How Do I Get Appointed as Executor in Tennessee?

In Tennessee, the Chancery Court appoints the personal representative and the Clerk & Master issues Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration; every appointment goes through the court.

State

Document Type

Getting appointed in Tennessee

Personal Representative (executor if testate, administrator if intestate)

The form that opens the estate

No statewide fill-in form

Attorney-drafted pleading

Where you file

Chancery Court (probate jurisdiction), or — in counties given a special probate court by private act — a dedicated Probate Court (Shelby County) or a Circuit Court probate division (Davidson County: Seventh Circuit Court – Probate Division) or a General Sessions Court with probate jurisdiction

What the court issues (with a will)

Letters Testamentary

issued by Clerk & Master

Letters are an output — the court issues them after granting the petition.

At a glance

UPC adoptedInformal trackE-filing (self-represented)Self-represented filingLocal/county forms

E-filing is adopted county-by-county by local rule under Tenn. R. Civ. P. 5B, with e-service under Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 46A; it is available in some chancery/probate/general-sessions courts (all 20th Judicial District courts have adopted it) and is optional, not a statewide mandate. Nothing in either rule limits e-filing to attorneys — Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 46A(3) expressly contemplates a "pro se person, party or participant in the case" as a registered user — so where a county offers e-filing, a self-represented filer may register; otherwise filing is by paper. Probate is handled by the county Clerk & Master / probate clerk.

Tennessee publishes no statewide probate petition or Letters form, so the verified petition (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-1-117) is drafted to statute and the Clerk & Master / probate court issues Letters on locally generated documents. Counties with special probate or general-sessions probate courts (e.g. Davidson, Shelby) and chancery counties each adopt their own local probate rules, packets, and e-filing rules.

Bond

Required before Letters: Yes
Waivable by will: Yes
Waivable by beneficiaries: Yes

What to file with the petition

Verified petition for letters with the contents required by Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-1-117 (petitioner, decedent, heirs/devisees, value estimate unless bond waived)
Original will and any codicils, attached to the petition as an exhibit and lodged for probate (if testate)
Proof of will (self-proving affidavit, or affidavit/testimony of an attesting witness) where the will is not self-proving
Oath of the personal representative for faithful performance (before the judge, clerk, or notary) (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-1-111)
Order admitting the will to probate / granting letters
For solemn-form probate: summons/notice served on all beneficiaries and heirs at law
Bond, unless the clerk is excused from requiring one under Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-1-201(a)(1) (will excuses bond; personal representative is the sole beneficiary and the court approves; all beneficiaries are adults, not under disability, and consent by sworn statement with the court approving; or the personal representative is a bank excused by § 45-2-1005)

Small-estate alternative

Bypasses full Letters: No

State-specific notes

Probate runs in either "common form" (ex parte, no notice) or "solemn form" (notice/summons to all beneficiaries and heirs, set for hearing); both use a verified petition under Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-1-117. Where someone other than the named executor serves under a will, the court issues Letters of Administration C.T.A. (cum testamento annexo). Intestate appointment priority runs to the surviving spouse, then next of kin, then a creditor proving a debt (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-1-106). Real property vests in the heirs/devisees at death and is not administered by the personal representative absent a will provision or court order — § 31-2-103, verbatim: "The real property of an intestate decedent shall vest immediately upon death of the decedent in the heirs"; a testate decedent's real property likewise vests immediately "unless the will contains a specific provision directing the real property to be administered as part of the estate subject to the control of the personal representative." The Small Estate Probate Act (≤ $50,000; Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-4-101 et seq., enacted in its current form by 2023 Pub. Ch. 297) issues limited letters restricted to the property itemized in the petition and confers no authority over real estate (§ 30-4-103(9): "There is no real property at issue in this matter, and this limited letter in no way gives any authority to the personal representative to handle any real estate matters of the decedent"). That track has its own gates: the petition may not be filed until 45 days after death and only if no ordinary appointment petition was filed in that window (§ 30-4-103(1), waivable for good cause under (8)), and it requires a corporate-surety bond equal to the property value "Regardless of the language of the decedent's will waiving bond" unless the petitioners are the sole heirs or sole beneficiaries or all adult heirs and beneficiaries consent in writing (§ 30-4-103(3)). Do NOT assume the small-estate track escapes a county's fiduciary-counsel rule: a small-estate personal representative is a fiduciary, Shelby's rule is written in fiduciary terms, and HB2269/SB2290 (2026) — which would have deemed a small-estate filer "to be acting in an individual capacity" and guaranteed pro se access — DIED in subcommittee, so no statute says otherwise. Whether a non-attorney may file the petition for letters is a COUNTY question in Tennessee, not a statewide one: § 23-1-109 preserves the right to conduct one's own case and no binding Tennessee authority holds otherwise (Tenn. Att'y Gen. Op. 09-156). Shelby (Probate Court practice) requires counsel for fiduciaries; Davidson's former blanket requirement (old Probate Local Rule 39.01) was replaced effective June 1, 2026 by 20th Judicial District Local Rule § 39.01(a), under which a non-attorney fiduciary may file documents if authorized by statute but the court may require counsel where the matter requires an attorney's professional judgment; counties such as Knox publish self-help petition packets.

