Knoxville Estate Planning Attorney
Preserving the land East Tennessee families have held for generations.
By Knight Lancaster, JD, CPA · Last reviewed May 2026
Lancaster Law is a Tennessee wills and estate planning practice. Our Knoxville office sits on Gay Street, downtown, a few blocks from the Tennessee River and the University of Tennessee, and we meet East Tennessee families and business owners there by appointment. The drafting is handled out of our Nashville office; the signing is scheduled at the location that fits your week.
Knight Lancaster, JD, CPA, MBA, holds his accounting degree from the University of Tennessee, here in Knoxville. He is one of a small number of attorneys in Tennessee who is also a licensed Certified Public Accountant. For the families we serve, that means the trust and the tax return are read in the same hour, by the same person, in the same room.
Downtown Knoxville on Gay Street, near the Tennessee River.
The Office
800 South Gay Street, Suite 700.
800 S Gay Street, Suite 700
Knoxville, TN 37929
865.448.7246By appointment.
We will share parking instructions and a building map when we confirm your appointment.
The Families We Serve
Who we sit down with.
Most of the Knoxville families we work with have been in East Tennessee for at least one generation, often three or four. The family farm. The mountain place that has been in the family since the children were small. The business that started in one back room and now employs forty people. The estate plan written when the parents were still alive, and the parents have been gone for ten years.
We sit down with the people who hold all of that and put the next chapter on paper. Most families finish in three visits over four to six weeks.
What We Handle
Five practice areas, one table.
| Estate Planning | The full plan: wills, trusts, healthcare directives, powers of attorney. Drafted in one sitting. |
| Wills | A stand-alone will, current and clear, for families who do not yet need a trust. |
| Trusts | Revocable, irrevocable, asset protection, and special needs structures, funded properly. |
| Tax Planning | Estate, gift, and income tax planning, read by a JD CPA, on the same page as the legal work. |
| Business Services | Family LLCs, succession plans, and buy-sell agreements drafted with the estate in view. |
What the Plan Has to Do
What a Knoxville plan has to do.
Most Knoxville plans have to do five things at once.
Hold land that has been in the family for decades.
Family farms, mountain property, and inherited acreage all need a plan that survives the people who built it.
Speak across generations.
Children, grandchildren, and the people who married into the family should be able to read the plan and understand what was meant.
Account for the business.
If the estate includes a closely held company, the plan has to answer what happens to it before the question becomes urgent.
Address what happens before death, not just after.
Incapacity is the harder problem and the one most plans skip. The plan should tell your family who decides, in writing, before they need to.
Stay private and out of court.
Properly drafted trusts and titled accounts transfer an estate to the next generation without a judge involved.
"What you leave behind, and how."
First Visit
First-visit, answered.
What happens at a first appointment?
A first meeting is a conversation. We listen to your situation, your assets, your worries, and what you want to leave behind. We tell you what you need, why it matters, roughly what it will cost, and whether to start now or wait.
How do you handle a family farm or land that has been in the family for generations?
Carefully. Multi-generational land needs a plan that addresses titling, succession, tax basis, and the difference between the children who want to keep it and the children who do not. We draft for the conversation that has to happen, not the conversation everyone is avoiding.
Can the signing happen remotely?
For most documents, yes. Tennessee Remote Online Notarization lets us execute wills, trusts, and powers of attorney without an in-person visit. A few documents still require a physical signing, and we will tell you which.
Who will I meet with?
Knight Lancaster handles the planning conversation directly. The Lancaster CPA Firm, his sister firm, handles the tax filings that go with the plan when those filings are needed.
Do I have to come to Gay Street?
No. We meet clients at six other Tennessee offices, including our home office in Nashville. The drafting still happens in Nashville, and the plan is the same wherever you sign it.
When you're ready to sit down on Gay Street.
Reviewed by Knight Lancaster, JD, CPA, MBA
Knight Lancaster is the founder of Lancaster Law, P.C. and The Lancaster CPA Firm, P.C. in Nashville, Tennessee. He is one of a small number of attorneys in Tennessee who is also a licensed CPA, giving him a dual perspective on estate planning and the tax consequences that drive it. Knight has been recognized in Best Lawyers in America, Ones to Watch (Corporate Law), in 2023 and 2024, and serves on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Attorney-CPAs. He earned his JD and MBA from Belmont University (the first graduate of Belmont's joint JD/MBA program) and a BS in Accounting from the University of Tennessee.
Read Knight's full bio|Book My Planning Call
This page is for educational purposes only and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice specific to your situation, contact Lancaster Law directly.
Tennessee Bar
Practicing since 2019
Triple credential
JD · CPA · MBA
Peer-reviewed
Best Lawyers, Ones to Watch, 2023 + 2024
National board
American Academy of Attorney-CPAs, Director
Counsel across Tennessee.
Plan a quiet hundred years.