Last Wills & Testaments
in Tennessee

“Handwritten Wills are Holographic”

A holographic will is probably the oldest type of will around and is also the simplest: you simply take a pen, a piece of paper, and write out in your own handwriting who you want to get your possessions when something happens to you.

These are perfectly legal in Tennessee and, despite a few extra steps that will need to be taken in court when the will is probated, are quite common and can be very useful.

In addition, certain elements will be centered on mobile devices and tablets and aligned to the left or right on a desktop display. You can adjust the layout for each Block at three different device widths – desktop, tablet, and mobile.

The basic requirements for a holographic will to be valid are:

“Attested wills have witnesses”

The most commonly known form of will is an attested will, which is where an attorney will type up a person’s wishes, print out multiple copies, and then the testator will sign the will in front of two random people (typically employees of the attorney’s office). 

The witness are attesting, to a future probate court, a) to the fact that the testator is the person they claim to be, and b) that they personally watched the testator sign the will.

It is very common for the attested will to have a self-proving affidavit which is signed by a notary. This is *NOT* a “notarized will” (which we’ll get to later). The self-proving affidavit is used so that probate courts can rely on the signature of the witnesses alone, otherwise the court would have to track down the witnesses and confirm that the signatures on will is their signature. This is why self-proving affidavits are so useful – the witnesses sign once and then are never needed again.

To recap: The witnesses confirm that the testator is who they claim to be. The notary confirms the witnesses are who they claim to be.

“Nuncupative wills are deathbed wills”

A nuncupative will is the unusual form of will. These are perfectly legal in Tennessee but they are unusual in the fact that they are not commonly seen.

The scenario is this: a person is sick or injured and they believe they are about to die. They get two people – a nurse/friend/random people – and tell both of them, at the same time, something like “I want my son to get Eleanor, my 1967 GT500, and I want my daughter to get my Hallberg-Rassey 69 yacht. My spouse gets the house in Virgin Islands and everything else.” (Why this person doesn’t have better estate planning is a good question, but it’s an example so let’s have fun with it.) The testator then passes away.

At least one of those people, being a good and moral person, writes down what they remember being told. This document is then considered a will that can be probated by the courts.

Key takeaways:

• Testator has to think they are dying;
• Testator tells two witnesses what their dying wishes are;
• Testator then dies;
• At least one of those witness writes down what Testator said within 30 days of hearing the Testator’s dying wishes; and
• The document must be introduced to the probate court as a will within six months of the Testator’s death.

“Notarized Wills are no good”

Notarized wills – where the testator signs solely in front of a notary without another witnesses – is not a valid will in Tennessee. There may be some instances where a notarized will which is executed in another state may be admitted to probate as a valid foreign will, but a Tennessee resident should not execute a notarized will; find two witnesses and then you can “upgrade” to an attested will.

Closing thoughts

Hopefully this answers some of the more common questions which see see fairly often and that you may also have. 

Attested wills are, in our opinion, the most effective form of Last Wills & Testaments in Tennessee – not because you are paying an attorney (more than likely) to draft one, but because a properly executed attested will with a self-proving affidavit is very difficult to dispute in later probate proceedings, and it’s our philosophy that the more possible arguments you can remove, the better off you are.

If you have additional questions or would like us to draft a Last Will & Testament on your behalf, both Adam and Corbin have considerable experience in counseling and drafting will as part of an overall estate plan.