A Georgia revocable living trust is a written document you create during your lifetime to hold your assets, manage them through a trustee, and pass them to your beneficiaries without probate. You can change or dissolve it whenever you want, with one critical catch: Georgia law presumes a trust is irrevocable unless the document expressly reserves your power to revoke it. That single drafting point separates a working revocable trust from an accidental permanent one.
Who Can Create One
You need to be at least 18, Georgia’s age of legal majority.1Justia. Georgia Code 39-1-1 – Age of Legal Majority You also need the mental capacity to understand what you own and what happens when you transfer it. Georgia ties trust-creation capacity to the capacity to transfer property during your lifetime, so the standard is essentially the same as making a valid deed.2Georgia General Assembly. S. B. 131 (SUB) – The Revised Georgia Trust Code of 2010
You have to own the assets you plan to put into the trust. Residency is not a requirement. Non-residents can create a Georgia trust if they hold property in the state, though non-resident trustees managing Georgia assets or funds for Georgia beneficiaries may pick up state fiduciary income tax obligations.3Justia. Georgia Code 48-7-22 – Taxation of Fiduciaries, Estates
What the Trust Document Must Contain
Georgia requires every express trust to be in writing and signed by the settlor.4Justia. Georgia Code 53-12-20 Oral trusts do not work for estate planning. The document must identify the trust property, name at least one trustee, spell out the trustee’s duties, and designate beneficiaries who can be identified with reasonable certainty.2Georgia General Assembly. S. B. 131 (SUB) – The Revised Georgia Trust Code of 2010
Notarization is not legally required, but it strengthens authenticity and makes banks, title companies, and other third parties far more willing to accept the trustee’s authority. Witnesses are not required either, though two disinterested witnesses help defend against later claims of undue influence.
When a third party asks for proof the trust exists, you don’t have to hand over the whole document. Georgia allows a certification of trust: a signed summary that gives the creation date, the settlors and current trustees, the trustee’s powers and limitations, whether the trust is revocable, and how title should be taken, without revealing distribution terms.5Justia. Georgia Code 53-12-280 – Certification of Trust by Trustee
Funding the Trust
A signed trust document holding nothing is just paper. The trust only works once you retitle assets into it, and this is where most plans quietly fail. Each asset class has its own process.
Real Estate
To move real estate into the trust, execute a new deed (typically a warranty deed or quitclaim deed) naming the trust or trustee as owner, get it notarized, and record it with the clerk of the superior court in the county where the property sits.6Justia. Georgia Code 44-2-2 – Duty of Clerk to Record Certain Transactions Affecting Real Estate and Personal Property Recording fees vary by county but commonly run $25 to $125, with extra charges for additional pages or names.
Georgia exempts transfers to a trustee from the state real estate transfer tax when the transfer is made without valuable consideration, which a transfer into your own revocable trust normally satisfies.7Justia. Georgia Code 48-6-2 – Exemption of Certain Instruments
If the home is mortgaged, you do not need lender approval. Federal law bars lenders from enforcing a due-on-sale clause when you transfer a residential property with fewer than five dwelling units into a revocable trust where you remain a beneficiary and continue to occupy the home.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 U.S. Code 1701j-3 – Preemption of Due-on-Sale Prohibitions This point is widely misunderstood, and it matters.
Two practical issues that often catch people. Your owner’s title insurance policy typically insures you personally, not the trust; most title companies will issue an additional-insured endorsement to close the gap for a modest fee. Some counties also treat the transfer as a change in ownership and expect you to reapply for the homestead exemption, so check with your county tax assessor after recording the deed.
Financial Accounts, Retirement, and Vehicles
Bank and investment accounts need to be retitled in the trust’s name. Each institution has its own paperwork and will usually ask for a copy of the trust or a certification of trust. IRAs and 401(k)s cannot be retitled into a trust without triggering a taxable distribution, but the trust can be named as beneficiary. Naming a trust as retirement account beneficiary can shorten the stretch-out period available to individual beneficiaries and accelerate income taxes on distributions, so weigh this carefully.
Vehicles are transferred through your county tag office.9Department of Revenue. Transfer Ownership of a Vehicle LLC interests and corporate shares usually require amendments to the operating agreement or stock records showing the trust as the new owner.
Keeping the Power to Change or Revoke It
This is the single most important drafting point in Georgia trust law. The settlor has no power to modify or revoke a trust unless the trust document expressly reserves that power.10Justia. Georgia Code 53-12-40 – Revocation and Modification Generally Some states presume revocability if the document is silent. Georgia does the opposite. If you’re using an older form or a document you didn’t draft, confirm the revocation language is there.
Once that power is reserved, any amendment or full revocation must be in writing and signed by the settlor.10Justia. Georgia Code 53-12-40 – Revocation and Modification Generally Handwritten notes, oral instructions, and informal memos will almost certainly fail. A reserved power to revoke includes the power to modify, and an unrestricted power to modify includes the power to revoke entirely. Notarizing amendments is not required but adds a defense against later challenges.
