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Tennessee source record

Every source behind the Tennessee guide

4 primary records, quoted verbatim and checked against 16 named presence or absence conditions that must pass against the live government text. Open the record, read the words the publishing body actually used, and confirm the current rule for yourself.

Last full re-fetch September 15, 2026

What each source establishes

The Tennessee guide rests on the source-backed rules this site can verify for the state: which simplified procedure exists and what it limits, what the court charges, how the person administering the estate may be paid, and the statutory creditor-deadline clocks the official text states.Every published rule below is quoted in the publisher’s own words rather than summarised.

Simplified-procedure rule

Tenn. Pub. Ch. 829 (2014) (amending Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-4-102(4)–(5))

Tennessee Secretary of State · PASSED: April10, 2014 · Verified August 9, 2026

Section 30-4-102(5), is amended by deleting the language "twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000)" and substituting the language "fifty thousand dollars ($50,000)".

What this means: Enacted session law (primary). Historically set the small-estate limit at $50,000 by amending Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-4-102(5). SUPERSEDED IN FORM by 2023 Pub. Ch. 297, which deleted Title 30, Chapter 4 in full and substituted 'The Small Estate Probate Act'; the $50,000 ceiling survives, restated in new § 30-4-102(9) (see source tn-small-estate-2023). Retained here as the enacted origin of the $50,000 figure.

What was published from this source

  • TN Tenn. Pub. Ch. 829 (2014) (amending Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-4-102(4)–(5))

Conditions checked against the live text

Each condition below must be found in the page as the publisher currently serves it. If any one of them stops matching, the build fails and the figure is withheld rather than published from memory.

  • threshold $50,000
  • property means personal property only
  • section identity 30-4-102(5)
  • section identity

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Simplified-procedure rule

Tenn. Pub. Ch. 297 (2023) (HB 337; Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 30, ch. 4)

Tennessee Secretary of State · PUBLIC CHAPTER NO. 297 · Verified August 9, 2026

Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 30, Chapter 4, is amended by deleting the chapter and substituting: 30-4-101. This chapter is known and may be cited as "The Small Estate Probate Act."

What this means: Enacted session law (primary), obtained free from the Tennessee Secretary of State. This 2023 act deleted Title 30, Chapter 4 in full and substituted 'The Small Estate Probate Act,' replacing the former clerk-certified affidavit route (2022 Pub. Ch. 665) with a court-petition/limited-letters procedure. It restates the $50,000 small-estate ceiling (new § 30-4-102(9)) and the 45-day wait (new § 30-4-103), and provides a good-cause waiver of the 45-day wait. The full codified chapter is otherwise behind the LexisNexis-contracted Tennessee Code, but the enacted public chapter is the controlling primary text.

What was published from this source

  • TN Tenn. Pub. Ch. 297 (2023) (HB 337; Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 30, ch. 4)

Conditions checked against the live text

Each condition below must be found in the page as the publisher currently serves it. If any one of them stops matching, the build fails and the figure is withheld rather than published from memory.

  • TN 2023 chapter replaced (delete and substitute)
  • TN small estate $50,000 (restated 2023)
  • TN 45-day petition for limited letters
  • TN good-cause waiver of 45-day wait
  • section identity

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Simplified-procedure rule

Tenn. Pub. Ch. 665 (2022) (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-4-103)

Tennessee Secretary of State · This act takes effect July 1, 2022 · Verified August 9, 2026

After the expiration of forty-five (45) days from the date of the decedent's death, as evidenced by the death certificate, provided no petition for the appointment of a personal representative of the decedent has been filed in that period of time and the decedent's estate, one (1) or more of the decedent's competent adult heirs or next of kin, or any creditor proving that the creditor's debt on oath before the court, shall file with the clerk of the court an affidavit, along with a copy of the death certificate, which shall set forth the following: (i) That the decedent left no will requiring administration by the court having probate jurisdiction in the county where the decedent was domiciled; (ii) That the decedent had no interest in real property; (iii) An itemized description and the value of all the decedent

What this means: Enacted session law rewriting Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-4-103 (the affidavit + limited-letter-of-authority route). SUPERSEDED by 2023 Pub. Ch. 297, which deleted Title 30, Chapter 4 in full and replaced the affidavit mechanism with a court petition for limited letters (see source tn-small-estate-2023). Retained here to document the 45-day wait's origin and the pre-2023 affidavit procedure; it does not describe current law and does not state the dollar threshold.

What was published from this source

  • TN Tenn. Pub. Ch. 665 (2022) (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-4-103)

Conditions checked against the live text

Each condition below must be found in the page as the publisher currently serves it. If any one of them stops matching, the build fails and the figure is withheld rather than published from memory.

  • 45-day wait and no real property
  • fee set by clerk under 8-21-401
  • section identity 30-4-103
  • section identity

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Creditor deadline rule

Tenn. Pub. Ch. 102 (2021) (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-310)

Tennessee Secretary of State · This act shall take effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it. · Verified August 9, 2026

Twelve (12) months from the decedent's date of death; or (B) Four (4) months from the date when the bureau received the notice to creditors

What this means: Enacted session law. Sets only the TennCare-specific outer limit; the general publication/actual-notice bar (§ 30-2-307) is not restated here.

What was published from this source

  • TN Tenn. Pub. Ch. 102 (2021) (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-310)

Conditions checked against the live text

Each condition below must be found in the page as the publisher currently serves it. If any one of them stops matching, the build fails and the figure is withheld rather than published from memory.

  • TennCare outer limit 12mo/4mo
  • section identity 30-2-310
  • section identity

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Tennessee provisions this site could not read

Not every state serves its own code. Where Tennessee did not, the attempt is recorded here instead of being covered over with a figure copied from a secondary summary. Each row names the authority that would settle the question and the page that failed to return it.

Authority soughtWhat is therefore not publishedTried on
Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 30 (compensation of personal representatives)Why no Tennessee compensation figure appears on this page — representative pay2026-09-17
Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 30, ch. 4 (small estates)The Tennessee small-estate ceiling is not quoted here, and this is why — small estate route2026-09-17
Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 8, ch. 21 (fees of clerks)Tennessee court costs: what could not be verified for this page — court and filing cost2026-09-17
Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 30, ch. 2 (notice to creditors; claims)The Tennessee creditor period is not restated here — creditor deadline2026-09-17

Tennessee source decision map

How the Tennessee records fit together

The source record is most useful when each citation has a job. This map links the Tennessee procedure, cost, compensation, and deadline records to the decision each one can and cannot answer.

QuestionRecorded Tennessee answerCarry into the case
What route is being screened?Small estate probate — petition for limited letters of administration/testamentary (Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 30, ch. 4, "The Small Estate Probate Act," enacted by 2023 Pub. Ch. 297)Confirm that the will, prior appointment, family facts, and asset titles fit this route.
What property and basis count?personal probate property only; gross value for this route.Keep real property, liens, beneficiary transfers, and survivorship transfers classified separately.
What is the amount screen?$50,000Use the counted property, not a bank-balance shortcut.
What is the time or deadline record?45 days after death; Tennessee runs multiple separately-triggered claim deadlines that cannot be collapsed: a four-month period from first publication of the notice to creditors and an actual-notice period (Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 30-2-306, 30-2-307), the ultimate bar (§ 30-2-310(a)-(b)), and the TennCare-specific limits (§ 30-2-310(c)). Only the TennCare framework (Pub. Ch. 102 (2021), which merely ADDS § 30-2-310(c)) was machine-harvestable; the general publication/actual-notice bar in §§ 30-2-306/307/310(a)-(b) lives in the Lexis-locked code and no enacted Public Chapter restating it was located across GA 100–114.Keep the event that starts each clock with the date; do not combine separate periods into one number.
What does the cost record establish?No single statewide amount is published here; confirm the receiving court's current schedule.Ask the Chancery Court (Probate Court in Davidson and Shelby Counties) about local surcharges, copies, publication, bond, and later filings.
What does compensation use?No compensation amount is recorded here: Tennessee has no statutory percentage schedule; the personal representative receives reasonable compensation fixed by the court. The section named in the task, Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-323, was verified (Justia discovery) to govern 'advances for property maintenance expenses' (Acts 1997, ch. 426), NOT compensation — so it must not be cited for the compensation standard. No enacted Public Chapter restating a Tennessee PR-compensation standard was located (GA 100–114), and the codified provisions are LexisNexis-only, so the operative standard is not quoted from a verified primary source and is recorded as UNKNOWN.Keep the will, task log, receipts, and accounting base together; extraordinary work is separate.

