiduciary one (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-1202); on a vacancy the power vests in the trustee, with no liability for 60 days (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-713). Guide: Tennessee Trustee Powers (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-815)
- Directed trust
- A trust under Tennessee's own directed-trust provisions (Tenn. Code Ann. Title 35, Chapter 15, Part 12) in which a trust advisor or trust protector holds a power to direct and the trustee required to follow it is an excluded fiduciary (Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 35-15-710, 35-15-1201); a directed trust may be created by the terms, a nonjudicial settlement agreement or a court order. Guide: Tennessee Trustee Powers (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-815)
- Certification of trust
- The document a trustee may furnish instead of the trust instrument, signed by the trustees with signatory authority and attested by a notary public: the trust's existence and the date of the instrument, the settlors, the acting trustees and the named successors, the trustee's powers, revocability and who may revoke, the signature authority among multiple trustees, the conditions of succession, the trust's identification number only if essential to the transaction, how assets should be titled, and the statement that the trust has not been revoked, modified or amended in a manner that would make the representations incorrect (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-1013(a)). Guide: Tennessee Successor Trustee: Accepting the Role
- Discharge notice
- The notice a trustee may give on a termination, partial termination, resignation or removal — to the living grantor, each qualified beneficiary or conflict-free representative, every other serving trustee, trust advisor and trust protector — with a statement of the trust's assets and liabilities at fair market value dated within 30 days, the receipts and disbursements for a period of at most three years, the remaining fees and the statutory warning; a recipient who does not deliver a specific written objection within 45 days after receipt, presumed five business days after mailing, is barred from the claims the section names (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-817(c)–(k)). Guide: Tennessee Trust Termination: The Trustee's Closing Steps
- Limitation of action against a trustee
- One year after the earlier of the date a beneficiary, or a representative, was sent information that adequately disclosed facts indicating a potential claim for breach of trust, or the date of actual knowledge of those facts (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-1005(a), (b)); otherwise three years after the earliest of the trustee's removal, resignation or death, the end of the beneficiary's interest or the trust's termination ((c)); electronic access with consent in a record is actual knowledge as the section states ((f)). Guide: Tennessee Trust Accounting Requirements
- Final accounting (court)
- On petition after a trustee's resignation or removal, or the termination of the trust, the court may order the trustee to file a final accounting (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-205); a trust is otherwise not subject to continuing judicial supervision (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-201(b)). Guide: Tennessee Trust Accounting Requirements
- Nonjudicial settlement agreement
- A binding agreement of the trustee and the qualified beneficiaries on any matter involving the trust, valid to the extent it does not violate a material purpose and includes terms a court could properly approve (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-111(a), (b)); the matters it may resolve include the interpretation of the terms, the approval of a report, a trustee's resignation, appointment and compensation, the transfer of the principal place of administration and a trustee's liability ((c)); the court may approve it on request ((d)). Guide: Tennessee Trust Termination: The Trustee's Closing Steps
- State jurisdiction provision
- A term of a trust designating the jurisdiction whose law governs its validity, construction or administration (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-107); a Tennessee designation for administration is valid and controlling where a trustee's principal place of business or residence is in Tennessee, part of the administration occurs here, or assets are deposited here with such a trustee (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-108(a)). Guide: Tennessee's Trust Code, Section by Section
- Principal place of administration
- The place the trust is administered from, which fixes the venue of a judicial proceeding (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-204); the trustee has a continuing duty to administer at a place appropriate to the trust's purposes, its administration and the beneficiaries' interests, and may transfer it on not less than 60 days' notice to the qualified beneficiaries, an objection by a majority of them ending the authority (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-108(c)–(f)). Guide: Tennessee's Trust Code, Section by Section
- Chancery court
- The county's court of equity, which with the other courts of record having probate jurisdiction has concurrent jurisdiction over a trustee's or beneficiary's proceeding concerning the administration of a trust (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-203), and which has exclusive jurisdiction to probate wills and administer estates unless a private act provides otherwise (Tenn. Code Ann. § 16-16-201). Guide: Tennessee Probate, Explained
- Clerk and master
- The clerk of the chancery court, who exercises probate jurisdiction in the counties where the chancery court holds it (Tenn. Code Ann. § 16-16-201) and keeps the estate's filings — the inventory (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-301), the claims (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-307) and the accounts (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-601). Guide: Tennessee Probate, Explained
- Register of deeds
- The county officer with whom deeds, trust agreements or their abstracts, powers of attorney and the other writings Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-24-101 names are recorded — and with whom a court's order, or a departing trustee's instrument, of a trustee's resignation, removal or appointment is recorded where real estate is trust property (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-1-101). Guide: Tennessee Successor Trustee: Accepting the Role
- Secretary of State as agent for service
- The appointment a nonresident fiduciary files with the Secretary of State before acting — a writing appointing the Secretary of State as the fiduciary's agent for service of process, identifying the trust and stating the fiduciary's street address, with the $10 filing fee (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-50-107(b)(2)); a nonresident individual may serve as trustee (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-50-107(a)(2)(D)). Guide: Tennessee Successor Trustee: Accepting the Role
- Registration of a trust (optional)
- A confidential registration a trustee whose principal place of administration is in Tennessee may file with the Secretary of State, with the seven items the statute lists and the $250 fee (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-113) — optional, and never a condition of the trust's validity. Guide: After You Sign Your Tennessee Trust: What Happens Next
- Cotrustees (majority rule)
