Nashville Estate Planning, Probate, and Estate Litigation Attorneys

Three Practices, One Firm: Plan an Estate, Settle an Estate, or Fight for One

Higgins Estate Group handles the full life of a Tennessee estate. We draft the wills and trusts that keep families out of court. We administer probate when someone dies. And when an estate is contested, we litigate it.

Most Middle Tennessee firms do one of those three. Doing all three means we draft documents knowing exactly how they get attacked, and we litigate knowing exactly how the probate court in each county actually runs.

Jim Higgins has practiced estate law in Tennessee since 1993. Our office is on Hart Street in Nashville, and we appear regularly in the probate courts of Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, and Sumner counties.

Estate Planning: Wills, Trusts, and Powers of Attorney

Flat-fee pricing, no hourly surprises. You know the cost before we start.

Most people put this off because they do not know what it costs or how long it takes. For a straightforward Tennessee estate plan, the answer is a fixed price and a few weeks.

What we prepare:

• A last will and testament, drafted to Tennessee execution requirements under T.C.A. § 32-1-104 so it survives a challenge
• Revocable living trusts, for families who want to keep property out of probate entirely
• Durable powers of attorney for finances
• Advance care directives and health care powers of attorney
• Pet trusts
• Beneficiary and titling review, which is where most plans quietly fail

A note most planning firms will not put in writing: we spend a significant part of our practice litigating other lawyers’ estate plans. The documents that generate lawsuits share the same handful of flaws. Ambiguous residuary clauses. A will signed when capacity was already in question and nobody documented it. Real property left to three children as joint owners with no direction about what happens if they disagree, which is how a family ends up in a partition lawsuit. We draft against those failures because we have litigated them.

Probate and Estate Administration

No upfront probate costs for qualified estates. Fees come out of the estate, not your pocket.

When a Tennessee resident dies, someone has to open the estate, notify creditors, inventory assets, pay valid claims, and distribute what remains. Depending on what the person owned and whether they left a will, that is a full probate administration, a small estate administration, or in some cases nothing more than a muniment of title.

What we handle:

• Full probate administration in Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, and Sumner county probate courts
• Small estate administration, available when probate personal property is $50,000 or less under T.C.A. § 30-4-102
• Muniment of title, where a will can transfer real property without a full administration
• Intestate estates, where there is no will and Tennessee intestacy law decides who inherits
• Creditor claims, notices, and the claims period
• Serving as counsel to an executor or administrator who wants it done correctly the first time

Executors carry personal liability for getting this wrong. Most of the executor misconduct cases we litigate started with someone who meant well and did not know the rules.

Estate Litigation: When the Estate Is Contested

Most clients reach this section after something has already gone wrong. A sibling will not sell the house. An executor stopped answering the phone. A will surfaced that does not look like anything the person would have signed.

What we litigate:

• Partition actions. Forcing the sale of inherited real estate when co-owners cannot agree, under T.C.A. § 29-27-101 et seq.
• Will contests. Challenging a will for undue influence, lack of testamentary capacity, fraud, duress, or improper execution.
• Executor misconduct. Removing or suing an executor who is mismanaging, self-dealing, or taking from the estate.
• Inheritance disputes. Sibling conflicts, disputed distributions, and heirs who cannot agree.
• Contested probate. Fights over how an estate is being administered.
• Conservatorship litigation. Contested conservatorship and guardianship proceedings.
• Elder financial exploitation. Recovering assets taken from a vulnerable family member.

These cases have deadlines. Tennessee gives you two years from entry of the order admitting a will to probate to contest it, under T.C.A. § 32-4-108, and other claims run shorter. If you think something is wrong, the call should happen now, not after you have gathered every document.

Not Sure Which One You Need?

Plenty of people call us unsure whether they have a legal problem or a family problem. That is a normal place to start.

Call us if:

• A parent has died and you do not know whether the estate has to go through probate
• You have been named executor and do not know what you are obligated to do
• You inherited property with siblings and cannot agree what to do with it
• An executor has gone quiet, will not share documents, or is selling assets without explanation
• You were left out of a will, or a will appeared that does not match what you were told
• You have been putting off making a will and want to know what it costs
• Someone is trying to take control of an aging parent’s finances

Consultations are free. We will tell you directly whether you have a matter worth pursuing, what it is likely to cost, and what your options are under Tennessee law. If you do not need a lawyer, we will say so.

Why Families in Middle Tennessee Call Us

• Estate law is what we do. Not a department inside a general practice. Wills, trusts, probate, and estate litigation are the whole practice.
• Practicing in Tennessee since 1993. Jim Higgins has more than three decades of Tennessee estate work behind him.
• Both sides of the table. We draft plans and we attack them. Very few firms in this market do both, and it makes each side of the practice better.
• Pricing you can see up front. Flat fees on estate planning. No upfront cost on qualified probate estates.
• We know these courts. Davidson County Probate Court runs differently than Williamson County. Rutherford runs differently than Wilson. Local procedure matters more in probate than in almost any other area of Tennessee practice.

[[ JIM: REPLACE THIS BLOCK BEFORE PUBLISHING. Insert two to four sentences describing a real matter you handled. No client names. A partition case that settled at mediation, an executor removal, or an estate plan that held up against a challenge. This is the E-E-A-T first-hand experience requirement. Delete this block if you would rather leave it out. ]]

Where We Practice

Our office is at 200 Hart Street in Nashville. We handle estate matters throughout Middle Tennessee, including:

• Davidson County (Nashville). Seventh Circuit Court, Probate Division, at 1 Public Square. See our Nashville probate lawyers page.
• Williamson County (Franklin, Brentwood). See Franklin probate lawyers.
• Rutherford County (Murfreesboro). See Murfreesboro probate lawyer.
• Wilson County (Lebanon, Mt. Juliet)
• Sumner County (Hendersonville, Gallatin)
• Cheatham County

Partition actions are filed in the Tennessee county where the property sits, regardless of where the heirs live. We represent out-of-state heirs regularly and they rarely need to travel.

Common Questions About Tennessee Estates

Start With a Conversation

Whether you are planning an estate, settling one, or fighting over one, the first step is the same. Call 615.353.0930 or 866.972.0125, or use the form below. We respond the same business day.

Last Updated: September 2026