What assets are subject to probate?

“And the simple answer is that it’s any asset that you may have an ownership interest in that doesn’t transfer outside of probate by a transfer on death provision or payable on death provision or something like that.  An example of that would be a bank account you have in your name alone, a savings account, a retirement account which you don’t have a transfer on death beneficiary on there. Personal property is also an asset that passes through probate. One thing that is an unusual thing for people to realize is that, in Tennessee, real estate actually is not a probate asset. While real estate generally is not a probate asset in Tennessee, it can be made part of your probate estate by certain special, statutory language that you can include in a will. And if you have questions about what assets are probate assets and what assets are not probate assets, those are certainly things we can discuss, and we’d be happy to meet with you about that.