You’ve worked hard to earn wealth and build assets, and perhaps you’ve already thought about where you want your legacy to go after you pass. But every year, many Tennesseans anticipating inheritance from a loved one find themselves waiting six to 12 months or longer and losing thousands of dollars. Inheritance happens through probate — a process in which a court reviews the deceased person’s will if they have one, settles their debts and taxes, and distributes assets to their heirs.
The good news is that you can protect your assets from probate and ensure your loved ones get what you intend for them right after your death. This guide explains how to avoid probate in Tennessee.
Why Avoid Probate?
Setting up your estate to avoid probate can benefit your family and any other beneficiaries in several ways, including:
- Reducing costs: Probate proceedings come with court, attorney, and executor fees that can cut into your estate. Avoiding it keeps more of your wealth intact for your beneficiaries — those you choose to inherit from you.
- Saving time: The typical probate process in Tennessee takes six to 12 months. If you avoid probate, your beneficiaries can inherit what you leave for them much sooner.
- Preserving privacy: Probate proceedings go on public record, so people within and outside your family can discover your will’s terms and other estate details. Avoiding probate helps keep your family’s financial affairs private.
- Maintaining harmony: During probate proceedings, some families experience conflict because each family member can find out what they are inheriting compared to others. Avoiding probate can reduce the potential for conflict by keeping each beneficiary’s inheritance private between them and the individual you’ve appointed to manage distribution.
- Honoring your wishes: If your estate goes into probate without a will, Tennessee’s intestacy laws will decide who gets what, and the outcome may not align with your intentions. Even if you have a will, probate relies on the court judge and an executor to interpret it as you intend. By avoiding probate, you can use several tools like trusts and joint ownership agreements to protect your estate and uphold your wishes.
What Is Exempt From Probate in Tennessee?
If you want to avoid probate in Tennessee, consider adding the following estate planning tools to your toolbox. Each can help you ensure assets are exempt from probate or prevent your estate from going through probate altogether.
Gifts
Assets you gift during your lifetime are exempt from probate. Federal law allows you to gift several thousands of dollars worth of assets and money each year, tax-free. For the 2025 calendar year, the IRS set the federal gift exclusion limit at $19,000 per year. Couples filing taxes jointly can use double the individual limit for tax-free gifts. Tennessee has had no gift tax since 2012. These laws mean you can use gifts to transfer wealth to your loved ones each year, without waiting for your death.
Gifting is an effective estate planning tool for wealth you no longer expect to need during your lifetime. For assets you want to control as long as you live and pass on after your lifetime, you’ll need to use other strategies to avoid probate.
Revocable Living Trusts
A revocable living trust allows the trustee — the person in charge of the trust — to transfer assets from the trust to designated beneficiaries. These assets could include bank accounts, vehicles, real estate, and almost anything else. To avoid probate with a living trust:
- Set up the living trust with a trust document.
- Name yourself as the trustee and someone reliable as your successor trustee to take over upon your death.
- Transfer the assets you want to protect to the trust.
- When you pass away, your successor trustee can transfer the assets from the trust to your designated beneficiaries.
Joint Ownership With Right of Survivorship
A joint ownership agreement with a right of survivorship means that when one owner dies, their share of the property passes to the surviving owner and avoids probate. The relevant forms of joint ownership in Tennessee are:
- Joint tenancy with right of survivorship: Joint tenancy can apply to many types of assets, including bank accounts, vehicles, and real estate. Each owner in a joint tenancy agreement must own an equal share of the assets included. Provided the deed or conveyance document specifies that the joint tenants have a right of survivorship, the assets will skip probate and pass to the surviving joint tenant when one owner dies.
- Tenancy by the entirety: This form of ownership is similar to joint tenancy but only available for married couples who want to share ownership. Tenancy by the entirety always comes with a right of survivorship.
- Tenancy in common: This form of joint ownership has no right of survivorship. A joint tenancy other than a married couple’s tenancy by the entirety is treated as a tenancy in common with no right of survivorship unless the deed or conveyance document specifies that the joint tenancy includes a right of survivorship.
Payable-on-Death Designations for Bank Accounts
A payable-on-death (POD) designation is like a label on your bank account saying that the money in it must go to your chosen beneficiary when you pass away. You can apply it to savings accounts or certificates of deposit. You maintain control of your money throughout your life and can spend it all if you like. The beneficiary has no claim to the money while you live, but they can claim anything left in that account when you pass away without waiting for probate.
Transfer-on-Death Registration for Securities
This option is similar to a POD designation but for stocks and bonds. Registering a brokerage account transfer-on-death (TOD) form lets your beneficiary inherit the account upon your death with no probate proceedings.
Other Accounts With Beneficiaries
Some accounts include beneficiaries within their structures. These accounts are safe from probate, and their contents will go to your beneficiaries when you die without requiring any extra steps from you. These accounts include:
- 401(k)s
- Retirement annuities
- Life insurance policies
- Individual retirement arrangements (IRAs)
If you have any of these accounts, double-check your listed beneficiaries and change them if necessary to ensure they reflect your estate planning wishes. For example, marriages, divorces, births, deaths and other changes in your family could affect how you feel about a beneficiary designation you made in the past.
Avoid Probate in Tennessee With Crow Estate Planning & Probate
The tools in this guide can help you preserve your wealth from court fees, creditors, and excessive taxes so your loved ones receive what you intend for them after your lifetime. However, the best way to get peace of mind about your legacy is to work with an experienced estate planning and probate attorney. If you want to secure your assets from probate, the dedicated attorneys at Crow Estate Planning & Probate are here to help.
Our award-winning team focuses their time, energy, and expertise on helping people like you transfer lasting wealth to their loved ones through estate planning solutions. We know the state of Tennessee’s probate laws and can help you prepare your estate to avoid probate. We provide the attentive legal support you need to create an estate plan that puts your priorities, values, and hopes for your loved ones first.
Contact us for a free consultation to protect your legacy from probate.
