Probate Family Allowance Requirements in Tennessee

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Who qualifies for Tennessee year's support

Tennessee's allowance is narrower than a benefit for every surviving spouse. Section 30-2-102 covers the surviving spouse of an intestate decedent and a surviving spouse who elects against the decedent's will. A spouse who simply takes under a will without electing against it does not enter either statutory class.

The allowance is ordinarily payable to the spouse. The court may divide it between the spouse and the unmarried minor children when that is just and equitable. If no spouse survives, the allowance goes to the unmarried minor children. The administrator manages property set apart for children as trustee until a guardian is appointed.

Two additional eligibility rules matter. Section 31-3-120 treats a person who does not survive the decedent by 120 hours as having predeceased the decedent for year's-support purposes. Section 31-1-106 makes a felonious and intentional killer forfeit the listed family allowance along with other estate benefits.

Amount, one-year period, and property in lieu of money

The statute sets no dollar ceiling. The court fixes a reasonable money amount for maintenance during the one-year period after death, using the spouse's previous standard of living and the condition of the estate. It may consider the total circumstances, including assets that passed to the spouse outside probate. Those nonprobate assets inform the amount; § 30-2-102 still makes the award out of the estate.

The court may authorize estate personal property instead of all or part of the money. When the court sets a money allowance, the spouse may select estate personal property up to that value, and the property's value is credited against the money award.

Court action and the nine-month clock

Although § 30-2-102 says an eligible spouse is entitled to the allowance, the amount is not automatic: the court fixes and orders it. The allowance sections do not prescribe initial petition contents, verification, service, notice, attachments, or a hearing format. The court may appoint freeholders to set aside the award, but is not required to do so.

Section 30-2-102(g) incorporates the time limits in § 31-4-102(a)(1)-(2). The ordinary limit there is nine months after death. That incorporated section also contains a spouse-specific extension when pending litigation over title to property devised or bequeathed under the will prevents an informed election: one additional year from probate, with a possible further court extension for the continuing litigation.

If the court-set amount is unsatisfactory, § 30-2-102(f) permits the eligible spouse, specified unmarried minor children, or personal representative to appeal. The appeal is de novo, with a jury available when properly demanded, subject to the statute's court-specific exceptions.

Death, marriage, and majority do not work the same way

A spouse's right is unusually durable. If the spouse dies during the one-year period, § 30-2-104 says the vested right and the court's ability to order it are not affected.

An unmarried minor child's right is different. No allowance may be made for a period after the child dies, marries, or reaches majority. The statute thus protects the spouse's vested one-year right while ending a child's future maintenance at the listed event.

Companion exempt property and direct-payment offsets

Under § 30-2-101(a)-(d), the companion right provides up to $50,000 in net fair-market value of household-type tangible personal property and trade-or-business-excluded motor vehicles for the same two spouse classes. If no spouse survives, the unmarried minor children share only the qualifying tangible personal property, not the motor-vehicle category. The spouse or children's custodian must apply before the property is distributed or sold, and the same § 31-4-102 time limits apply.

Current § 30-2-103(b), supplied by 2025 Public Chapter 194, creates a separate direct-payment route for a decedent's unpaid wages and, after six months without a personal-representative application, up to $10,000 held by another person. Those sums must be charged against the year's-support, homestead, and elective-share amounts as applicable. They therefore can reduce the later year's-support award rather than stack on top of it.

Claims protection, inheritance relationship, and agreements

Under § 30-2-102(a)-(g), the spouse's allowance is absolute property, exempt from all claims, outside the account of administration, and protected from precept or execution. That is broader wording than a mere low-priority creditor claim. For a child's award, § 30-2-105 places management with the administrator as trustee until appointment of a guardian.

The year's support is expressly additional to homestead, the elective share, and exempt property. But the eligibility rule remains important: a testate spouse qualifies only by electing against the will. The allowance statute does not state a separate waiver form. Section 36-3-501 instead makes an antenuptial or prenuptial agreement concerning premarital property binding when the court finds it was entered freely, knowledgeably, in good faith, and without duress or undue influence; that section does not name year's support expressly.

What trips people up

• The allowance has no fixed cap. The court sets a reasonable amount from the statutory living-standard, estate-condition, and total-circumstances factors.
• Not every surviving spouse qualifies. The spouse must be the spouse of an intestate decedent or must elect against the will.
• Nine months, not one year, is the ordinary filing clock. The one-year language describes the maintenance period, while § 30-2-102(g) imports the shorter action deadline.
• Spouse death and child termination differ. The spouse's vested right survives death during the year; a child's future support ends at death, marriage, or majority.
• Direct wage or fund payments can be offsets. Public Chapter 194 requires the specified § 30-2-103(b) sums to be charged against year's support as applicable.

Common questions

Can the court consider life insurance or another nonprobate asset?

The statute permits consideration of assets that passed to the spouse outside probate when fixing the amount. It does not make every such asset part of the estate or a direct funding source for the award.

Can minor children receive the allowance while a spouse survives?

Potentially. The court may divide the allowance between the spouse and the unmarried minor children when division is just and equitable. If no spouse survives, the allowance is made to the unmarried minor children.

Does a personal representative qualify to receive year's support?

No. The personal representative is not a statutory recipient. The representative may appeal an unsatisfactory allowance, and an administrator may hold a child's set-aside property as trustee until a guardian is appointed.

Statutes and sources

• Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 30-2-101 and 30-2-102 — eligible spouse and child classes, $50,000 companion exempt property, reasonable year's support, amount factors, property substitution, claims protection, appeal, and filing cross-reference. Public-domain Tennessee Code title 30 reproduction (accessed 2026-08-03).
• 2025 Tenn. Pub. Acts ch. 194, § 1 — current § 30-2-103(b) direct wage and fund payments, trusts, $10,000 nonemployer ceiling, and allowance offsets. Official Tennessee Secretary of State public chapter (accessed 2026-08-03).
• Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 30-2-104 and 30-2-105 — spouse survival, child termination, and administrator-as-trustee rules. Public-domain Tennessee Code title 30 reproduction (accessed 2026-08-03).
• Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 31-1-106(b), 31-3-120(a), and 31-4-102(a)(1)-(2) — killer forfeiture, 120-hour survival, ordinary nine-month deadline, and the title-litigation extension. Public-domain Tennessee Code title 31 reproduction (accessed 2026-08-03).
• Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-3-501 — enforceability standard for qualifying antenuptial and prenuptial property agreements. Public-domain Tennessee Code title 36 reproduction (accessed 2026-08-03).