Estate Planning in Georgia: Wills, Probate, and Directives

This reference explains how the main estate planning tools work under Georgia law and which document handles which job. It links out to detailed articles on writing a will, probate, powers of attorney, health care directives, trusts, transfer-on-death deeds, and estate taxes. It describes the general rules. It does not recommend a plan for any particular reader.

What estate planning covers in Georgia

Estate planning is the set of legal documents that control who manages your affairs if you cannot, who receives your property when you die, and who cares for any minor children. In Georgia the work runs on a handful of instruments: a will, a durable financial power of attorney, an advance directive for health care, and, for some estates, a revocable living trust or a transfer-on-death deed. Each does a specific job, and the useful combination depends on the size and makeup of the estate and the family situation.

Two ideas organize everything that follows. First, some assets pass under a will through probate, while others pass outside probate by beneficiary designation, survivorship, or a recorded deed. Second, planning addresses two separate events: incapacity during life and death after it. Different documents govern each, and a plan that covers only death leaves the incapacity question unanswered.

Key documents and terms

A will is the document that names who inherits property that passes through probate and names an executor to carry out those instructions. The person who makes the will is the testator. The executor (Georgia also uses the term personal representative) is the person the probate court authorizes to gather assets, pay debts, and distribute what remains.

Probate is the court process that proves a will is valid and gives the executor legal authority. Intestate describes an estate with no valid will, which then passes under a fixed statutory formula. A beneficiary designation is an instruction on an account or policy, such as a payable-on-death bank account or a life insurance policy, that moves the asset directly to a named person and bypasses probate.

For lifetime planning, a financial power of attorney lets an agent handle money and property, and an advance directive for health care appoints a health care agent and records treatment wishes. A revocable living trust holds assets during life and distributes them at death without probate. A transfer-on-death deed, authorized in Georgia under O.C.G.A. § 44-17-1 et seq., names who receives real estate at the owner’s death.

Wills and who can make one

Georgia sets a low age and capacity bar for making a will. Under O.C.G.A. § 53-4-10, any individual 14 years of age or older may make a will, provided the person is not laboring under a legal disability that prevents forming the intent to dispose of property. That capacity requirement, sometimes called testamentary capacity, asks whether the testator understood the nature of making a will and the general extent of the property involved.

Signing formalities matter more than most people expect. O.C.G.A. § 53-4-20 requires that a will be signed by the testator and attested and subscribed in the testator’s presence by two or more competent witnesses. Georgia does not recognize a handwritten will that lacks this two-witness attestation, so a note left in a drawer without witnesses generally has no legal effect.

The mechanics of drafting, signing, and updating a will are covered in the detailed article on writing a valid will in Georgia.

When there is no will: intestate succession

When a Georgia resident dies without a valid will, the estate passes by intestate succession, a statutory formula that ignores what the person may have wanted and distributes property to relatives in a set order. The core rule is in O.C.G.A. § 53-2-1: a surviving spouse and the decedent’s children share the estate equally, except that the spouse’s share is never less than one-third, no matter how many children there are.

If there is no spouse and no descendants, the statute moves outward to parents, then siblings, then more distant relatives. The formula treats all children equally and makes no distinction for a long marriage, a stepchild who was never adopted, or an unmarried partner. Because intestacy rarely matches what a person would have chosen, it functions in practice as the default plan the state writes for anyone who does not write their own. The full order of inheritance is covered in the article on intestate succession in Georgia.

Probate in Georgia’s probate courts

Each of Georgia’s 159 counties has its own probate court, and these courts administer wills and estates, appoint and oversee guardians and conservators, and handle related matters, as described by the Council of Probate Court Judges of Georgia. The estate is opened in the probate court of the county where the decedent lived.

Georgia recognizes two paths for proving a will. Probate in common form is faster and does not require formal notice to heirs, but it stays open to challenge for years. Probate in solemn form requires notice to all heirs and, once granted, becomes conclusive much sooner. An executor who wants finality generally uses solemn form.

Not every estate needs full administration. When the assets are modest and the heirs agree, Georgia offers streamlined options, including a “no administration necessary” petition, covered in the article on small estate procedures in Georgia. The mechanics of opening an estate, qualifying an executor, and closing the estate are covered in the step-by-step overview of how probate works in Georgia.

Planning for incapacity: powers of attorney and directives

A will does nothing while the maker is alive. Two documents fill that gap. The first is a financial power of attorney, which lets a trusted agent pay bills, manage accounts, and handle property if the principal cannot. Georgia’s version follows the Uniform Power of Attorney Act, codified at O.C.G.A. § 10-6B-1 et seq., which took effect July 1, 2017 and includes a statutory form that banks and other institutions are generally required to accept.

The second is an advance directive for health care, governed by O.C.G.A. § 31-32-1 et seq.. Georgia uses a single combined form that names a health care agent, records wishes about life-sustaining treatment, and can address organ donation. Without these documents, a family facing incapacity often has to ask a probate court to appoint a guardian or conservator, a slower and more public process. The drafting details are in the articles on creating a durable power of attorney and an advance healthcare directive in Georgia.

Trusts and transfer-on-death deeds

Not all property has to pass through probate. A revocable living trust holds assets during the maker’s life and distributes them at death under the trust terms, without court involvement for the assets the trust actually owns. A trust only helps to the extent it is funded, meaning accounts and deeds are retitled into the trust’s name; an unfunded trust changes nothing. The setup is covered in the article on creating a revocable living trust in Georgia.

For real estate specifically, Georgia added a simpler tool in 2024. Under O.C.G.A. § 44-17-1 et seq., which became effective July 1, 2024, an owner can record a transfer-on-death deed that names a beneficiary to receive the property automatically at death, while the owner keeps full control and the right to revoke during life. The deed passes the property outside probate without giving up ownership now. The recording steps and revocation rules are covered in the article on the Georgia transfer-on-death deed.

Taxes on a Georgia estate

Georgia does not tax estates or inheritances. Under O.C.G.A. § 48-12-1, on and after July 1, 2014 there are no estate taxes levied by the state, and Georgia has never imposed a separate inheritance tax on beneficiaries. A Georgia estate therefore owes no state-level death tax regardless of size.

The federal estate tax is a different matter, though it reaches very few estates. A federal estate tax return is required only when the gross estate exceeds the filing threshold for the year of death, and the IRS estate tax filing threshold is $15 million as of 2026. Estates below that figure owe no federal estate tax and file no return. How the threshold, portability between spouses, and income tax on inherited assets fit together is covered in the article on whether Georgia has an estate or inheritance tax.

Specific procedures and topics