Tennessee estate administration

Tennessee probate: rules, process, costs, executor fees and deadlines

Small-estate limit: $50,000

This guide explains probate in Tennessee: 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.

Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch October 3, 2026.

Answer first

Tennessee simplified probate route

Up to $50,000; usable 45 days after death. Source: Tenn. Pub. Ch. 297 (2023) (HB 337; Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 30, ch. 4).

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)

Screen a specific Tennessee estate with the calculators on the small-estate page and the executor-fee page, or compare states in the full estate navigator.

What the reviewed rules establish

Simplified route

$50,000

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); usable 45 days after death.

Eligibility and caveats

Court cost

Varies locally

Set locally; ask the receiving court.

Filing-cost detail

Executor compensation

Court-reviewed

No verified rule is published here.

Compensation detail

Creditor deadline

Multiple triggers

Tenn. Pub. Ch. 102 (2021) (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-310) (Tennessee Secretary of State; reviewed August 9, 2026)

Timeline and creditor details

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 sought	What is therefore not published	Tried on
Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 30 (compensation of personal representatives)	Why no Tennessee compensation figure appears on this page — representative pay	2026-09-17
Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 30, ch. 4 (small estates)	The Tennessee small-estate ceiling is not quoted here, and this is why — small estate route	2026-09-17
Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 8, ch. 21 (fees of clerks)	Tennessee court costs: what could not be verified for this page — court and filing cost	2026-09-17
Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 30, ch. 2 (notice to creditors; claims)	The Tennessee creditor period is not restated here — creditor deadline	2026-09-17

Tennessee decision map

The four facts that change the Tennessee route

Each Tennessee answer below links to the page that sets out its source.

Tennessee estate administration decision map
Question	Recorded Tennessee answer
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)
What property and basis count?	personal probate property only; gross value for this route.
What is the amount screen?	$50,000
What is the time or deadline record?	45 days after death; creditor deadlines: separate clocks by triggering event
What does the cost record establish?	No single statewide amount is published here; confirm the receiving court's current schedule.
What does compensation use?	No verified rule.

Limits and unresolved costs

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.

Continue

What Tennessee courts publish

Every link is probed before each release.

Self-help centreTennessee Courts Self-Help CenterTennessee Administrative Office of the Courts
Court resourceTennessee Chancery Courts (probate jurisdiction)Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts

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).

Tennessee primary sources

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
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)
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)
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)

Every quotation, edition label and machine check is on the Tennessee source record.

Tennessee record: 4/4 verified, 16 matched checks, latest source re-fetch October 3, 2026. Source record · method · report a correction