If you revoke the trust completely, retitle any real estate back into your personal name and notify the financial institutions holding trust accounts. If you become incapacitated, you lose the ability to amend or revoke unless you previously granted an agent under a durable power of attorney explicit authority over trust modifications.
Trustee Duties and Default Compensation
The trustee manages trust assets and follows your instructions. Georgia law imposes duties of loyalty, impartiality among beneficiaries, and prudent management. The trustee must keep accurate records, avoid conflicts of interest, and distribute assets according to the trust terms. A trustee who breaches these duties can be personally liable and removed by a court.
Name one or more successor trustees in the document to take over if the original trustee dies, resigns, or becomes incapacitated. A successor must formally accept the role, review records, notify beneficiaries, and keep management of the assets continuous.
If the document is silent on trustee compensation and there’s no separate fee agreement, Georgia provides a default schedule for individual trustees: 1% of principal at initial funding, plus an annual fee based on total trust value:11Justia. Georgia Code 53-12-210 – Compensation of Trustee
- $500,000 or less: 1.75% of the total value
- $500,001 to $1 million: $8,750 plus 1.25% of the amount over $500,000
- $1,000,001 to $2 million: $15,000 plus 1.00% of the amount over $1 million
- $2,000,001 to $5 million: $25,000 plus 0.85% of the amount over $2 million
- Over $5 million: $50,500 plus 0.50% of the amount over $5 million
Corporate trustees follow their own published fee schedule if the fees are reasonable. Most revocable trusts address compensation directly in the document, which overrides these defaults.
What It Doesn’t Protect Against
A revocable trust gives no creditor protection while you’re alive. Because you keep the power to revoke and take the assets back, Georgia law treats those assets as fully available to your creditors.12Justia. Georgia Code 53-12-82 – Creditors Claims Against Settlor After your death, trust assets can also be reached by estate creditors if your probate estate lacks the funds to pay them.
It also won’t help with Medicaid long-term care eligibility. The principal of a revocable trust counts as an available resource, and distributions for food, clothing, or shelter are treated as income to the applicant in the month paid. If asset protection or Medicaid qualification is the goal, an irrevocable trust is the tool for that, with the tradeoff of giving up control.
A revocable trust can be contested. An interested party challenging the validity of a trust that was revocable immediately before the settlor’s death has two years from the death to file suit. A trustee who distributes property after death is generally shielded from liability unless a potential contestant gives written notice of a possible challenge, in which case suit must follow within 60 days of that notice.13Justia. Georgia Code 53-12-45 – Limitation on Action Contesting Validity of Revocable Trust Common grounds include lack of capacity, undue influence, and failure to meet execution requirements. Contemporaneous documentation of capacity, plus notarization and witnesses, makes a challenge much harder to win.
Taxes During Life and After Death
Georgia eliminated its estate tax effective July 1, 2014, and the state has no inheritance tax.14Department of Revenue. Estate Tax – FAQ Beneficiaries owe nothing to Georgia on what they inherit through the trust.
While you’re alive, the trust is a grantor trust for tax purposes. It files no return of its own, and all trust income lands on your personal Georgia return. After the grantor’s death, the trust becomes a separate taxpayer. The trustee files Georgia Form 501 for any trust with Georgia-source income or managing funds for the benefit of Georgia residents,15Department of Revenue. 501 Fiduciary Income Tax Return and state fiduciary income tax applies to trustees managing Georgia property or earning Georgia-source income even if the trustee is a non-resident.3Justia. Georgia Code 48-7-22 – Taxation of Fiduciaries, Estates
Federally, the same grantor-trust treatment applies during life. After death, the trustee files IRS Form 1041 if the trust has any taxable income, gross income of $600 or more, or a beneficiary who is a nonresident alien.16Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1041, U.S. Income Tax Return for Estates and Trusts The 2026 federal estate tax exemption is $15,000,000 per person,17Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026 and a revocable trust does not reduce your taxable estate; assets in it are still counted as yours federally. The value of the trust is probate avoidance and privacy, not estate tax savings. Assets sold after the grantor’s death generally get a stepped-up cost basis, which can meaningfully cut capital gains.
Pour-Over Will as a Backstop
Even with a well-funded trust, something always gets left out. A new bank account, a car bought late in life, an inheritance received shortly before death. A pour-over will directs anything still in your individual name at death into the trust.
The catch: those assets pass through probate first. A pour-over will doesn’t skip probate; it makes sure stray assets end up under the trust’s terms instead of Georgia’s intestacy rules. If the leftover value is small, Georgia’s simplified probate procedures can move things along.
What It Typically Costs
A standard revocable living trust package from a Georgia attorney generally runs $1,500 to $3,000, with complex estates or high-cost markets pushing fees to $5,000 or more. Add county recording fees for each deed transferring real estate into the trust, plus modest notary fees. Weigh those upfront costs against Georgia probate: court filing fees, potential attorney fees, and months of delay. For estates with real property or significant financial accounts, the trust generally pays for itself in time and expense saved after the grantor’s death.