When a parent dies, probate puts what they owned and who gets it in a public file on the Square. A revocable living trust lets a Springfield family grieve in private.
Probate for a Springfield family is the Robertson County Chancery Court, through the Clerk and Master at 422 West Court Square, Room 102, on the Square where the 1879 courthouse stands. It means a probate attorney, court costs, and at least four months by law for creditors to come forward before the estate can close. It also means a public file: what your parent owned, what they owed, and the names of everyone who receives a share, open to anyone who asks at the counter. A funded revocable living trust passes the house by deed to the people you name, with no case opened on the Square and nothing on file for a neighbor to read.
It costs nothing. You leave knowing what you need and what it costs, in writing.
Revocable living trusts · Wills · Powers of attorney · Springfield, Tennessee
Vanderpool Law puts the plan in place now, while you can say who gets the house and who signs for it, so your Springfield family settles your affairs at the kitchen table and not at the Clerk and Master's counter. Thirty minutes to talk it through, no charge, no obligation.
In short: A will does not keep a Springfield family out of probate; it is the paper the Clerk and Master opens the file with. A funded revocable living trust passes the house by deed to the people you name, with no case in the Robertson County Chancery Court and no public file on West Court Square. If you cannot act for yourself, the trust and the powers of attorney say who decides, instead of a conservatorship petition in the same court. Vanderpool Law prepares the trust, the pour-over will, the powers of attorney and the deed, and records the deed at the Robertson County Register of Deeds on South Brown Street in Springfield. One flat fee, quoted in writing after thirty minutes that cost nothing.
Springfield at a glance
- County
- Robertson County; Springfield is the county seat, laid out in 1798, and the 37172 ZIP runs well past the city limits
- Probate
- Robertson County Chancery Court, Clerk and Master, 422 West Court Square, Room 102, Springfield
- Register of Deeds
- John West, 525 S. Brown St., Suite 211, Springfield; e-recording accepted
- Transfer tax
- 37 cents per $100; the deed into your own revocable trust is exempt
- Median sale price
- $329,682 for the three months ending August 2026, up 6.7% from a year earlier
- Population
- 20,090, Census estimate July 1, 2025
- Deed into your trust
- Exempt from the state transfer tax; recorded by Vanderpool Law.
A living trust for a Springfield family
Springfield has been the seat of Robertson County since the town was laid out in 1798, and the courthouse of 1879 still stands on the Square. The families here own an older house in the Historic Preservation District, a place on a Greenway street along Sulphur Fork Creek, a new house in Blackwood Farms or Summit View, or a farm out in the county that still carries a 37172 address. About 20,090 people live inside the city by the 2025 Census estimate, and the typical house sold for $329,682 in the three months ending August 2026. When a parent dies with the house in one name and no plan, the family carries the deed and the death certificate to the Clerk and Master at 422 West Court Square, Room 102, and opens a case in the Robertson County Chancery Court. From that morning on, the list of what Mom owned, the claims against it and the names of everyone who receives a share belong to a court file anyone can ask to see. The grief is private. The probate is not.
A revocable living trust fits the property Springfield actually has. In the Historic Preservation District, a change to the outside of a house, down to a covered front porch, needs a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Historic Preservation Commission, and the trustee who may one day sell should know it. In Blackwood Farms, Summit View, Lookout Crossing, Spring Creek and Jasper Fields, houses were bought off a plat while the streets were still going in; the deed into the trust describes the lot the way the recorded plat does. On greenbelt land, the trust should say who decides whether the farm keeps farming, since a tract that leaves the program owes rollback taxes, three years for farm or forest land and five for open space. The deed into your own revocable trust is exempt from the transfer tax and changes nothing about who lives there or who pays the city and county tax bills. And when the deed still names a grandparent, the trust is where that gets fixed, while the people who remember are still here to sign.
Springfield is about an hour north of Vanderpool Law's office in Franklin, up I-65 and I-24, and nobody has to make that drive. The first conversation is thirty minutes, by phone or in person, at no charge. Bring the deed and any will or trust you already have; we read them, complimentary, and tell you what you need and what it costs, in writing, before you decide anything. In most cases the papers can be signed by remote online notary, or by a mobile notary who comes to you, so the whole plan can be finished from Springfield. The deed into the trust records at the Robertson County Register of Deeds, John West, 525 South Brown Street, Suite 211, upstairs in the county office building, and we record it. 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 Springfield families ask about trusts
The questions Google shows for living trust searches in Robertson County, answered here for Springfield, where probate is a public file on the Square. The full answer is one click away on each.
Does a will avoid probate in Tennessee?
No. A will is the paper that opens the probate file: the Clerk and Master on West Court Square admits it, the executor it names is appointed, and the case runs from there with a probate attorney, court costs and the four-month creditor window the law requires. The will decides who gets the Springfield house; it does not decide whether the family goes to court to get it. A funded revocable living trust is the document that does that, and the pour-over will that comes with it only catches whatever was left outside the trust.
Full answer: Wills in Tennessee: what makes one valid →
How do I put my house into a trust in Tennessee?
By a deed from you to yourself as trustee, recorded at the Robertson County Register of Deeds on South Brown Street, which indexes by the names on the deed rather than the street address, so the names have to be exactly right. The deed into your own revocable trust is exempt from the state transfer tax. For a house in Blackwood Farms or Spring Creek the legal description comes from the recorded plat; for county land it comes from the last deed, which may still name a grandparent. Vanderpool Law draws and records the deed the week the trust is signed; a trust with no deed behind it holds nothing.
Full answer: Deeds in Tennessee: moving land into your trust →
What happens if you die without a will in Tennessee?
Tennessee's statute decides who inherits, and the Robertson County Chancery Court supervises the handing out. Your spouse and the heirs the statute lists share the house by a formula the law sets, not one you chose, and a Springfield house with three owners on the deed cannot be sold until all three agree. The case is public, it cannot close for at least four months, and the small-estate petition in the court's document center is no help when there is real property. A revocable living trust replaces the statute with your own instructions.
Full answer: No estate plan? Tennessee has one for you →
Can I put my house in a trust and still live in it?
Yes. You are the trustee of your own revocable trust: you live in the house, you can sell it, refinance it or take it back out, and nothing about the day to day changes. The City of Springfield's tax bill and the Robertson County bill still come to you, your insurance stays as it is, and the mortgage is unaffected. What changes is the day you die: the successor trustee you named signs for the house instead of the Clerk and Master opening a file on the Square.
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 plan, the revocable trust, the pour-over will, the durable and healthcare powers of attorney and the deed into the trust, quoted in writing after a thirty-minute conversation that costs nothing. A Springfield plan with a house in town and a tract out in the county is two deeds, and the quote says so before you decide. Nothing is added later, and the number is weighed against what a probate case on West Court Square would cost the family instead.
Full answer: How much does a living trust cost in Tennessee? →
Who needs a durable power of attorney?
Anyone who owns a house in Springfield and would rather their family not petition the Chancery Court for a conservatorship if a stroke or a diagnosis takes away the ability to sign. The durable power of attorney names the person who pays the two tax bills, deals with the city utility account and, if it comes to it, sells the house while you are alive but cannot act. It is drawn with the trust, names the same people, and is written so a bank will accept it.
Full answer: Durable power of attorney in Tennessee →
The full answers, by Jim Vanderpool
Each one with the Tennessee statute it rests on.
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This page is general information about living trusts and estate planning for Springfield, 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.