Probate Law

Plain English Breakdown

The bill summary text is limited in detail regarding specific impacts on other types of assets or broader estate management practices.

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 funeral expenses.

What This Bill Does

• Allows someone to handle a small estate without hiring a lawyer if the estate consists solely of one or more life insurance policies worth no more than $15,000 intended for final expenses like burial and funeral costs.
• Specifies that when someone files paperwork for a small estate, they are doing it as an individual and not in any official role.
• Requires court clerks to provide standardized forms to people who qualify under this new rule.

Who It Names or Affects

• People who need to manage small estates with life insurance policies worth up to $15,000 for final expenses.
• Court clerks who will have to provide standardized forms to those filing for a small estate affidavit or limited letters of authority.

Terms To Know

pro se

When someone represents themselves in court without a lawyer.

fiduciary capacity

A role where someone acts on behalf of another person, like managing their money or property.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify what happens if the estate includes other types of assets besides life insurance policies.
• It is unclear how this change will affect existing probate procedures for larger estates.

Official Summary Text

Abstract summarizes the bill.

Current Bill Text

HOUSE BILL 2269
By Hale

SENATE BILL 2290
By Stevens
SB2290
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.