Petition to Probate a Will Requirements in Tennessee

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Governing law and proceeding type

Tennessee uses common-form and solemn-form probate. The petition may combine the request to admit the will with the request for letters testamentary. Under § 30-1-117, the filing is a verified petition; § 32-2-104 supplies the ordinary witness-proof rules.

Court and venue

Tenn. Code § 32-2-101 places the proceeding in the probate court for the county where the testator usually lived at death. If the testator maintained fixed residences in more than one county, any of those counties is permitted.

Who may petition

Section 32-1-113 describes initiation by the named personal representative or another interested party. Filing eligibility is separate from whether that person qualifies to receive letters.

Petition contents

Section 30-1-117 requires a verified petition and a detailed factual record. The petition identifies the petitioner; the decedent's name, age if known, death, and residence; the will date and attesting witnesses; the devisees and people who would inherit without the will; the estate's estimated value; inventory and accounting waiver language; the petitioner's no-known-revocation belief; and the proposed representative's identifying and conviction information.

Current law includes an eleventh field added by Public Chapter 912, § 1, effective July 1, 2022. If the decedent owned or controlled an ongoing business or economic enterprise that may belong to the estate, the petition must identify that fact and give the business names and addresses.

Original will, copy, and lodging

The petition may exhibit the document offered for probate or a copy. That does not erase the separate custody rule. Under § 32-1-113, the holder sends the original to the named personal representative as soon as the holder knows of the death and sends a photographic copy to the clerk. The original goes to the clerk instead when the representative cannot be identified or serve, the will names none, the nominee declines, or no administration appears necessary.

Filing or production deadline

The custody clock is functional rather than numeric: delivery is due “as soon as” the holder knows of the death. Titles 30 and 32 state no general numeric deadline for the ordinary probate petition. Tenn. Code § 30-1-110 instead states special timing rules for remainder interests, a distributee who was an infant at the ancestor's death, and a special administration used to pursue a federal-government claim.

Proof and self-proving route

For an uncontested witnessed will, §§ 32-2-104 and 32-2-110 provide the main ordinary proof routes. Section 32-2-104 requires at least one living subscribing witness. A witness who cannot appear may, with court permission, be proved by interrogatories or deposition. Under § 32-2-110, an affidavit written on or attached to the will is accepted in an uncontested probate as though the witness had testified before the court. A contested will requires all living witnesses who can be found, together with other supporting proof.

Current § 32-1-107(a) also addresses a will executed outside Tennessee. Public Chapter 616, §§ 1 and 20 added subsection (b), effective July 1, 2026. Such a will may be proved by showing it could be admitted where signed, under the law of the testator's domicile when executed, or through the listed Tennessee proof methods.

Notice, hearing, and objections

Section 30-1-117(b) says ordinary probate requires no notice unless the will is offered in solemn form. Solemn-form probate requires legally prescribed notice to every interested person. A later action to set aside probate or petition to certify a will contest generally must be filed within two years after entry of the probate order under § 32-4-108, subject to its stated protection for a person who was under eighteen or adjudicated incompetent when the claim accrued.

Executor, bond, and letters

The proposed representative's age, mailing address, relationship, convictions, and any penitentiary sentence belong in the petition. Section 30-1-116 permits a nonresident appointment only through § 35-50-107. Before delivering letters, the clerk administers the executor's oath to perform the will and the oath addressing petition accuracy and disqualification under § 30-1-111.

Tenn. Code § 30-1-201 excuses bond when the will does so, when the representative is also the sole beneficiary and the court approves, when all capable adult beneficiaries file the prescribed consent and the court approves, or when a qualifying bank is exempt. Otherwise, bond must be taken before letters issue, in a court-set amount between the value of the estate subject to administration and twice that value.

What trips people up

A copy may be the petition exhibit, but the statute still directs where the original instrument must be delivered. Also, a common-form filing's no-notice rule does not convert solemn-form probate into an ex parte proceeding.

Common questions

Can the nominated executor begin administering immediately after death?

No. Section 30-1-101 says a person may not enter upon administration until that person has obtained letters testamentary or letters of administration.

Does every Tennessee estate require an executor bond?

No. Section 30-1-201 lists four routes that excuse bond before letters, but a will waiver is only one of them and the court-approval conditions still matter for two routes.

Is two years the deadline to file the original probate petition?

No. The two-year period in § 32-4-108 concerns proceedings to set aside an already-entered probate order or certify a will contest. It is not stated as the ordinary petition deadline.

Statutes and sources

• Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-1-117(a)-(b), petition fields and common-/solemn-form notice — release-76 Title 30 (accessed 2026-08-03).
• 2022 Tenn. Pub. Acts ch. 912, § 1, current ongoing-business petition field — signed act (accessed 2026-08-03).
• Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 32-1-107, 32-1-113, 32-2-101, 32-2-104, 32-2-110, and 32-4-108, venue, custody, proof, foreign-execution, and contest rules — release-76 Title 32 (accessed 2026-08-03).
• 2026 Tenn. Pub. Acts ch. 616, §§ 1 and 20, current foreign-will proof amendment and effective date — signed act (accessed 2026-08-03).
• Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 30-1-101, 30-1-110, 30-1-111, 30-1-116, and 30-1-201, letters, timing, oath, nonresident, and bond rules — release-76 Title 30 (accessed 2026-08-03).