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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 35-15-605

  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.
  • Personal property: includes money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • 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
  • Revocable trust: A trust agreement that can be canceled, rescinded, revoked, or repealed by the grantor (person who establishes the trust).
  • Settlor: means a person, including a testator, who creates, or contributes property to, a trust. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
  • signed: includes a mark, the name being written near the mark and witnessed, or any other symbol or methodology executed or adopted by a party with intention to authenticate a writing or record, regardless of being witnessed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • 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
  • written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(1) A revocable (living) trust that becomes irrevocable upon the death of its settlor may refer to a written statement or list to dispose of items of tangible personal property not otherwise specifically disposed of by the revocable trust, other than money, evidences of indebtedness, documents of title, securities, and property used in a trade or business.
(2) To be effective under this section as evidence of the intended disposition, the writing:

(A) Must:

(i) Be either in the handwriting of the settlor or signed by the settlor;
(ii) Be dated; and
(iii) Describe the items and the beneficiaries with reasonable certainty;
(B) May be prepared before or after the execution of the revocable trust;
(C) May be altered by the settlor after its preparation, provided that the settlor signs and dates the alteration; and
(D) May be a writing that has no significance apart from its effect upon the dispositions made by the revocable trust.
(3) If more than one (1) otherwise effective writings exist or a single writing contains properly signed and dated alterations, the provisions of the most recent writing or alteration revoke any inconsistent provisions of all prior writings.
(b) A trustee is not liable for any distribution of tangible personal property to the apparent beneficiary under the settlor’s revocable trust without actual knowledge of the written statement or list, as described in subsection (a), and the trustee has no duty to recover property distributed without knowledge of the written statement or list.
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