Will.com / Living trust / Georgia
GA · Revocable Living Trust
Georgia living trust requirements.
Skip probate, keep your estate private, and stay in control while you're alive. Document generation isn’t currently available in Georgia while we review its rules for online legal document services. The signing requirements below still apply.
Requirements at a glance
Special notes for Georgia
- Georgia requires an express trust to be created or declared in writing and signed by the settlor, or by an agent for the settlor acting under a power of attorney containing express authorization, and to have, ascertainable with reasonable certainty, the settlor's intent to create the trust, trust property, a reasonably ascertainable beneficiary (charitable trusts and trusts for the care of an animal excepted), a trustee, and trustee duties (O.C.G.A. § 53-12-20). Notarization is not part of that statutory test, but financial institutions and county clerks routinely expect it. Notarize in practice
Signing a Georgia living trust
No formal execution requirements beyond settlor signature; notarization strongly recommended when funding real property
Proving your Georgia trust without handing it over
When a bank, brokerage, title company, insurer, or transfer agent asks to see your trust, Georgia law lets your trustee give them a short certification of trust instead (O.C.G.A. §53-12-280). It states that the trust exists, who the trustee is, and what the trustee may do. It leaves out who inherits and what each person receives, so your beneficiaries stay private.
Funding Georgia real estate into the trust
To transfer Georgia real estate into your trust, you sign a new deed conveying the property from yourself to yourself as trustee, then record the deed with the Superior Court Clerk's office of the county where the property is located. The trust does not control real estate unless the deed transfer is recorded.
Document generation isn’t currently available in Georgia.