Executor Resignation and Removal Requirements in Tennessee

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Tennessee imports its removal procedure from the Trust Code

Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-1-151 says an executor or administrator may be removed under the procedures in § 35-15-706. The incorporated section allows the court to act on its own initiative and names a settlor, cotrustee, or qualified beneficiary as requesters. Section 30-1-151 does not separately translate those trust-role labels into an estate-specific petitioner list.

The imported grounds are a serious breach; lack of cooperation among cofiduciaries that substantially impairs administration; unfitness, unwillingness, or persistent ineffective administration when removal best serves beneficiary interests; and a substantial change of circumstances or all-qualified-beneficiary request when the additional all-beneficiary, material-purpose, and suitable-successor findings are made.

All of those general grounds remain discretionary: the court may remove.

A penitentiary sentence operates as mandatory removal

Section 40-20-115 supplies a separate result. A sentence of imprisonment in the penitentiary ends the person's right to execute the office of executor or administrator and operates as removal from office.

A 2023 proposal would have repealed that disqualification, but it expired in committee and never changed the statute.

The court has a broad protective-remedy menu

Pending a final removal decision—or instead of or in addition to removal—the incorporated § 35-15-706(c) permits appropriate relief under § 35-15-1001(b). The menu includes compelling performance, injunction, restoration, an account, appointment of a special fiduciary, suspension, removal, compensation reduction or denial, avoidance and tracing relief, and other appropriate relief.

The imported removal section states no fixed notice period or hearing deadline. Separately, § 30-1-201 lets an interested person show waste or likely waste and request a court-set protective bond.

Resignation requires a petition and two notice routes

Under § 30-1-112(b), an already-serving personal representative files a petition in the probate or chancery court having cognizance of the estate's settlement and asks permission to resign.

Legatees, devisees, or distributees living in the county—or their agent or attorney—receive five days' notice of the filing or intended filing. For those outside the county, the court orders publication, courthouse posting, or another mode it considers reasonable.

After notice, the court causes the accounts to be settled and may accept the resignation in its discretion. It also may appoint a new administrator and must take a good and sufficient administration bond from the appointee.

Turnover is enforceable against the representative and sureties

Under § 30-1-113, the court must order the departing representative to pay and deliver the balance of money, property, and effects to the new personal representative. If the order is not obeyed, the court may issue execution against the representative and sureties after five days' notice to the sureties.

The successor must file a true and perfect inventory of estate property received within one month after appointment. An administrator with the will annexed who replaces a resigned executor receives the executor's will powers, including a land-sale power the executor possessed, under § 30-1-115.

The cited statutes state no special removal appeal, stay, reinstatement, or prior-act rule. The effective events are the court's removal order, the penitentiary sentence that operates as removal, or discretionary acceptance of resignation followed by account, successor, bond, and turnover orders.

What trips people up

• The removal grounds are not printed in Title 30. Section 30-1-151 sends the reader to the Trust Code.
• Trust terminology survives the incorporation. The estate statute does not separately rewrite “settlor,” “cotrustee,” and “qualified beneficiary.”
• Resignation is not a private notice. It is a petition-and-order process tied to notice, account settlement, successor bond, and turnover.

Common questions

May the court suspend the fiduciary before deciding removal? Yes. The incorporated remedy menu permits suspension and a special fiduciary, among other protective orders.

Must the court accept a resignation? No. Section 30-1-112 says the court may accept it in its discretion after notice and account settlement.

Can turnover be enforced against the bond sureties? Yes. Section 30-1-113 permits execution against the representative and sureties after five days' notice to the sureties if the turnover order is not obeyed.

Statutes and sources

• Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 30-1-112 to -115 — resignation petition, notice, account, acceptance, successor bond, turnover, inventory, and will powers. — official-code Title 30 distribution (accessed 2026-08-28)
• Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 30-1-151 and 30-1-201 — incorporation of removal procedure and waste-based protective bond. — official-code Title 30 distribution (accessed 2026-08-28)
• Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 35-15-706 and 35-15-1001 — incorporated requesters, grounds, and interim/alternative relief. — current official-code text for § 35-15-706 and § 35-15-1001 (accessed 2026-08-28)
• Tenn. Code Ann. § 40-20-115 — penitentiary sentence as removal from fiduciary office. — official-code Title 40 distribution (accessed 2026-08-28)