General information about how a personal representative is appointed, not legal advice. Consult a licensed attorney for legal questions. Data verified Aug 24, 2026

Tennessee has no single statewide fill-in petition; the opening document is prepared to statute and filed with the Chancery Court. Clerk & Master issues Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration after the court grants the petition.

Along with the petition, Tennessee generally requires: Verified petition for letters with the contents required by Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-1-117 (petitioner, decedent, heirs/devisees, value estimate unless bond waived); Original will and any codicils, attached to the petition as an exhibit and lodged for probate (if testate); Proof of will (self-proving affidavit, or affidavit/testimony of an attesting witness) where the will is not self-proving; Oath of the personal representative for faithful performance (before the judge, clerk, or notary) (Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-1-111); Order admitting the will to probate / granting letters. The court's own checklist runs longer for particular cases.

Yes. Tennessee requires a bond by default before Letters issue. A will can waive it. The beneficiaries can also waive it in writing.

Tennessee permits a self-represented person to open an estate. E-filing is open to self-represented filers. The Tennessee self-file probate assessment sets self-filing against attorney costs.

Yes. A revocable living trust passes its assets to the beneficiaries without a court appointment in Tennessee: no petition, no Letters, no bond. A revocable trust built with SimplyTrust takes about fifteen minutes.

Getting Appointed in Tennessee

Authority to act for the estate comes from Letters issued in Tennessee by Clerk & Master, on appointment by the Chancery Court. The document is Letters Testamentary (with a will) or Letters of Administration (no will). Tennessee has not adopted the Uniform Probate Code.

Tennessee publishes no single statewide fill-in petition; the opening document is prepared to statute and filed with the court. The filing fee is $275. Tennessee has no informal (registrar) appointment track, so every appointment goes through the court.

Tennessee requires a bond by default before Letters issue, though a will can waive it and the beneficiaries can waive it in writing.

For smaller estates, Tennessee offers a small-estate procedure for estates under $50,000. The Tennessee self-file probate assessment compares self-filing and attorney costs.

SimplyTrust Editorial·Updated September 8, 2026

Legal Sources

T.C.A. § 30-4-101
Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-1-201 (amended by 2016 Tenn. Acts, ch. 809, § 6)
Tenn. Code Ann. § 8-21-401(c)(1) (as enacted by Pub. Ch. 486, HB 487, 114th Gen. Assemb., eff. 1/1/2026). Re-verified 2026-09-08 against the enrolled act at publications.tnsosfiles.com/acts/114/pub/pc0486.pdf, whose "FILING FEES IN COURTS ADMINISTERING ESTATES" table reads "Probate estates (including general administrations, small estates, insolvent estates, and muniment of title); conservatorships; or guardianships — $275 [as of January 1, 2026] / $300 [2027] / $325 [2028]", and whose SECTION 9 reads "This act takes effect January 1, 2026, the public welfare requiring it." No later act amends the section: all 1,142 published public chapters of the 114th Gen. Assemb. were downloaded and scanned 2026-09-08 (positive control "Tennessee Code Annotated" matched 1,136 of 1,142; nonsense control 0) — the only chapters mentioning § 8-21-401 are Pub. Ch. 268 and Pub. Ch. 1115, both of which merely CROSS-REFERENCE it (expunction clerk fees; victims assistance assessment) rather than amend it. Corroborated by Davidson Co. (Nashville) Probate Court 2026 fee schedule ($334.50 total = $275 base + state litigation tax).
Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 30-1-101 (letters required), 30-1-102 / 32-2-101 (venue), 30-1-106 (intestate priority), 30-1-111 (oath), 30-1-117 (verified petition contents)

Data sourced from Tennessee statutes and official state code. How we research.

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