When a parent dies, Arrington's estate homes and horse acreage answer to the Chancery Court in Franklin for months, not to the family. A revocable living trust keeps them in family hands.
Williamson County has no probate court of its own. When an Arrington owner dies with the land in one name, the estate goes to the Williamson County Chancery Court, handled by the Clerk and Master's office at the Judicial Center, 135 Fourth Avenue South in Franklin. Probate means a probate attorney, court costs, a file anyone can read, and at least four months of waiting that the law sets aside for creditors before the estate can close. A revocable living trust puts the deed in the trust now, so the person you name signs for the land on the day it is needed and nobody opens a case in Franklin.
It costs nothing. You leave knowing what you need and what it costs, in writing.
Revocable living trusts · Wills · Powers of attorney · Arrington, Tennessee
Vanderpool Law writes the trust around the deed you already have, names the one person who signs for the acreage or the house behind the gate, and records it in Franklin while you are here to decide. Thirty minutes to talk it through, no charge, no obligation.
In short: A will does not keep an Arrington estate out of probate; it sends the land to the Chancery Court in Franklin with a will attached. A funded revocable living trust passes the house or the acreage by deed to the people you name, with no case at the Judicial Center and no public file. It also names who decides for you if you cannot, which matters when the asset is land that has to be managed, not just held. Vanderpool Law prepares the trust, the pour-over will, both powers of attorney and the deed, and records that deed with the Williamson County Register on West Main Street, Franklin, or in Murfreesboro for the Rutherford end of the ZIP code. One flat fee, put in writing before you decide, after thirty minutes that cost you nothing.
Arrington at a glance
- County
- Williamson County, unincorporated; the 37014 ZIP also has a segment in Rutherford County
- Probate
- Williamson County Chancery Court, Clerk and Master, Judicial Center, 135 4th Avenue South, Room 236, Franklin
- Register of Deeds
- Sherry Anderson, 1320 West Main St., Suite 201, Franklin; Rutherford-side parcels record in Murfreesboro
- Transfer tax
- 37 cents per $100; the deed into your own revocable trust is exempt
- Median sale price
- $1,516,152 across 138 closed sales in the twelve months ending August 20, 2026
- Population
- 2,498 in ZIP 37014 at the 2020 Census
- Deed into your trust
- Exempt from the state transfer tax; recorded by Vanderpool Law.
A living trust for a Arrington family
Arrington is about 2,500 people and a great deal of land: the gated 700 acres of Kings Chapel with more than 420 homes and a club, the new sections of Hardeman Springs along Highway 96 across from the vineyard, two-acre lots in Black Hawk, and the farms along Cox Road and Wilson Pike that were here before any of it. Most of that is held in one name, a parent's name, on a deed recorded in Franklin. The day that parent dies, the deed does not move. The Williamson County Chancery Court takes charge of the estate through the Clerk and Master, the heirs hire a probate attorney, the court costs come out of the estate, the file sits open for anyone to read, and the law holds everything at least four months for creditors. For that stretch nobody can sell the acreage, lease the pasture or sign for the house. The family is grieving and waiting on a courthouse at the same time, and the second part was avoidable.
Arrington land brings questions a city lot never raises, and a trust has to answer them in advance. Greenbelt acreage needs at least 15 acres and a fresh application by March 15 when it changes hands, and a trustee who misses that date hands the heirs a rollback bill; the trust can say who files it. A house in Fox Farms sits on a STEP wastewater system with a tank easement on the lot, and the deed into the trust has to carry that easement the way the Register has it. Behind the gate at Kings Chapel the covenants and the club's terms bind whoever holds the house next, so the trust should say who that is. Village lots south of Murfreesboro Road lie in Arrington Creek's floodplain, which limits what a trustee can build or sell there. A 37014 address on the Rutherford end answers to a different court and a different Register, so we pull the parcel before we draw a line. And the county was rewriting the village's zoning in the fall of 2026; a trust written now keeps the land under one steady hand while the rules change around it.
Vanderpool Law is in Franklin on Seaboard Lane, about twenty minutes from Arrington out Highway 96, and the first conversation is thirty minutes, on the phone or across the desk, and it costs you nothing. Bring the deed to the acreage or the house, the greenbelt application if there is one, and any will or trust somebody drew for you years ago; we read them all, complimentary, and tell you plainly what you need and what it costs, in writing, before you decide a thing. Once you do, the deed into the trust records with the Williamson County Register of Deeds at 1320 West Main Street, Franklin, a few minutes from our office, and the transfer into your own revocable trust pays no state transfer tax. If the price is the thing standing in the way, say so: for a family going through a rough time, in certain situations, there is a trust scholarship.
Questions Arrington families ask about trusts
The questions Google shows for living trust searches in Williamson County, answered here for Arrington, where the estate is usually acreage or a new house behind a gate. The full answer is one click away on each.
How do I put my house into a trust in Tennessee?
By a deed from you to yourself as trustee of your revocable trust, recorded at the Register of Deeds for the county the land is in: Franklin for a Williamson parcel, Murfreesboro for the Rutherford end of 37014. For Arrington acreage the deed must carry the same legal description the Register already holds, including any wastewater tank easement in a subdivision like Fox Farms, or the trust holds less than you think. Vanderpool Law draws the deed from the recorded one and records it the week you sign; the transfer is exempt from the state transfer tax.
Full answer: Deeds in Tennessee: moving land into your trust →
What happens if you die without a will in Tennessee?
Tennessee writes the plan for you. An Arrington estate in one name goes to the Chancery Court in Franklin, the court appoints an administrator, and the statute decides who takes the land and in what shares, which is how a farm on Cox Road ends up with several owners and no one able to sign. The small-estate route is closed to any estate that holds real property, so land is never the short version. A revocable living trust replaces the statute's plan with yours.
Full answer: No estate plan? Tennessee has one for you →
Can I put my house in a trust and still live in it?
Yes. The deed names you as trustee, you keep living behind the gate at Kings Chapel or on the acreage exactly as before, you can sell, refinance or change the trust at any time, and the greenbelt classification stays with the land. Nothing changes on the day you sign except who holds the title. What changes later is that the person you named can act for the land the day you cannot, without a filing in Franklin.
Full answer: Living trust in Tennessee: do you need one? →
How much does a living trust cost in Tennessee?
One flat fee for the whole package: the trust, the pour-over will, the durable and healthcare powers of attorney and the deed into the trust. Vanderpool Law quotes it in writing after a thirty-minute conversation that costs you nothing, and nothing gets added later. An Arrington plan with a house in Hardeman Springs and a greenbelt tract on Wilson Pike means two deeds, and the written quote reflects that before you commit.
Full answer: How much does a living trust cost in Tennessee? →
Who needs a durable power of attorney?
Anyone whose name is on Arrington land. If you are alive but cannot sign, the trust covers what is in it, and the durable power of attorney covers everything else: the bank, the insurance, the greenbelt filing, the association behind the gate. Without one, your spouse or your grown son petitions the Chancery Court in Franklin for a conservatorship before anyone can act, which is the probate experience arriving early. We draw it with the trust so the two documents name the same people.
Full answer: Durable power of attorney in Tennessee →
Does a will avoid probate in Tennessee?
No. A will is the document the Chancery Court reads; it tells the Clerk and Master in Franklin who gets the land after the attorney, the costs and the four-month creditor window, and Tennessee has no transfer-on-death deed to route around that. An Arrington estate with acreage or a new house in one name goes the full distance on a will alone. A funded revocable living trust is what keeps the land out of the courthouse, with a pour-over will behind it as the backstop.
Full answer: Wills in Tennessee: what makes one valid →
The full answers, by Jim Vanderpool
Each one with the Tennessee statute it rests on.
151 five-star Google reviews
Estate planning nearby: Franklin · Nolensville · College Grove · Eagleville · All of Middle Tennessee
Vanderpool Law · 256 Seaboard Lane G-104, Franklin, TN 37067 · Call the office
This page is general information about living trusts and estate planning for Arrington, Tennessee, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship exists until an engagement letter is signed. Probate in Sumner County and the other Tennessee counties is in the court the county assigns it to; recording is at that county's Register of Deeds. Figures are as of the date shown and change.