How much does a living trust cost in Tennessee?
Anywhere from a few hundred dollars to more than $10,000, and the number matters less than what comes with it. Online, the low price buys papers no attorney reviews, plus a yearly subscription. At the high end, some law offices charge $10,000 or more. Vanderpool Law charges one flat fee for the complete package, the trust, the pour-over will, the powers of attorney and the deed, quoted in writing after a thirty-minute conversation, with an attorney and no subscription.
The fee depends on your circumstances. If a trust is right for you, price won't be the objection; we'll find a way to make it work. For families who are truly going through a rough time but still need a trust, we have payment arrangements and may be able to offer a trust scholarship.1 We honestly believe having a trust is that important. The conversation is thirty minutes and costs nothing.
What the fee covers. A revocable living trust that holds your home and accounts and names who takes over if you can't act. A pour-over will that catches anything left outside it. A durable power of attorney for your finances and a healthcare power of attorney with your directive. The deed that puts your house into the trust and records it. And the thirty minutes with an attorney that turns the documents into a plan you understand. Tennessee has no inheritance or estate tax, so the only tax question is the federal one, and it reaches very few families.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 32-3-106 (pour-over wills); § 34-6-102 (durable powers of attorney); § 68-11-1803 (healthcare agents); § 66-26-103 (a deed must be recorded). Tennessee's inheritance tax ended for deaths after 2015.The catch at both extremes
Whether you look online or call a local attorney, one thing you find out about trusts is that there always seems to be a catch. Some online companies will tell you it's just a paper set, no attorney review, and charge a smaller fee, so long as you keep a yearly subscription going for any changes. Some attorneys' offices will charge you $10,000 or more, the price of a small car. It seems to be one extreme or the other.
I've lost people very dear to me who had a trust, and some who didn't. The difference in what those families went through is something I wish everyone could see.
Here is the only way I know to describe it. Without a trust, whether there's a will or not, there is almost certainly going to be court. You've just lost someone close to you, and now you have to open an estate, hire an attorney, pay court costs and fees, publish notice, wait out the creditor period, and account to a judge for everything. With a will or without one, that's the road, and it is a terrible time to have to walk it.
I've also sat with families who had a revocable living trust. There was no court. Everything was handled and resolved through the trust, quietly, by the person they had chosen, in weeks instead of months. The difference in those two journeys is night and day. If you could ask the family that went through probate whether they would have paid for a trust, knowing what they know now, they would have paid triple the price. Easily. Spend thirty minutes with Vanderpool Law and give your family the easy journey.
Full disclosure
Our firm believes that in most cases a trust is the right option for a Tennessee family, and that it should never be out of reach. So we charge what we consider a fair price: one flat fee. No subscription. No cost added later. No separate charge for the deed, and no recording fee on top. The number you're quoted is the number, period.
And for a family going through a rough time, in certain situations, we may offer a trust scholarship.1 Simply because it's the right thing to do.
Court, either way
A will goes to probate. No will goes to probate under Tennessee's default rules. Either way: an attorney, court costs, notice to creditors, a waiting period, a judge. Months, and real money, at the worst possible time.
No court
The person you named steps in. The house and the accounts pass under the trust's own terms. No petition, no publication, no accounting to a judge. Handled privately, in weeks.
The price of a trust is paid once, while you're here to decide. The price of not having one is paid by the people you leave behind, in court, when they can least bear it. That's the whole comparison. Come talk to us for thirty minutes and we'll tell you where you stand and what it would cost, in writing, with no obligation.
1. What a trust scholarship is. A complete living trust package, the same documents we prepare for anyone, with nothing left out, prepared by Vanderpool Law at a reduced fee or at no fee for a family that genuinely cannot afford one and genuinely needs one. There is no application and no paperwork to prove hardship. It comes up in the conversation, the attorney decides it case by case, and we can offer a limited number each year. We don't advertise the number, and we don't ask you to earn it beyond an honest conversation about where you are.
Thirty minutes, no charge, and you'll know what you need and what it costs. And if the price is the thing standing in the way, tell us. That's what the scholarship is for.