Do I have to go through probate in Tennessee?

In Tennessee, estates worth $50,000 or less may qualify for a simplified small-estate procedure (personal property only). Estates above that generally require probate through the Probate Court (or Circuit/Chancery Court).

How long do creditors have to make a claim in Tennessee?

The creditor claim period in Tennessee is generally 4 months. What starts that clock varies, so confirm which date applies before relying on it.

How long does probate take in Tennessee?

A typical Tennessee estate takes 6–12 months. Complications — a contested will, an unsold house, a late-surfacing creditor — extend it.

Does Tennessee have an estate or inheritance tax?

Tennessee has no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax. That is not the same as nothing to file: if the estate earns income and you file a federal Form 1041, many states want their own fiduciary return alongside it.

EstateMate › Probate by state › Tennessee

Settling an estate in Tennessee

An executor in Tennessee has to work through the Probate Court (or Circuit/Chancery Court) and a long list of tasks that have nothing to do with the court. This page sets out what Tennessee law actually requires at each step, with the section it comes from and the date we last read it.

Probate court: Probate Court (or Circuit/Chancery Court)
Small-estate shortcut: Estates of $50,000 or less may qualify for a simplified small-estate procedure (personal property only — real estate is not counted toward the limit).
Creditor claim period: 4 months
Typical timeline: 6–12 months
State death tax: None — no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax

Immediate

Obtain certified death certificates

Tennessee certified copies come from the Department of Health’s Office of Vital Records in Nashville. Some local health departments can help as well, but confirm before travelling rather than assuming. Order several before you start — the clerk will want one to open the estate, and the TennCare release process needs proof of death too, so Tennessee tends to consume more copies than you would expect.

Tenn. Dept. of Health — Office of Vital Records·last read 2026-08-19

Locate the will (or confirm there is none)

The will is offered to the clerk of the court exercising probate jurisdiction in the county where the person lived — the Clerk & Master where chancery holds probate, which is most counties, and the probate court clerk in the larger counties that have one. Tennessee does offer deposit for safekeeping, and it is worth asking about. Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 32-1-112 a will may be deposited during the testator’s lifetime with the probate court of the county where they live, sealed and endorsed with their name, residence and the date, for a fee of $5. But only where that clerk has a secure vault or safe — which is exactly why the answer varies from county to county. So asking is worth doing rather than a long shot. Three things follow if a will is on deposit. After the death, on a death certificate or other satisfactory evidence, the court opens it in open session and it becomes public. It is released only to a person named in it as executor, to a next of kin, or to someone else authorised by law or court order — so as close family you are entitled to ask. And if probate actually belongs in another court, the will is forwarded there by certified or registered mail, or handed to the executor, on request. Note too that any person may deposit the will of someone who has already died with the court of the county where they lived.

Tenn. Code Ann. § 32-1-112 (2023 ed., read via archived copy)·last read 2026-08-19

Short-term

Claim the family allowances you are entitled to

Tennessee gives two things and the first is large. Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-101 the surviving spouse takes exempt property up to $50,000 in fair market value: tangible personal property normally located in or used about the principal residence and not used for business or investment, together with motor vehicles not primarily used in business. Where there is no surviving spouse the unmarried minor children take the same property as tenants in common. The spouse may also take possession of growing crops and the household provisions needed to support the family before letters of administration have even been issued. Section 30-2-102 adds a year’s support: a reasonable allowance in money out of the estate for the surviving spouse’s maintenance for one year after the death, according to their previous standard of living. It is available to the spouse of an intestate, or to a spouse electing against the will, and to unmarried minor children where there is no spouse. Note how the court measures it: the statute directs it to weigh the totality of the circumstances, including assets that passed to the spouse outside probate.

Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 30-2-101, 30-2-102·last read 2026-08-21

Notify beneficiaries and keep them informed

Tennessee’s beneficiary-notice duty is not a standalone provision — it sits inside the inventory section, which is why it is easy to miss. A survey of Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 30, ch. 2, pt. 3 (2023 edition, read via an archived copy) shows § 30-2-301 titled Making inventory — Return — notice to beneficiaries, and it is the only beneficiary-notice provision in that part; § 30-2-306 is the separate notice to creditors. So there is a beneficiary-notice rule in Tennessee, and it travels with the inventory rather than standing on its own. What we still cannot tell you is what it requires, because the text of § 30-2-301 is not served by any free source we have found. That gap matters more here than it usually would, because Tennessee lets the will and all the beneficiaries waive the inventory — and if the notice duty lives inside the inventory section, a waiver may carry the notice away with it. So ask the Clerk & Master two specific questions: what notice § 30-2-301 requires, and whether waiving the inventory also waives that notice. In the meantime keep the beneficiaries informed and keep a written record of what you told whom and when. Where a waiver depends on the beneficiaries agreeing, cooperation asked for early is a great deal cheaper than cooperation asked for late.

Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-301 (2023 ed.; title confirmed by chapter survey, section text unavailable)·last read 2026-08-19

Determine if probate is required

Tennessee’s small estate affidavit covers estates up to $50,000, and you must wait 45 days from the death before filing — longer than most states. The affidavit goes to the clerk of the probate court in the county where the deceased lived. Note the definition and the procedure sit in different sections (T.C.A. § 30-4-102 defines a small estate, § 30-4-103 sets out how to use it), so a form referring to one is not the whole rule.

Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 30-4-102, 30-4-103·last read 2026-08-17

Legal Process

File a petition with the probate court

Probate runs through the Chancery Court in most Tennessee counties, and the office you deal with is the Clerk & Master; several of the larger counties have a separate probate court instead. What we can point to in the Code is that filings go to “the clerk of the court exercising probate jurisdiction in the county of the estate” (§ 30-2-601), which is the phrase the statute uses precisely because the court differs by county. You may see it said that chancery has had exclusive jurisdiction since 1982. We have not verified that: Tennessee’s code is commercially published and we could not reach the jurisdiction title. Call the Clerk & Master in the county where the person lived and ask which court handles probate there and what to bring. In Tennessee that call is not optional politeness, it is how you find out which of the two structures you are in.

Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-601 (clerk of the probate court); jurisdiction UNVERIFIED·last read 2026-08-19

Inventory all assets and debts

Tennessee requires an inventory and appraisal of estate assets within 60 days of appointment — unless the will and all beneficiaries waive it, which is common enough that people assume it never applies. Check whether a waiver is actually in place before relying on one.

Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-301·last read 2026-08-17

Publish notice to creditors

In Tennessee the Clerk’s Office mails the notice to creditors, typically within four weeks of your appointment, and creditors then have four months from first publication to file. There is a step here that exists in few other states and stops estates cold if missed: you must request a release of claim from TennCare, Tennessee’s Medicaid programme, and file TennCare’s notice of release with the clerk. Start that early — it is a separate agency on its own timetable.

Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 30-2-306, 71-5-116·last read 2026-08-17

Administration

Identify and close digital accounts

Tennessee adopted the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act at tenn. Code Ann. Title 35, chapter 8, §§ 35-8-101 to 35-8-118 — the chapter carries that name on its face. The pattern matches other adopting states: access to the content of emails and messages depends on the person having consented in a will, trust or power of attorney, and the Act does not override a platform’s terms-of-service agreement, which § 35-8-102 defines as the arrangement the account is held under. Without that consent you may be entitled only to a catalogue of who was contacted and when. Files, domains and virtual currency are treated more openly than communications. One more point, and in your actual order of work it belongs first: check for an online tool before you check the will. Under the Revised act Tennessee adopted (we have read the chapter name but not this section) the opening question is not what the will says. Some providers offer a tool that lets the user name who may receive their account — Google’s Inactive Account Manager, Facebook’s Legacy Contact and the like. If the user actually used it, that direction overrides a contrary direction in a will, trust or power of attorney. That holds so long as the tool let them change or delete it at any time. Only where there is no online-tool direction does the will, trust or power of attorney govern, and only where there is neither does the provider’s terms-of-service agreement decide. So look at the accounts before you look at the paperwork — it is quick, it is free, and it can settle the question outright.

Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 35-8-101 to 35-8-118 (2024 ed.)·last read 2026-08-19

Financial Settlement

Pay valid debts and expenses

Tennessee uses only four classes (§ 30-2-317) and no class may be paid until every earlier one is satisfied or provided for. First: costs of administration, expressly including fiduciary bond premiums and reasonable compensation for you and your counsel. Second: reasonable funeral expenses — note no dollar cap, unlike Virginia or North Carolina; the test is only reasonableness. Third: taxes and assessments imposed by federal, state, city or county government, and the statute names tenncare claims under § 71-5-116 in this class — so TennCare is not a stray administrative hurdle, it ranks with taxes and ahead of ordinary creditors. Fourth: all other demands filed within four months of the notice to creditors. Where the assets will not cover a whole class, subsection (b) pays that class pro rata. And the holdback is not advice but a duty: under subsection (d) the personal representative shall hold aside sufficient funds or other assets to pay each contested or unmatured claim, with interest where the claim bears it, until it is determined whether the claim is to be paid or until an unmatured one comes due.

Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-317·last read 2026-08-27

File required tax returns

Tennessee has no estate tax, no inheritance tax, and no state income tax, so there is generally no Tennessee return of any kind for the estate. The inheritance tax is genuinely gone rather than dormant: § 67-8-318 says the part “does not apply in the case of any decedent who died in 2016 or in any subsequent year.” The Hall income tax was fully repealed for tax years beginning in 2021. The federal Form 1041 still applies if the estate earns income, and property in another state may carry that state’s filing obligations.

Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-8-318; Tenn. Dept. of Revenue (Hall income tax repealed)·last read 2026-09-09

Distribution

Distribute assets to heirs

Tennessee does not use a fixed fraction: under § 31-2-104 a surviving spouse takes one third or a child’s share, whichever is greater, so the answer depends on how many children there are. With one child the spouse takes half; with two, a third each; with three or more the spouse still takes a third, because a third beats a quarter. Count the children before you calculate anything. If there is no surviving issue the spouse takes the entire estate. Where everything goes when there is no spouse, or the part that does not pass to one: first to the issue (equally if they are all the same degree of kinship, otherwise the more remote take by representation). If none, to the parent or parents equally. If none, to brothers and sisters and the issue of any who died, by representation. And if none of those, the estate splits in half between the paternal and maternal grandparents or their issue — with the whole estate going to one side only if there is nobody at all on the other. Two things can stop a person taking, and the second is unlike anything in any other state. Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 31-1-106 a felonious and intentional killing of the deceased bars the killer. Then there is § 31-2-105(b), easy to miss because the section is headed establishment of the parent-child relationship. In no event may a PARENT inherit by intestate succession, under a will or trust, or by contract, UNTIL all child support arrearages have been paid in full, with interest at the legal rate from the date each payment fell due, to the parent who was ordered to receive support or to that parent’s estate. It is not a permanent disqualification but a condition — the arrears can be cleared. Subsection (a)(2)(B) adds a deadline of its own where paternity is in question. An assertion seeking adjudication must be made within the earlier of the period in the § 30-2-306 notice, or one year after the father’s death. And paternity established that way does not let the father or his kindred inherit from the child unless he openly treated the child as his and did not refuse support. The first subdivision of the same section is the adoption rule, in its narrow form: an adopted person is the child of the adopting parent and not of the natural parents, except that adoption by the spouse of a natural parent has no effect on the relationship with that natural parent. That parent only — Tennessee says nothing about preserving anything with the other. And subsection (c) settles the direction of the arrears bar: nothing in the section prevents a CHILD from inheriting from a parent, so what (b) blocks is the parent’s claim, never the child’s.

Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 31-2-104, 31-1-106, 31-2-105 (2025 ed.)·last read 2026-09-09

Close Estate

File a final accounting and close the estate

The accounting goes to the Clerk of the Court Exercising Probate Jurisdiction in the county of the estate — the Clerk & Master where that is the chancery court. § 30-2-601 sets the deadlines. The first accounting is due within fifteen months of your qualification, and after that further accountings annually from the date of the first, until the estate is fully administered. Each must state all receipts, disbursements and distributions of principal and income and the assets still held, and must be verified on your oath before the clerk. The final accounting must also state that you mailed or delivered the § 30-2-306(d) notice of the requirement to file claims to every creditor you knew of or could reasonably ascertain. Waiver is real but narrower than people think. Detailed accountings may be waived for a solvent estate if the will waived them, or if all the residue distributees file sworn waivers or statements under penalty of perjury. Here is the trap: even when accountings are waived you must still file a Status Report setting out the remaining estate issues, within the same fifteen months and each year the estate stays open. Waiver reduces the paperwork; it does not make the deadline go away. Any residue distributee can also apply to the court to require a detailed accounting anyway, and the court can extend the time for good cause. On TennCare: its claim ranks with taxes ahead of ordinary creditors (§ 30-2-317), and in practice clerks expect the TennCare release before closing — treat that as local practice rather than something we have verified in the Code.

Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-601 (2023 ed.)·last read 2026-08-18

Work through this as a checklist

The free Tennessee checklist tracks where you are across every step, keeps your documents in one place, and tells you what is due next. No payment, no card.

Open the free Tennessee checklist

EstateMate is not a law firm and this is not legal advice. Every note above cites the section it came from and the date it was last read, so you can check it yourself. Statutes change, and the right answer can turn on facts specific to your family — when something looks close to the line, talk to a Tennessee probate attorney.