Publication
Newspaper pricing is commercial rather than a statewide fee.
Tennessee court costs
Tennessee probate filing cost: not published
Tennessee probate/small-estate filing fees are county-clerk fees under Tenn. Code Ann. § 8-21-401 and vary by county; the Small Estates Act itself only cross-references that fee authority rather than stating a dollar amount.
not published is not published as a current figure, because the statute states its amounts apply before adjustment by another authority. Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch September 15, 2026.
What the statute charges
Tennessee does not fix this amount in a single statewide schedule, so this site reports it as unknown rather than publishing an estimate that no source supports.
Tennessee publishes no component breakdown for this cost.
The controlling amount is set below the statute, so this site reports it as unknown rather than estimating it. The linked source explains where the figure comes from.
Costs no statute prices
These are the costs executors most often meet after the filing fee. None of them has a statewide statutory amount, so this site does not estimate them.
Bond
Premiums depend on the bond amount, the estate, and the applicant.
Copies and local charges
Certified copies, recording, inventory, accounting, and county surcharges are billed separately.
Professional fees
Attorney, accountant, and appraiser fees are negotiated or court-reviewed.
State-specific limits
- Small-estate procedure CORRECTED: 2023 Pub. Ch. 297 replaced the affidavit route with a court petition for limited letters of administration/testamentary of a small estate. Threshold ($50,000) and 45-day wait are unchanged (with a new good-cause waiver of the wait). The full codified chapter text remains Lexis-locked, but the enacted public chapter is the controlling primary source.
- General creditor-claim bar (§§ 30-2-306/307/310(a)-(b)) is UNKNOWN — Lexis-locked; PC 102/2021 only ADDS the TennCare subsection (c) and does not restate the general (a)/(b) bar.
- Personal-representative compensation is UNKNOWN — Tennessee uses court-set reasonable compensation and § 30-2-323 (the section the task named) is actually property-maintenance advances; no enacted act restates a compensation standard.
Use this as a starting point.
This is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Probate law varies by state and county and changes over time. Verify the current rule with the court or a licensed attorney in the relevant state.
How to verify the amount for this case
Name the proceeding before asking for a total. A small-estate affidavit, an application for letters, formal administration, a later inventory or account, and a certified copy can each carry a different charge. Asking only “what does probate cost?” invites an answer for the wrong filing.
- Identify the county where the proceeding will be filed.
- Identify the exact route or petition you expect to use.
- State the value basis the schedule uses; it is not always the gross estate value.
- Ask the clerk to separate the opening fee, mandatory surcharges, copies, publication, bond, and later filings.
- Record the schedule date or rule cited.
- Record whether payment is due at filing.
Tennessee does not provide one operative statewide total for this page. The exact answer must come from the receiving Chancery Court (Probate Court in Davidson and Shelby Counties) and its current local schedule; this site will not turn a base charge into a made-up statewide estimate.
Keep that clerk quote with the estate record and compare it with the itemised statutory lines above. For the broader budget, use the probate cost-line guide; court filing is only one category.
Tennessee court costs: what could not be verified for this page
Tennessee sets clerk fees by statute in Title 8, Chapter 21, with probate-related charges collected by the clerk of the court exercising probate jurisdiction. That title is on the same LexisNexis-only distribution as the rest of the code, so the fee schedule could not be read from a government host on the date below.
Court costs are also the figure least safe to carry over from a secondary source. They are amended more often than substantive probate rules, they vary with what is actually filed, and several Tennessee counties add locally authorised charges on top of the statutory line.
Rather than reproduce a number of unknown vintage, this page leaves the Tennessee court-cost line unstated and points at the office that collects it.
A county probate clerk will quote the current total for the specific filings an estate needs, which is the number that actually appears on the receipt.
Costs are also the one figure on this site where a neighbouring state is no guide at all. Compensation rules cluster — the uniform-code states share wording almost verbatim — but filing fees are set state by state with no common source, and the states nearest Tennessee demonstrate the spread: Kentucky charges a flat $33.00 county-clerk recording fee for a will of five pages or fewer, North Dakota runs probate filings through a civil schedule whose two candidate lines are $160 and $20, and Massachusetts charges $375 to open an estate and then bills the accounting by size and by year.
Against that spread, an unsourced Tennessee number would carry no useful prior at all. It could plausibly be anywhere from twenty dollars to several hundred, and nothing on this page would tell a reader which.
Authority that would settle this: Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 8, ch. 21 (fees of clerks). The access attempt described above was made on 2026-09-17. Nothing is quoted from it, because nothing could be read from it; a figure restated from a secondary summary would look like a sourced answer without being one.
