How Do I Settle a Trust in Shelby County, Tennessee?

Tennessee gives a trustee 60 days to notify the beneficiaries that the trust has become irrevocable, and the notice has to be in writing.Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-813(b); § 35-15-1005Verified Sep 15, 2026 It is the first deadline a trustee can miss without noticing. The plan records the beneficiaries, tracks who has been notified, and puts the notice on the timeline against the date of death rather than leaving you to count the days.

Tennessee lets the beneficiaries waive a formal trust accounting, but they can also demand one — and if they do, you have to produce it.Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-813(b); § 35-15-1005Verified Sep 15, 2026 A beneficiary generally has 3 years to bring a claim over the accounting, so the records outlive the distribution. The plan keeps that record as you go: what came into the trust, what you paid out, what went to each beneficiary, and what remains — with a charge-and-discharge summary that has to balance.

Tennessee has no trust-specific creditor procedure, which surprises trustees: there is no notice you can publish to start a clock and cut the debts off.T.C.A. § 35-15-505(a) makes formerly-revocable trust property subject to the settlor's creditor claims and bars any claim barred against the estate; the bar is derivative of probate (§ 30-2-317(a) priority applies only to the extent the probate estate is inadequate). No trustee notice-to-creditors duty or safe-harbor exists in the TN UTC. The operative do-nothing default is the § 30-2-310(a) absolute 12-month bar from death; the § 30-2-306 four-month publication bar requires an open probate estate and is the PR's procedure, not the trustee's. Verified 2026-06-19.Verified Jul 15, 2026 The grantor's debts still have to be paid before the beneficiaries are, so the exposure is real even though no deadline forces it. The plan holds the distribution steps until you've worked the debts, and flags a distribution that would leave the trust short.

Every institution holding an account wants its own paperwork before it will retitle or release anything to a trustee — commonly a death certificate, a certification of trust, and its own claim form. The plan's directory covers 42 banks, credit unions, and insurers operating in Tennessee plus 315 national institutions, and carries each one's process, the documents it asks for, and where to send them.

One for nearly every institution that holds a trust asset, since most keep the copy they're given. Tennessee charges $15 for the first. The plan counts what this trust needs recipient by recipient, prices the order, and tracks which copies have gone out and which you still hold.