Tennessee timeline
Tennessee probate timeline: the 45-day wait and creditor deadlines
The simplified route starts 45 days after death, or sooner if the court waives the wait for good cause. Source: Tenn. Pub. Ch. 297 (2023) (HB 337; Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 30, ch. 4).
Tennessee creditor deadlines are set out below against the event each one runs from.
Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Sources rechecked October 3, 2026. This page last revised .
The one date this page can source
The 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) route requires 45 days to elapse from the date of death. The petition waits for them unless the court waives the wait for good cause (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-4-103(8)); without that order it cannot be filed early, however simple the estate is.
Source: 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)(Tennessee Secretary of State; PUBLIC CHAPTER NO. 297).
The section’s own words
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."
Creditor deadlines
- From publication of notice to creditors
- A period running from the first publication of the notice to creditors (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-307). Its length is not given here: the general text is published only by LexisNexis, and the enacted act cited adds only the TennCare limits.
- From actual notice to a known creditor
- A separate period for a creditor who receives actual notice (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-307); its length is not given here for the same reason.
- Outer limit, running from death
- For the Bureau of TennCare: the earlier of twelve (12) months from the decedent’s date of death or four (4) months from the date the bureau received the notice to creditors (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-310 as amended by Pub. Ch. 102 (2021)).
How these combine. Tennessee runs multiple separately-triggered claim deadlines that cannot be collapsed: a period running 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 available as official text; the general publication/actual-notice bar in §§ 30-2-306/307/310(a)-(b) lives in the code published only by LexisNexis and no enacted Public Chapter restating it was located across GA 100–114.
Source: 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)(Tennessee Secretary of State; This act shall take effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.).
The section’s own words
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
The Tennessee creditor period is not restated here
Tennessee’s notice-to-creditors and claim-limitation provisions are in Title 30, Chapter 2. As with the rest of the Tennessee Code Annotated, the text is published through LexisNexis rather than on a state government website, and this site had not confirmed the current sections as of the date below.
Creditor deadlines are the highest-consequence figures on this site. Getting one wrong by a month can expose the person administering the estate personally, so a period this site has not confirmed from the code is not published here in any form.
The structure of the question is still worth knowing even without the Tennessee numbers: a claim period usually runs from a published notice, a separately served notice can create its own later window, and an outer limit measured from the date of death sits behind both. Which of those controls is the thing the statute decides.
For a live estate, the clerk of the probate court in the county of venue and the notice actually published in that county are the authoritative record of the dates that apply.
Authority that would settle this: Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 30, ch. 2 (notice to creditors; claims). 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.
General sequence: first week, how long probate takes.
Sources rechecked October 3, 2026: Tennessee source list · how sources are checked · report a correction