Probate Law

Plain English Breakdown

Checked against official source text during the last sync.

Probate Law Changes

This bill allows people to manage small estates on their own if the estate only includes life insurance policies worth up to $15,000 intended for burial or final expenses.

What This Bill Does

• Allows someone to proceed without a lawyer in managing a small estate if it consists exclusively of one or more life insurance policies worth no more than $15,000 and intended for the decedent's burial, funeral, or final expenses.
• Specifies that when filing paperwork for a small estate, people are acting on their own behalf to settle priority debts of the deceased person and not in a representative capacity.
• Requires court clerks to provide standardized forms for filers who meet the criteria.

Who It Names or Affects

• People managing small estates with life insurance policies worth up to $15,000 intended for burial or final expenses.
• Court clerks providing standardized forms for filing small estate paperwork.

Terms To Know

pro se

When someone represents themselves in court without a lawyer.

fiduciary capacity

A role where one person manages another's assets or affairs, like an executor of an estate.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify what happens if the life insurance policies exceed $15,000.
• It is unclear how this change will affect other probate processes for larger estates.

Official Summary Text

Abstract summarizes the bill.

Current Bill Text

SENATE BILL 2290
By Stevens

HOUSE BILL 2269
By Hale
HB2269
012313
- 1 -

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 30;
Section 56-7-206 and Title 62, Chapter 5, relative
to probate.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 30-4-103, is amended by designating
the existing language as subsection (a) and adding the following as a new subsection:
(b)
(1) A petitioner or affiant is permitted to proceed pro se if the personal
property of the estate consists exclusively of one (1) or more life insurance
policies the total of which does not exceed fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000) in
value and that is intended to be used for the decedent's burial, funeral, or final
expenses.
(2) A person filing for a small estate affidavit or limited letters of authority
is deemed to be acting in an individual capacity to settle a priority debt of the
decedent and not in a representative or fiduciary capacity.
(3)
(A) The clerk of the court shall provide a standardized form for
filers who meet the criteria of this subsection (b).
(B) Such form meets the criteria for proof of death for small
policies, as described in § 56-7-206.
SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.