Tennessee Last Will and Testament (2026)

2 witnesses, each at least 18 years old (Tenn. Code Ann. § 32-1-104). The witnesses must sign in the testator's presence, within a reasonable time after witnessing the signing or the testator's acknowledgment of the signature. A will signed with fewer witnesses than the statute requires is not admitted to probate, and the estate passes under the intestacy statute instead.

Not to make the will valid. The notary in Tennessee is there for the self-proving affidavit (Tenn. Code Ann. § 32-2-110), which is what lets the will be admitted without tracking your witnesses down years later.

Yes. Tennessee admits a holographic will — one written and signed entirely in your own hand, with no witnesses (Tenn. Code Ann. § 32-1-105). Even where one is allowed it is the weakest kind of will: there is nobody to say you were of sound mind, the handwriting has to be proved, and courts read informal documents strictly. This document is a typed, witnessed will, which is admitted everywhere.

It is a sworn statement, signed by you and your witnesses in front of a notary at the same sitting, saying the will was signed properly. It turns the will into one the court can admit on the paperwork alone. In Tennessee it follows Tenn. Code Ann. § 32-2-110 — Available. The affidavit may be signed at the same ceremony as the will, on a page attached to it, or added later before a notary. Without it your executor must find your witnesses, possibly decades later, and have them swear to the signature.

You can write the will that way, but it will not hold. Your spouse may elect against the will and take a share of the augmented estate that rises with the length of your marriage (Tenn. Code Ann. § 31-4-101).

Partly. Tennessee enforces the clause, but not against a beneficiary who brings the challenge in good faith and on probable cause (Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 32). It stops a nuisance contest; it does not stop a well-founded one.

Yes. Tennessee puts no residence requirement on an executor, and the waiver of bond in this will is honored in the ordinary case (Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 32).

No. Tennessee has no electronic wills statute (Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 32): a will here must be signed on paper. Whatever your state allows, the original signed paper is what the probate court wants to see — a scan or a photograph is not a substitute.

Somewhere your executor can reach it within a day of your death, and not in a safe-deposit box that is sealed when you die. A fireproof box at home, your attorney's file, or the probate court's own will deposit where your state offers one. Tell your executor where it is and give the executor a copy. Do not write on the original after signing: a crossed-out name or a marginal note does not change the will and can raise a question about whether you revoked it.