Most of Lebanon's new families have no plan for the day they die. A revocable living trust keeps yours out of the Wilson County Probate Court.
Wilson County has a Probate Court of its own, on South College Street in Lebanon, and an estate there means a probate attorney, court costs, a public file, and at least four months of waiting the law requires before your family can settle anything. Most of the new families in town have no plan at all, which means that court is the plan. A revocable living trust is the other plan: private, no judge, no waiting.
It costs nothing. You leave knowing what you need and what it costs, in writing.
Revocable living trusts · Wills · Powers of attorney · Lebanon, Tennessee
Vanderpool Law draws the plan with you now, while you're here to make the decisions, so your Lebanon family follows your instructions instead of standing in the Probate Court on South College. Thirty minutes, no charge, no obligation. Let's talk.
In short: Wilson County has its own Probate Court, at 134 South College Street in Lebanon, a short walk from the Register's office on East Main. A Lebanon house titled in one name goes through that court after a death, in public, before anyone can sell it. A funded revocable living trust passes the house by deed to the people you name, with no case. Lebanon has five local historic districts, and a trustee who inherits a house in one of them inherits its design guidelines; the trust should say who that person is. Vanderpool Law, about an hour away in Franklin, draws the plan and records the deed at the Wilson County Register, for one flat fee quoted in writing after thirty minutes that cost nothing.
Lebanon at a glance
- County
- Wilson County; Lebanon is the county seat
- Probate
- Wilson County Probate Court, 134 South College Street, Lebanon; the Clerk and Master serves as its clerk
- Register of Deeds
- Wilson County Courthouse, 228 East Main Street, Lebanon
- Transfer tax
- 37 cents per $100; the deed into your own revocable trust is exempt
- Median sale price
- $446,807 in ZIP 37087 for the three months ending August 2026
- Population
- 53,412, Census estimate July 1, 2025, up from 38,908 in 2020
- Deed into your trust
- Exempt from the state transfer tax; recorded by Vanderpool Law.
A living trust for a Lebanon family
Wilson County has its own Probate Court, at 134 South College Street in Lebanon, a short walk from the Register's office on East Main. A house titled in one person's name usually passes through that court after a death; a will names who handles it, and a trust can keep the house out of court altogether.
Lebanon grew from 39,000 people to 53,000 in five years, and the estates split along the line of that growth. The old city is historic: the Square district, the 146 houses of the Cumberland University district, Greenlawn, East Spring Street, and the eleven houses on West Main the city protected in 2021 as the last unmodified homes on the street. A house in any of those passes with its design guidelines attached, and the trustee who inherits it needs to know that a window or an addition goes through historic review. The new city is the subdivisions that added 14,000 people, where the house is worth around $447,000 and most owners have no plan for it yet. In both, a house in one name alone goes to the Probate Court on South College, and the file is public.
Vanderpool Law is in Franklin, about an hour by I-840 to Seaboard Lane, and most of our Lebanon work begins by phone. The first conversation is thirty minutes, at no charge. Bring the deed, and for a historic district house the guidelines if you have them; we read them, complimentary, and tell you what you need and what it costs, in writing, before you decide. The deed into the trust records at the Wilson County Register at the courthouse on East Main Street, where we record our Wilson closings. 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 Lebanon families ask about trusts
The questions Google shows for living trust searches in Tennessee, answered here for Lebanon. The full answer is one click away on each.
How much does a living trust cost in Tennessee?
One flat fee for the trust, the pour-over will, both powers of attorney and the deed into the trust recorded on East Main, quoted in writing after a thirty-minute conversation that costs nothing. A Lebanon plan with a historic district house and a rental is two deeds, and the quote says so before you decide. Nothing is added later.
Full answer: How much a living trust costs in Tennessee →
Is it better to have a will or a trust in Tennessee?
In Wilson County a will means the Probate Court on South College, a public file, and a house nobody can sell for months. A funded trust means a deed and no case. For a Lebanon homeowner the trust is the better document; a pour-over will still comes along behind it as the backstop.
Full answer: Living trust in Tennessee: do you need one? →
Is it wise to put my house in a living trust?
Yes, and for a house in the Cumberland University or Greenlawn district it is the way to make sure the person who inherits it knows the rules that come with it. The trust can name a trustee who understands the guidelines and say whether the house is to be kept or sold. The deed into your own revocable trust changes nothing about the historic review, the tax bill or the mortgage.
Full answer: Living trust in Tennessee: do you need one? →
Can I just write out my own will?
Tennessee allows a handwritten will if two people can later swear to the writing, and a typed one with your signature and two witnesses. A homemade Lebanon will usually lacks the self-proving affidavit, so the Probate Court has to find your witnesses, and it still sends the house to that court. It is a thin plan for a $450,000 house.
Full answer: Wills in Tennessee: what makes one valid →
Who makes decisions for me if I can't?
Whoever you name in a durable power of attorney and a healthcare power of attorney, both drawn with the trust. Without them your family petitions the court on South College for a conservatorship, with a lawyer, a hearing and a public file, before anyone can sign for the house or talk to the bank. The Clerk and Master's office that would handle that petition is the same one we are trying to keep you out of.
Full answer: Durable power of attorney in Tennessee, and why so many get refused →
What happens to my retirement accounts and life insurance?
They go to whoever is on the beneficiary form, whatever the will or the trust says. For Lebanon's newer families the life insurance is often the second-largest thing in the estate, and a policy that names a child who is seven pays into a court account until she is eighteen. Naming the trust lets the person you chose manage it for her. We check every form with you.
Full answer: No estate plan? Tennessee has one for you →
The full answers, by Jim Vanderpool
Each one with the Tennessee statute it rests on.
151 five-star Google reviews
Estate planning nearby: Mount Juliet · Nashville · Hendersonville · Gallatin · 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 Lebanon, 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.