Decision boundary

What the Tennessee source set does not silently decide

The Tennessee records establish the rules listed above, but they do not turn a source citation into advice about title, family priority, tax filing, contested proceedings, or the exact clerk practice in every county. Those questions stay with the official court or a qualified adviser. The useful next step is to match the question to the citation rather than treating the longest quote as the answer to every estate problem.

Arithmetic illustration

See the Tennessee amount screen without mistaking it for a result

The recorded Tennessee ceiling is $50,000, and it is tested against personal probate property only, on a basis this site records as gross value for this route. Counted that way, $37,500 sits below the Tennessee figure and $62,500 sits above it. Both are comparisons to a published number rather than legal outcomes: two estates holding the same total can land on opposite sides of this line, because what Tennessee counts and how it values it are decided before the comparison is made.

Illustrative counted amountComparison to the Tennessee ceilingWhat it does not decide
$37,500Below $50,000Title, liens, waiting period, appointment, or creditor duties
$62,500Above $50,000Whether another statutory route or court process applies

Next evidence to collect

Open the quoted record for the row you rely on and check the publisher's current text before filing.

  1. Record the date of death, the county, and the exact proceeding or affidavit being considered.
  2. Classify each asset by title, beneficiary, trust, real-property status, and the value basis shown above.
  3. Open the official court material below and keep its form or schedule with the estate record.
  4. Do not distribute property until the route, creditor position, and required approvals are resolved.

Official material

Probate jurisdiction in Tennessee sits in Chancery Court in most counties, but in Davidson and Shelby Counties a dedicated Probate Court exists. There is no statewide small-estate form or statewide filing-fee schedule; under the 2023 Small Estate Probate Act the petition for limited letters is filed with, and the fee set by, the county court clerk (Tenn. Code Ann. § 8-21-401).

Source trail

Records used by this Tennessee map

What Tennessee courts publish

The statutes on this page state the rule. These are the documents the court itself publishes. Every link is probed before release, and any link that stops resolving fails the build rather than staying on the page.

Limits on court material

  • Probate jurisdiction in Tennessee sits in Chancery Court in most counties, but in Davidson and Shelby Counties a dedicated Probate Court exists. There is no statewide small-estate form or statewide filing-fee schedule; under the 2023 Small Estate Probate Act the petition for limited letters is filed with, and the fee set by, the county court clerk (Tenn. Code Ann. § 8-21-401).

Checking these Tennessee records against the publishers

Every citation above links to the body that publishes it, and every quoted sentence is reproduced exactly, so a text search on the publisher’s own page should land on it. Where the publisher’s current wording differs from what is recorded here, the publisher governs and this page is wrong; naming the citation and the language you see maps the difference onto a specific condition rather than a general complaint. The full procedure, including how a source qualifies in the first place and what disqualifies one, is set out once on the methodology page instead of being restated on each of the254 state records.

These records cover the cost and route questions this site answers for Tennessee. They do not cover intestate succession shares, spousal and family allowances, creditor priority, tax filing obligations, real-property transfer mechanics, or contested proceedings. Where an answer would require one of those, the site says so rather than estimating.

Return to the Tennessee estate guide ·All 254 records ·Dataset overview and citation ·How sources are selected