Your state’s pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Tennessee T&E solo who knows its own probate code (Titles 30–32, not the UPC) cold but still loses an afternoon a week hunting the current homestead number, the TennCare CHOICES waiver posture, whether the latest Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility opinion changes how you scope an engagement, or whether a recent Tennessee Court of Appeals decision just moved the law on capacity, undue influence, or a trustee’s duties. What’s below is what mattered in Tennessee lately — the week’s developments and the recent rulings from the bench.
For licensed attorneys. This pack is general legal information and professional commentary for practicing attorneys — it is not legal advice, does not apply to any specific matter, and creates no attorney-client relationship. Verify every authority against the cited primary source before relying on it with a client. Published by Mike Moss, a Utah-admitted attorney, as an AI-enablement information product; it is not an offer of legal services and is not a representation that the author is admitted to practice in your jurisdiction.
Three developments from the last several weeks that I think actually matter to a Tennessee T&E solo. Each one has a read that lands on your practice specifically — and each one comes with the citation so you can verify the detail yourself before you use it with a client.
SB 984 (114th G.A.), which would have enacted the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act, passed first and second consideration and was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on 2/12/2025, then went no further. For 2025–2026 Tennessee continues to lack a TOD/beneficiary deed for real property.
Don’t let a client — or an out-of-state form — assume a beneficiary deed is available here. To keep real property out of probate, the operative tools remain the revocable trust, tenancy by the entirety (which Tennessee recognizes), and joint tenancy with survivorship. Re-file the TOD question for the next session and plan around its current absence.
Tenn. SB 984 (114th G.A.) · CAPITOL.TN.GOV · SB 984
SB 1910 / HB 2454 was signed April 6, 2026 and took effect July 1, 2026, amending Titles 32, 35, and 67. The changes a solo will actually touch: new T.C.A. § 32-1-107(b) makes a will sufficiently proved for Tennessee probate if it could be admitted in the state where it was signed, or under the law of the testator’s domicile when executed, or under §§ 32-2-104, 32-2-105, or 32-2-110. Section 35-15-414(a)’s small-trust termination threshold rises from $100,000 to $250,000. New § 35-15-709(c) lets a trustee pay properly incurred expenses, including attorney’s fees defending an action, directly from the trust estate — subject to the court’s power to halt disbursement or demand immediate reimbursement. The decanting statute, § 35-15-818, now permits the trustee to exercise the power to appoint principal by modifying or restating the trust instrument itself, defines “original trust” and “second trust,” and provides that decanting by restatement or modification does not require retitling trust property or changing payable-on-death or beneficiary designations. Section 35-15-817’s notice-and-objection machinery tightens: an objection must identify with reasonable specificity the portion objected to and the basis, a general objection is ineffective and must be disregarded, objections may be withdrawn in writing, and one ten-business-day period drops to five. Throughout the Uniform Trust Code, “an agreement of the qualified beneficiaries” is replaced with “a nonjudicial settlement agreement.” Section 35-15-110 gives an expressly designated charitable organization the rights of a qualified beneficiary and lets the Attorney General exercise those rights for a charitable trust administered here. A new Part 8 section shields a trustee, trust advisor, or trust protector acting in a managerial capacity for a closely held business from liability for resulting loss or failure to maximize returns, on stated conditions. And § 67-4-2008(a)(11)(B)(i) tightens the franchise-and-excise “family-owned” definition to first cousin or closer, counting trusts and estates.
This one is already in force, so the question is not whether to adopt it but whether your forms and your file notes have caught up. Four places to look this week. Decanting by restatement is the headline for anyone who has avoided decanting because of the retitling burden — the statute now says restatement does not require retitling or redoing POD and beneficiary designations, which removes the practical objection. The out-of-state-wills provision is a real simplification for ancillary and relocation matters: stop litigating Tennessee execution formalities when the will was validly executed where signed or at the testator’s domicile. The § 35-15-709(c) fee provision cuts both ways — it is a genuine protection for a trustee under attack, and a reason to counsel beneficiaries that the trust may be funding the defense while they litigate. And the objection rules now punish boilerplate: a general objection to a § 35-15-817 notice is not merely weak, it must be disregarded, so draft objections with specificity or lose them. Read the act itself before relying on any single section; this summary is a map, not a substitute.
2026 Tenn. Pub. Ch. 616 (SB 1910 / HB 2454), signed Apr. 6, 2026, eff. July 1, 2026 · WAPP.CAPITOL.TN.GOV · SB 1910 bill history
Effective January 1, 2022, T.C.A. § 26-2-301 is a flat $35,000 individual / $52,500 joint exemption (SB 566/HB 676, 2021–2022). The prior $5,000/$7,500 base and the separate minor-child and age-62+ tiers were repealed. The old figures are stale.
This is the single most common stale number in Tennessee estate and exemption worksheets. If your intake worksheets, creditor-exposure memos, or bankruptcy schedules still carry the $5,000/$7,500 base, fix them this week — the gap between $5,000 and $35,000 is the difference between a correct and an indefensible exemption claim.
T.C.A. § 26-2-301 (SB 566/HB 676, 112th G.A., eff. 1/1/2022) · CAPITOL.TN.GOV · SB 566
Decisions that bind a Tennessee practitioner — Tennessee’s appellate courts and the federal courts covering Tennessee, including the U.S. Sixth Circuit — read for what actually changes how you draft, advise, and plan. Trusts and estates broadly, not Medicaid alone: wills and capacity, undue influence, fiduciary duty, trust construction, and estate recovery. One read, the holding, and the official cite.
The Court of Appeals decided an estate-administration appeal in In re Estate of Sheeks (opinion designated for the Middle Section’s June 23, 2026 release).
Middle Section probate appeals set the working rules for Nashville-area administration — skim the holding against your open estates before relying on prior practice.
No. M2025-01358-COA-R3-CV 2026 Tenn. App. LEXIS 312 (Tenn. Ct. App. June 23, 2026) · TNCOURTS.GOV · official opinion
A dispute over a living trust — including a Marital Trust for the settlor’s wife and remainder interests for other beneficiaries — turned in part on the wife’s effort to introduce the testimony of the trust’s drafter. The Court of Appeals held that the wife waived her challenge to the exclusion of that testimony because she failed to make an offer of proof, and reaffirmed that a court construes a trust to determine the settlor’s intent from the language used across the whole instrument — giving effect to every provision and reading the trust as written, not as it is supposed the settlor intended.
For Tennessee trust litigation, two practice points. When a court excludes evidence you need — here, the drafting attorney’s testimony about the settlor’s intent — make a formal offer of proof on the record, or you forfeit the issue on appeal. And argue trust meaning from the four corners: courts will not rewrite the instrument to supply what the settlor omitted, so the disposition rises or falls on the words actually used.
In re Carl Edwin Osborne, Jr. Living Trust, No. W2024-01768-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. May 28, 2026) — Tennessee Court of Appeals opinion. · TNCOURTS.GOV · official opinion
This week in Tennessee for the T&E solo with TennCare clients: the developments from the Tennessee Bar Association (Estate Planning & Probate Section) and the Division of TennCare that actually moved your practice this period — each one primary-source verified.
Bar and Medicaid changes land on different schedules and aren’t indexed by practice focus. Every item here was checked against its primary source, with the link, so you can verify before relying on it.