Tennessee filing-cost map
Separate the Tennessee filing charge from the estate budget
The Tennessee filing record prices a proceeding, not every cost of settling an estate. This map connects the published amount or schedule to its value basis and identifies the local items that still need a clerk or court schedule.
| Question | Recorded Tennessee answer | Carry 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? | $50,000 | Use 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. |
Filing record
What the Tennessee cost record can answer
Tennessee has no single statewide schedule in the accepted record.
Tennessee probate/small-estate filing fees are county-clerk fees under Tenn. Code Ann. § 8-21-401 and vary by county; the Small Estates Act itself only cross-references that fee authority rather than stating a dollar amount. This page therefore names the local confirmation path instead of turning a base charge into a statewide estimate.
Case-file context
Keep the Tennessee answer with its neighboring conditions
A route answer is easier to use when the facts that can change it stay in the same record. These are the reviewed Tennessee descriptions adjacent to this page\'s main question; they are not a substitute for the source quotations or the receiving court\'s instructions.
Route context
Tennessee's small-estate procedure is governed by "The Small Estate Probate Act" (Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 30, ch. 4), which 2023 Pub. Ch. 297 substituted in place of the former affidavit route. For personal-property-only estates of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) or less, a competent adult heir (or named executor) petitions the Chancery/Probate Court 45 days after death for limited letters of administration/testamentary of a small estate. Filing fees are county-clerk fees and vary; executor compensation is reasonable compensation set by the court.
Tennessee's small-estate procedure was REPLACED by 2023 Public Chapter 297, which deleted Title 30, Chapter 4 in full and substituted "The Small Estate Probate Act." The former clerk-certified affidavit route (2022 Pub. Ch. 665) is superseded. Under the current Act a "small estate" is a probate estate in which the value of the probate property (personal property only) does not exceed fifty thousand dollars ($50,000). After the expiration of forty-five (45) days from the decedent's death — provided no petition for appointment of a personal representative has been filed — one or more competent adult heirs (or, if testate, the named executor) file a PETITION with the court for the issuance of "limited letters of administration of a small estate" (or limited letters testamentary). The court, not the clerk by affidavit, issues the limited letters; the recipient is the personal representative, a bond equal to the estate value may be required, and limited letters expire about one year after issuance. Upon good cause shown the court may waive the 45-day wait. If assets discovered during administration exceed $50,000, the matter may be converted to full probate.
Compensation context
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.
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.
Deadline context
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.
- Small-estate procedure CORRECTED: 2023 Pub. Ch. 297 replaced the affidavit route with a court petition for limited letters of administration/testamentary of a small estate. Threshold ($50,000) and 45-day wait are unchanged (with a new good-cause waiver of the wait). The full codified chapter text remains Lexis-locked, but the enacted public chapter is the controlling primary source.
- General creditor-claim bar (§§ 30-2-306/307/310(a)-(b)) is UNKNOWN — Lexis-locked; PC 102/2021 only ADDS the TennCare subsection (c) and does not restate the general (a)/(b) bar.
- Personal-representative compensation is UNKNOWN — Tennessee uses court-set reasonable compensation and § 30-2-323 (the section the task named) is actually property-maintenance advances; no enacted act restates a compensation standard.
Court-material note: 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).
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 amount | Comparison to the Tennessee ceiling | What it does not decide |
|---|---|---|
| $37,500 | Below $50,000 | Title, liens, waiting period, appointment, or creditor duties |
| $62,500 | Above $50,000 | Whether another statutory route or court process applies |
Next evidence to collect
Name the proceeding and ask for mandatory surcharges, copies, publication, and later filings separately.
- Record the date of death, the county, and the exact proceeding or affidavit being considered.
- Classify each asset by title, beneficiary, trust, real-property status, and the value basis shown above.
- Open the official court material below and keep its form or schedule with the estate record.
- Do not distribute property until the route, creditor position, and required approvals are resolved.
Official material
- Tennessee Courts Self-Help CenterTennessee Administrative Office of the Courts
- Tennessee Chancery Courts (probate jurisdiction)Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts
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
- Tenn. Pub. Ch. 829 (2014) (amending Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-4-102(4)–(5))Public Chapter 829 (2014) — amendment of Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-4-102; reviewed August 9, 2026
- Tenn. Pub. Ch. 297 (2023) (HB 337; Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 30, ch. 4)Public Chapter 297 (2023) — The Small Estate Probate Act (deletes and substitutes Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 30, ch. 4); reviewed August 9, 2026
- Tenn. Pub. Ch. 665 (2022) (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-4-103)Public Chapter 665 (2022) — The Small Estate Affidavit Limited Letter of Authority Act (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-4-103); reviewed August 9, 2026
- Tenn. Pub. Ch. 102 (2021) (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-310)Public Chapter 102 (2021) — time limits on Bureau of TennCare claims (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-310); reviewed August 9, 2026