Tennessee Code Title 8. Public Officers and Employees § 8-36-120

(a) In cases where a lump sum is payable to an individual's estate under chapters 34-37 of this title, payment shall be made to the duly qualified executor or administrator of the estate. When no executor or administrator has qualified and given notice of such qualifications to the retirement division after the expiration of forty-five (45) days from the date of the individual's death, then payment shall be made to the executor named in any will of the individual known to the retirement division. In the absence of actual knowledge of a purported will naming a surviving executor, payment may be made to the individual's spouse if the amount payable does not exceed fifty thousand dollars ($50,000). If there is no surviving spouse at the time of the individual's death, and if the amount payable does not exceed the amount a bank may pay under § 45-2-708(a), then payment may be made to the individual's next-of-kin upon proper documentation as required by the retirement division. In making any determinations and payments under this section, the retirement division is entitled to conclusively rely on the written statements of the informant listed on individual's death certificate or on the written statements of such other person who informs the retirement division of the death.

(b) Upon payment pursuant to this section, the retirement division shall be released and discharged from all further liability from any claim which then exists or which thereafter may arise or be made in respect to the payment.