Georgia Wills, Trust, and Probate

Depending on your individual situation, your estate plan may consist of several different documents, such as a will, trust, power of attorney in the event of incapacity, advanced care directive, or healthcare surrogate designation. However great or small your assets, and however old you are, it is important to continually update your will, even though it can be an emotional procedure. A Georgia wills and trusts lawyer can help you create and update your will and make the process less difficult.

Georgia Will

Phrase your will in accordance with Georgia law. If you fail to do so, you run the risk that your will may not be considered legally binding, and that your property may not be allocated as you desire. Make sure that in drafting your Georgia will you have:

1. Witnesses: In Georgia, the testator must sign his will in front of two competent witnesses. If a witness is a beneficiary under the will, he must forfeit his rights under the will in order for the will to be valid.
2. Notarization: A Georgia will need not be notarized. However, if you wish to create a self-proving will, both witnesses must sign a self-proving affidavit and the affidavit must be notarized to be valid.

You do not have to make a self-proving will. However, the advantage of doing so is that your witnesses will not have to appear in court to attest to your will when your will is finally probated. Locating witnesses to appear in court after years have passed can be a complicated process, especially since a witness may have died or relocated. Find a Georgia lawyer who specializes in probate law to advise you on drafting your will in accordance with Georgia law.

Changing a Will in Georgia

In Georgia, you can modify your will by:

1. Amending your will using a codicil, which is like an addition to the old will; or
2. Writing a new will with terms that revoke the first will. Alternatively, you can write a new will and physically destroy the old one.

Either way you modify your will, you must ensure that you have the correct number of witnesses and that your will is properly phrased to guarantee that your property will be distributed as you desire. As such, you should be sure to inform your attorney of any modifications you make to your will.

Georgia Trust

If you seek to avoid the inflexible probate process and to avoid probate taxes, a trust is a useful and flexible mechanism for confidentially allocating your property post-mortem. You can set up a trust for almost any purpose. For example, you can create a special needs trust, educational trust, charitable trust, life insurance trust, or living (inter vivos) trust, to name a few. A trust can be quite complex to set up, so you should consult a Georgia estate planning attorney to help you create one.

Georgia Probate

If a deceased does not provide for the distribution of his assets in a will or a trust, the deceased’s property will be distributed by the Georgia law of intestate succession, or, by each person’s relationship to the deceased.

Sometimes when a will does not provide clear instructions on property distribution, or the deceased’s estate is distributed according to intestate succession, it is not evident who should receive what property or how much property each person should receive. If this is the case, any person who may have an interest in the estate may petition the court to make a determination on such questions.

The Georgia probate process may be avoided if the deceased’s estate qualifies under the No Administration law. The deceased’s estate will qualify if he left neither a will nor debts and if his heirs agree on the property’s distribution. In addition, unpaid wages, deposits, small tax refunds and un-cashed checks worth less than $10,000 also fall under Georgia’s No Administration law.

The following non-exclusive list of persons may receive property through intestate succession in Georgia:

1. Spouses
2. Children-including half bloods, children born out of wedlock, adopted persons, and after born children
3. Parents
4. Brothers and Sisters
5. After-born heirs
6. Grandparents
7. Aunts and uncles

Certain parts of your estate may not pass through the Georgia probate process: