Trustee Notice to Beneficiaries Requirements in Tennessee

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Tennessee starts the clock after acceptance and real funding

Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-813(b) uses a Tennessee-specific trigger. The trustee of an irrevocable or non-grantor trust gives notice within 60 days after both acceptance and funding. Nominal funding used only to give the trust corpus, and depositing life- insurance policies on a living person, do not count as the required funding.

The statute does not create a separate deadline when the trustee learns that an irrevocable trust was created or that a revocable trust became irrevocable. Covered trust status, acceptance, and nonnominal funding are the stated facts.

The recipient classes are not “qualified beneficiaries” generally

The initial notice goes to each current income beneficiary, each vested ultimate beneficiary of a remainder interest, and each person who holds a power of appointment in a nonfiduciary capacity. That list should not be replaced with the Code's broader qualified-beneficiary definition.

Current § 35-15-110, effective July 1, 2026, separately lets a qualifying expressly designated charitable organization receive § 35-15-813 notices and information. It also gives the attorney general and reporter qualified-beneficiary rights for a qualifying Tennessee-administered charitable trust.

The trustee chooses a full document or a tailored abstract

The first route encloses a complete copy of the document establishing the trust and gives the trustee's name, address, and telephone number. The second route sends an abstract chosen in the trustee's absolute discretion.

Every abstract identifies each trustee and gives contact information. A current-income abstract adds the number of other current income beneficiaries, mandatory or discretionary income status, permitted principal purposes, an estimated trust value available for distributions, and estimated distributable income. A remainder abstract gives the number of other remainder beneficiaries, estimated trust value, and distribution conditions. A power holder receives the listed information necessary or beneficial to decide whether to exercise the power.

Quiet-trust and confidentiality rules are express

The terms of the trust may change the ongoing information and initial-notice duties. The settlor, or an authorized trust protector or trust advisor, may also direct otherwise in a writing delivered to the trustee.

A beneficiary or nonfiduciary power holder may waive reports or other information under § 35-15-813(d) and later withdraw the waiver for future items. If the trustee is bound by written confidentiality restrictions for a trust asset, the trustee may require the recipient to accept those restrictions in writing before disclosing information about that asset.

What trips people up

• Nonnominal funding matters. Acceptance alone does not complete the trigger.
• The statute does not use the standard UTC two-notice architecture. There is no separate acceptance notice and no knowledge-of-irrevocability notice.
• The abstract is not a generic trust summary. Its required facts change with a current-income beneficiary, remainder beneficiary, or power holder.
• Later interests create another statutory notice. When a current income interest ends, successor income beneficiaries receive the subsection (b) notice; power holders may also receive it if the original period has lapsed.
• No execution ceremony is stated. First-class mail or personal delivery is required, but the initial notice needs no oath, signature, notarization, certified mail, courier, email consent, acknowledgment, or proof-of-service certificate.

Common questions

How does a Tennessee trustee accept office?

Section 35-15-701 follows the trust's stated method. If the trust supplies no method or makes it nonexclusive, delivery of trust property, exercising trustee powers or duties, or another indication can establish acceptance.

Can notice to a representative substitute for direct notice?

Yes. Current § 35-15-301(e) says notice, information, accounts, or reports to a person who may represent and bind another may substitute for direct delivery and have the same effect.

Does every recipient automatically receive annual reports?

Section 35-15-813 is not the standard UTC annual-report provision that generic forms often reproduce. Its subsection (a) instead imposes informed-beneficiary and request- response duties, including reasonable-expense reimbursement, while subsection (b) sets the Tennessee-specific initial notice.

Which older trusts are excluded?

Subdivision (a)(1) and subsection (b) do not apply under the current section to a trust created under a trust agreement that became irrevocable before July 1, 2004. The statute continues prior law for those trusts.

Statutes and sources

• Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-301(e) — substitute effect of notice to a representative. Official 2025 Public Chapter 101 (accessed 2026-07-31).
• Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-701(a)-(c) — trustee acceptance and rejection. Official public-domain Tennessee Code mirror (accessed 2026-07-31).
• Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-813(b)-(g) — trigger, recipients, delivery, complete-copy and abstract routes, later-interest notice, waiver, quiet-trust direction, legacy line, and confidentiality. Official public-domain Tennessee Code mirror (accessed 2026-07-31).
• Tenn. Code Ann. § 35-15-110 — current charitable-organization and attorney- general rights. Official 2026 Public Chapter 616 (accessed 2026-07-31).