(a) A trust is created only if:

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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 35-15-402

  • Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
  • Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
  • Beneficiary: means a person that has a present or future beneficial interest in a trust, vested or contingent. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
  • Charitable trust: means a trust, or portion of a trust, created for a charitable purpose described in §. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
  • Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
  • Person: means an individual. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
  • Property: means anything that may be the subject of ownership, whether real or personal, legal or equitable, or any interest therein. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
  • Settlor: means a person, including a testator, who creates, or contributes property to, a trust. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
  • Trust instrument: means an instrument executed by the settlor that contains terms of the trust, including any amendments thereto. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
  • Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
  • Trustee: includes an original, additional, and successor trustee, and a cotrustee. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
(1) The settlor has capacity to create a trust;
(2) The settlor indicates an intention to create the trust;
(3) The trust has a definite beneficiary or is:

(A) A charitable trust;
(B) A trust for the care of an animal, as provided in § 35-15-408; or
(C) A trust for a noncharitable purpose, as provided in § 35-15-409;
(4) The trustee has duties to perform; and
(5) The same person is not the sole trustee and sole beneficiary.
(b) A beneficiary is definite if the beneficiary can be ascertained now or in the future, subject to any applicable rule against perpetuities.
(c) A power in a trustee to select a beneficiary from an indefinite class is valid. If the power is not exercised within a reasonable time, the power fails and the property subject to the power passes to the persons who would have taken the property had the power not been conferred.
(d) A lifetime trust is valid as to any assets held by the trust to the extent the assets have been transferred to the trust. For purposes of this subsection (d):

(1) Assets capable of registration, such as real estate, stocks, bonds, bank and brokerage accounts, and the like, are transferred to the trust through the recording of the deed or the completion of registration of the asset in the name of the trust or trustee. Assets that are capable of registration are not transferred to the trust through only a recital of assignment, holding, or receipt in the trust instrument; and
(2) Assets not capable of registration, are transferred to the trust through a recital of assignment describing the asset with particularity in the trust instrument.
(e) Notwithstanding subdivision (a)(4), a passive trust is not terminable because it is passive.
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