- Cotrustees who are unable to reach a unanimous decision may act by majority decision; each participates unless unavailable or the function was properly delegated; a cotrustee who did not join an action is not liable for it but exercises reasonable care to prevent and redress a serious breach; a dissenting trustee who notified a cotrustee of the dissent is not liable except for a serious breach (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-703). Guide: Tennessee Successor Trustee: Accepting the Role
- Uneconomic trust
- A trust whose property is less than $250,000, or whose scheduled fee reaches the statute's percentage, that a trustee may terminate after notice to the qualified beneficiaries where the value is insufficient to justify the cost of administration (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-414(a)); the court may modify or terminate it on the same ground ((b)). Guide: Tennessee Trust Termination: The Trustee's Closing Steps
- Decanting
- A trustee's power, where the trustee may invade principal, to appoint the principal in further trust for the beneficiaries, within the limits Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-818 states — and, from July 1, 2026, to modify or restate the instrument without retitling the property ((12), (13)). Guide: The Tennessee Irrevocable Trust, Explained
- Per stirpes
- Division by representation at the children's generation: equal shares for the children living or deceased with issue surviving, a deceased child's share passing to that child's own descendants — the method Tennessee's intestacy title uses where representation is called for (Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 31-2-104(b)(1), 31-2-106). A trust's own words decide which rule it uses. Guide: Per Stirpes Calculator for Tennessee Trustees
- Exempt property; year's support
- The surviving spouse's, or the minor children's, exempt property up to $50,000 in value (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-101) and the reasonable allowance in money for a year's support (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-102), set apart from the estate ahead of the creditors. Guide: Dying Without a Will in Tennessee (Intestacy)
- Homestead (after a death)
- The decedent's homestead, which inures to the surviving spouse, a minor child or an adult child with a developmental or intellectual disability and is set apart by the court's procedure (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-201); where it cannot be set apart, the realty is sold and $35,000 is invested or paid outright (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-209). Guide: The Home After a Death in Tennessee
- Small estate
- An estate of $50,000 or less in personal property, with no real property to administer, that may be handled on an affidavit filed 45 days after the death with the court of the county of the decedent's residence, with limited letters and no notice to creditors (Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 30-4-102, 30-4-103). Guide: Tennessee Probate, Explained
- Notice to creditors (estate)
- The notice the clerk publishes within 30 days after letters issue, in the statutory form, once a week for two consecutive weeks, which the personal representative mails to known creditors (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-306); a claim is barred unless filed within four months from the first publication or 60 days from a creditor's later receipt (Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 30-2-306(b), 30-2-307(a)), and every claim is barred twelve months after the death (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-310(a)). Guide: Tennessee Probate, Explained
- TennCare notice and release
- The personal representative's notice to the Bureau of TennCare within 60 days of letters and the Bureau's release before the estate closes (Tenn. Code Ann. § 71-5-116); the Bureau's claim is barred the later of twelve months from the death or four months from a notice received within twelve months, and otherwise 48 months from the death (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-310(c)). Guide: Tennessee Probate, Explained
- Personal representative
- The executor or administrator of a decedent's estate, who petitions for letters (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-1-117), files the inventory and sends the beneficiaries their copies within 60 days (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-301), and accounts within fifteen months and annually (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-601) — duties that never attach to a trustee by the acceptance of a trust. Guide: Tennessee Probate, Explained
- Self-proved will
- A will whose attesting witnesses signed an affidavit before an officer authorized to administer oaths, on or attached to the will, which the probate court accepts without the witnesses' testimony where the will is not contested (Tenn. Code Ann. § 32-2-110); a will is executed by the testator's signature and two or more attesting witnesses who sign in the testator's presence and each other's (Tenn. Code Ann. § 32-1-104). Guide: After You Sign Your Tennessee Will: What Happens Next
- Advance directive for health care
- A written instruction about health care, signed by the declarant and either notarized or witnessed by two qualifying witnesses with an attestation clause, naming an agent and stating treatment preferences, effective on a determination of incapacity unless it provides otherwise (Tenn. Code Ann. § 68-11-1803); the living will's statutory declaration remains (Tenn. Code Ann. § 32-11-105), and an attorney in fact under a durable power of attorney for health care has priority (Tenn. Code Ann. § 34-6-204). Guide: Tennessee Powers of Attorney & Advance Directives
- Fraudulent transfer
- Under the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act, a transfer made with actual intent to hinder, delay or defraud a creditor, with the badges of fraud the section lists, or without reasonably equivalent value by a debtor with unreasonably small remaining assets or debts beyond its ability to pay (Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-3-305(a)); a transfer to a spendthrift trust is set aside only on clear and convincing proof of intent to defraud the specific creditor, within two years (Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-505(g)). Guide: Tennessee Asset Protection: The Basics
- The practice of law; law business
- Law business includes the advising of any person as to secular law for valuable consideration, the drawing or the procuring of or assisting in the drawing for valuable consideration of any paper, document or instrument affecting or relating to secular rights, and the doing of any act for valuable consideration in a representative capacity (Tenn. Code Ann. § 23-3-101); no person, association or corporation engages in the practice of law or does law business unless duly licensed, a violation being a Class A misdemeanor with the Attorney General's civil penalty (Tenn. Code Ann. § 23-3-103).
- Tennessee's data-breach law
- An information holder that owns or licenses computerized personal information of Tennessee residents discloses a breach of system security to each affected resident no later than 45 days from the discovery or notification of the breach, law-enforcement delay excepted, and notifies the nationwide consumer reporting agencies where more than 1,000 persons are notified at once (Tenn. Code Ann. § 47-18-2107).
- No Tennessee inheritance or estate tax
- 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 and fiduciary returns remain. Guide: Successor Trustee After a Death in Tennessee: First Steps
General information about Tennessee law, not legal advice.