General Provisions of Rules of Probate

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Relevant Provisions of the Georgia Probate Code (2008).

CODE OF GEORGIA

Title 53. WILLS, TRUSTS, AND ADMINISTRATION OF ESTATES

Chapter 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. IN GENERAL

Current through the 2006 Legislative Session

OCGA § 53-1-1. Effective Date Of Provisions.

(a) This chapter and Chapters 2 through 11 of this title, as such chapters were amended by an Act approved April 2, 1996 (Ga. L. 1996, p. 504), and an Act approved April 29, 1997 (Ga. L. 1997, p. 1352), and as such chapters may be amended in the future, shall be known and may be cited as the "Revised Probate Code of 1998."

(b) Except as otherwise provided by law, the provisions contained in this chapter and Chapters 2 through 11 of this title shall be effective on January 1, 1998; provided, however, that no vested rights of title, year's support, succession, or inheritance shall be impaired.

OCGA § 53-1-2. Definitions.

As used in this chapter and Chapters 2 through 11 of this title, the term:

(1) "Administrator" means any person appointed and qualified to administer an intestate estate, including an intestate estate already partially administered by an administrator and from any cause unrepresented.

(2) "Administrator with the will annexed" means any person, other than an executor, appointed and qualified to administer a testate estate, including a testate estate already partially administered and from any cause unrepresented.

(3) "Beneficiary" means a person, including a trust, who is designated in a will to take an interest in real or personal property.

(4) "Codicil" means an amendment to or republication of a will.

(5) "County administrator" means any individual or individuals appointed by the probate court of the county and qualified to represent an estate that is unrepresented and unlikely to be represented.

(6) "Descendants" means the lineal descendants of an individual including those individuals who are treated as lineal descendants by virtue of adoption.

(7) "Executor" means any person nominated in a will who has qualified to administer a testate estate, including a person nominated as alternative or successor executor.

(8) "Guardian" means the guardian ad litem or representative described in Code Section 53-11-2 who represents one or more parties to a probate court proceeding who are not sui juris, are unborn, or are unknown.

(9) "Heirs" means those one or more individuals who survive the decedent and are determined under the rules of inheritance to take the property of the decedent that is not disposed of by will.

(10) "Nominated executor" means any person nominated in the will to serve as executor who has not yet qualified to serve as executor.

(11) "Person" means an individual, corporation, partnership, association, joint-stock company, business trust, unincorporated organization, limited liability company, or two or more persons having a joint or common interest, including an individual or a business entity acting as a personal representative or in any other fiduciary capacity.

(12) "Personal representative" means any administrator, administrator with the will annexed, county administrator, or executor.

(13) "Qualified" means that a personal representative has taken the oath, posted any required bond, and been issued letters of administration or letters testamentary, as provided in this title.

(14) "Sui juris" means an individual is age 18 or over and not suffering from any legal disability.

(15) "Temporary administrator" means any person granted temporary letters of administration upon an unrepresented estate.

(16) "Testamentary gift" means the interest in real or personal property which a beneficiary is designated to take in a will.

(17) "Will" means the legal declaration of an individual's testamentary intention regarding that individual's property or other matters. Will includes the will and all codicils to the will.

OCGA § 53-1-3. Dower And Tenancy By Curtesy.

There is no right of dower or tenancy by curtesy in this state.

OCGA § 53-1-4. Effect On Support Obligation Of Use Of Income From Estate Or Trust For Support.

Whenever income from an estate or trust is available for the benefit of an individual whose support is the legal obligation of another and the income is actually used for such individual's support, the legal obligation of the other to support the individual is reduced to the extent the income is actually used for such individual's support.

OCGA § 53-1-5. Right Of Individual Who Feloniously And Intentionally Kills Or Conspires To Kill To Inherit.

(a) An individual who feloniously and intentionally kills or conspires to kill or procures the killing of another individual forfeits the right to take an interest from the decedent's estate and to serve as a personal representative or trustee of the decedent's estate or any trust created by the decedent. For purposes of this Code section, the killing or conspiring to kill or procuring another to kill is felonious and intentional if the killing would constitute murder or felony murder or voluntary manslaughter under the laws of this state.

(b) An individual who forfeits the right to take an interest from a decedent's estate by virtue of this Code section forfeits the right to take any interest such individual would otherwise take at the decedent's death by intestacy, year's support, will, deed, power of appointment, or by any other conveyance duly executed during life by the decedent and is treated as having predeceased the decedent for purposes of determining the distribution of the decedent's property and of appointing personal representatives or trustees.

(c) This Code section shall have no effect on the rights of the descendants of the individual who forfeits the right to take from the decedent's estate; provided, however, that if the descendants are taking by intestacy in place of the individual who forfeits, the descendants may take only that share of the decedent's estate to which the individual who forfeits would have been entitled. The provisions of Code Section 53-4-64 shall not apply with respect to the descendants of the individual who forfeits the right to take from the decedent's estate unless those descendants are also descendants of the decedent.

(d) A final judgment of conviction or a guilty plea for murder, felony murder, or voluntary manslaughter is conclusive in civil proceedings under this Code section. In the absence of such a conviction or plea, the felonious and intentional killing must be established by clear and convincing evidence.

OCGA § 53-1-6. Payment To Surviving Spouse Of State Or Federal Income Tax Overpayments.

(a) In any case in which the United States Department of the Treasury or the Department of Revenue of this state determines that there exists an overpayment of federal or state income tax and the person in whose favor the overpayment is determined to exist is deceased at the time the overpayment is to be refunded, the amount of the overpayment, if not in excess of $2,500.00, shall be the sole and separate property of the decedent's surviving spouse, if any, irrespective of whether the decedent had filed a joint or separate income tax return.

(b) The refund of the overpayment directly to the surviving spouse as provided in subsection (a) of this Code section shall operate as a complete acquittal and discharge to the payor, whether the United States or this state, of liability from any action, claim, or demand of whatever nature by any heir, beneficiary, creditor of the decedent, or other person.

(c) Refunds are authorized to be made as provided in this Code section without the necessity of administration of the estate of the decedent, without the necessity of obtaining an order that no administration is necessary, and without the necessity of appointing a personal representative for the surviving spouse, notwithstanding any other law to the contrary.

OCGA § 53-1-7. Surviving Spouse Under The Age Of 18 Years.

A surviving spouse who is under the age of 18 years is entitled to apply for, take, and hold any share in the deceased spouse's estate to which the surviving spouse is entitled by virtue of being an heir or a beneficiary or being eligible for year's support without the intervention of a guardian or other trustee.

OCGA § 53-1-8. Adopted Individuals.

A decree of adoption, whether issued by a court of this state or by a court of any other jurisdiction, shall have the effect described in Code Section 19-8-19, and the adoptive parents and relatives of the adoptive parents shall likewise be entitled to inherit from and through the adopted individual under the laws of intestacy in the absence of a will and to take as parents or relatives of the parents of the adopted individual under the provisions of any instrument of testamentary gift, unless expressly excluded therefrom.