Tennessee Revocable Living Trust

A revocable living trust is one of the most flexible estate planning tools available in Tennessee. It lets you keep full control of your property during life while arranging for it to pass to your beneficiaries at death without probate. In Tennessee, where real estate is the asset families most often want to keep out of court, a living trust can be especially useful. Tennessee trusts are governed by the Tennessee Uniform Trust Code, Tenn. Code Ann. Title 35, Chapter 15.

This guide explains how a Tennessee revocable living trust works, how to create and fund one, and how it compares to other ways to avoid probate. Use it as a planning map, not legal advice.

What a Revocable Living Trust Is

A revocable living trust is a legal arrangement you create during your lifetime to hold your assets. You usually serve as your own trustee while you are alive and have capacity, keeping complete control. You name a successor trustee to take over when you die or become incapacitated.

Key features:

Revocable. You can amend or revoke it at any time while you have capacity.
Living. It is created during your life, not at death.
Controlled by you. You manage it as trustee and move assets in and out freely.
Private. A trust does not become a public court record the way a probated will does.
Probate-avoiding. Property properly held in the trust passes to your beneficiaries without a court proceeding.

When you die, the trust becomes irrevocable and your successor trustee distributes the assets according to your written instructions.

How a Trust Avoids Probate

Probate is the court process for transferring property that you owned individually at death. Assets held in a trust are owned by the trust, not by you personally, so there is nothing for the probate court to transfer. The successor trustee handles the transfer privately. That is the central advantage of a living trust, and it matters in Tennessee mostly for real estate, privacy, and incapacity, since Tennessee has no state estate tax and many other assets can avoid probate for free through beneficiary forms. For the full menu of options, see how to avoid probate in Tennessee.

Tennessee Uniform Trust Code Requirements

To create a valid revocable living trust in Tennessee under the Tennessee Uniform Trust Code, you generally need:

A competent settlor (grantor): the person creating the trust must have capacity.
A trustee: someone must hold the property and administer it. You can be your own trustee.
A definite beneficiary: one or more people who can enforce the trust. During your life, you are typically your own beneficiary.
Trust property: the trust must actually hold property to function.
A written trust instrument: the trust's terms are set out in a signed document.

The trust document is private. It is not filed with any court. To deal with banks, brokerages, and a county register of deeds, a trustee often uses a shorter certification of trust that confirms the trust exists and the trustee's authority without revealing the full terms. Revocable trusts are addressed in Part 6 of the Tennessee Uniform Trust Code.

Creating the Trust Document

The trust instrument (sometimes called a declaration of trust or trust agreement) is the foundation. It should cover:

Your identity as grantor and initial trustee
Your successor trustee(s) and the order they serve in
Who the beneficiaries are and what each receives
How and when distributions are made (outright at death, held to a certain age, for education, and so on)
Your powers as trustee to buy, sell, invest, and manage property
What happens if you become incapacitated, so the successor trustee can step in without a conservatorship
Special provisions for minor or special needs beneficiaries

This is not a fill-in-the-blank form. A revocable living trust should be tailored to your family, your property, and your goals, so work with a licensed Tennessee estate planning attorney to draft it.

Funding the Trust: The Step People Skip

Signing the trust document is only the first step. A trust that holds no assets does nothing. Funding means transferring ownership of your assets from yourself individually into the trust. This is where many low-cost trusts fail: the document is signed but the assets are never retitled, so at death they are still in the owner's name and go through probate anyway.

Real Property

To move Tennessee real estate into the trust, you sign and record a new deed conveying the property from yourself individually to yourself as trustee, in the office of the county register of deeds where the property sits. This is often the single most valuable thing a Tennessee trust does, because Tennessee real estate is the asset most families most want to keep out of probate. Recording fees vary by county.

Bank Accounts

Contact each bank or credit union and ask to retitle the account in the name of the trust, bringing a certification of trust. Alternatively, you can name the trust as the payable-on-death beneficiary, which reaches a similar result without retitling.

Investment and Brokerage Accounts

Ask your brokerage to retitle the account into the trust's name. Most major firms have a straightforward process and may ask for a certification of trust.

Retirement Accounts (IRA, 401k)

Do not retitle a retirement account into the trust. Transferring an IRA or 401(k) into a trust can trigger immediate income tax on the whole balance. Retirement accounts pass by beneficiary designation. Name a trust as an IRA beneficiary only with advice from a tax or financial professional.

Life Insurance

Life insurance passes by its beneficiary designation, not through the trust. Name the trust as beneficiary only if you want the proceeds managed under the trust's terms, which is common when minor children are involved.

Personal Property of Value

Valuable items such as art, jewelry, or collectibles can be assigned to the trust by a written assignment.

The Pour-Over Will: Your Backup

Even with a funded trust, you should have a pour-over will. It directs that anything you own at death that is not already in the trust pours into the trust to be distributed under its terms. The pour-over will still requires probate for whatever it captures, but it acts as a safety net for assets you forgot to transfer. It must meet Tennessee will requirements, including two witnesses, to be valid. A pour-over will is also the only document that can nominate a guardian for minor children, which a trust cannot do.

What Happens at Death

When you die, your successor trustee generally:

Obtains certified copies of your death certificate
Gets a new Employer Identification Number (EIN) for the trust
Opens a trust bank account to administer the estate
Notifies the beneficiaries
Collects, inventories, and manages the trust assets
Pays valid debts and expenses
Files any required tax returns
Distributes the assets according to the trust document

No probate filing is required for the trust assets. The Tennessee trust administration guide walks the successor trustee through these duties in detail.

A Trust vs. Other Tennessee Tools

vs. Survivorship Deed

Tennessee does not offer a real-property transfer-on-death deed (the 2025 Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act bill did not pass), so for real estate the lower-cost alternatives are a deed with an express right of survivorship or a life estate. Each of those is cheaper and simpler than a trust, but each covers only that one property and does nothing for accounts or other assets. A trust covers everything you fund into it and can manage distributions over time.

vs. Beneficiary Designations and Survivorship Titling

Payable-on-death and transfer-on-death forms, and survivorship deeds or accounts, are free or low cost and effective for the specific asset. But each is per-asset and needs separate upkeep. A funded trust consolidates everything under one set of instructions you update in one place. Note that Tennessee abolished automatic survivorship in joint tenancy under Tenn. Code Ann. 66-1-107, so a survivorship deed must say so in plain words.

vs. Tennessee Probate

Tennessee probate is manageable for many families, and the state has no probate tax measured against estate value and no estate or inheritance tax, so pure cost savings are a weaker reason to build a trust here than in high-fee states. Consider a trust mainly when privacy, real estate, incapacity planning, or detailed control over distributions matter.

Incapacity: The Quiet Advantage

If you lose the ability to manage your affairs, your successor trustee can step in immediately to manage the trust assets, with no court conservatorship needed for that property. Conservatorship in Tennessee runs through a county court with ongoing supervision. A funded trust avoids that for the assets it holds. For assets outside the trust, a durable power of attorney does similar work, so the two documents pair well.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a lawyer to create a living trust in Tennessee?

Tennessee law does not require one. But an unfunded or poorly drafted trust sends your assets through probate anyway, so working with a licensed Tennessee estate planning attorney is strongly recommended.

Does a revocable trust protect assets from my creditors?

No. Because you can take the assets back at any time, your creditors can generally reach them too. A revocable trust is about probate avoidance and incapacity planning, not creditor protection.

What is the difference between a will and a living trust?

A will controls property in your name at death and requires probate to transfer it. A living trust controls property titled in the trust's name, which passes outside probate. Many Tennessee plans use both, with a trust for most assets and a pour-over will as the backup.

This guide is general information about revocable living trusts in Tennessee. Every estate plan is different. It is not legal advice. Consult a licensed Tennessee estate planning attorney before creating a trust.

Sources

Title: Tennessee Uniform Trust Code, Title 35, Chapter 15. Publisher: Tennessee Code (Justia, official text mirror). Publication Date: 2024 Tennessee Code, accessed 2026-06-20. URL: https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/title-35/chapter-15/
Title: TN Code 66-1-107, Survivorship in joint tenancy abolished. Publisher: Tennessee Code (Justia, official text mirror). Publication Date: 2024 Tennessee Code, accessed 2026-06-20. URL: https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/title-66/chapter-1/part-1/section-66-1-107/