What Happens If You Die Without a Will in Georgia?

If you die without a will in Georgia, state law decides who inherits your property. Under O.C.G.A. § 53-2-1, your estate passes to your closest living relatives in a fixed order, starting with your spouse and children, and the probate court appoints an administrator to collect assets, pay debts, and distribute whatever remains.1Justia Law. Georgia Code 53-2-1 – Rules of Inheritance When Decedent Not Survived by Spouse or Descendants You lose the ability to name who raises your minor children, who manages your estate, and who gets specific items that mattered to you.

Who Inherits Your Property

Georgia’s intestate succession statute follows a strict hierarchy. Spouse and children come first, and the split depends on how many family members survive you.

If you leave a spouse and children, they share the estate equally, with one guarantee: your spouse always gets at least one-third, regardless of how many children you have.1Justia Law. Georgia Code 53-2-1 – Rules of Inheritance When Decedent Not Survived by Spouse or Descendants A spouse and one child each take half. A spouse and two children each take a third. Add a fourth child and the spouse’s share locks at one-third while the children divide the remaining two-thirds equally. If a child died before you, that child’s descendants step into their place.

No surviving spouse? Your children split everything equally. No children? Your spouse inherits the whole estate.

When No Spouse or Children Survive

The statute moves outward through your family tree in a defined order:

  • Parents share equally if both survive; a sole surviving parent takes everything.
  • Siblings inherit next, in equal shares. A deceased sibling’s children step into that sibling’s place.
  • Grandparents come after siblings and their descendants.
  • Aunts and uncles follow, with cousins taking the place of any who predeceased you.

The chain continues outward from there. Only when no living relative of any degree can be found does your property escheat to the state of Georgia, and courts work hard to avoid that result.1Justia Law. Georgia Code 53-2-1 – Rules of Inheritance When Decedent Not Survived by Spouse or Descendants

Adopted, Half-Blood, and Posthumous Children

Legally adopted children inherit exactly like biological children. Half-siblings are treated the same as whole-blood siblings and share equally.1Justia Law. Georgia Code 53-2-1 – Rules of Inheritance When Decedent Not Survived by Spouse or Descendants

A child conceived before your death but born afterward can inherit if the child is born within ten months of your death and survives at least 120 hours after birth.1Justia Law. Georgia Code 53-2-1 – Rules of Inheritance When Decedent Not Survived by Spouse or Descendants Children conceived after death through assisted reproduction face a much higher bar and generally will not qualify absent clear evidence the deceased parent intended them to inherit.

What Doesn’t Go Through Intestate Succession

A good portion of what people own never touches the intestacy statute. Certain assets transfer automatically to a named person because of how the account or title is structured:

  • Life insurance, 401(k)s, and IRAs pass to whoever is listed on the beneficiary form.
  • Payable-on-death bank accounts go directly to the named person.
  • Transfer-on-death brokerage accounts move securities to the designated beneficiary.
  • Jointly owned property with right of survivorship passes to the surviving co-owner.
  • Assets held in a living trust follow the trust’s instructions, not probate.

Beneficiary designations override everything else. If your 401(k) form still names an ex-spouse but you intended the money to go to your children, the financial institution follows the form. This happens constantly with old retirement accounts that were never updated. Reviewing those designations is one of the simplest things you can do, even without a will.

Year’s Support for Spouse and Minor Children

Georgia gives a surviving spouse and minor children a powerful claim called year’s support. Under O.C.G.A. § 53-3-1, the family can petition the probate court to set aside estate property to cover living expenses for the twelve months following death.2Justia Law. Georgia Code 53-3-1 – Preference and Entitlement Many families never claim it because they don’t know it exists.

Year’s support ranks ahead of every other claim against the estate, including funeral expenses, medical bills, and taxes.2Justia Law. Georgia Code 53-3-1 – Preference and Entitlement If the estate can’t cover both year’s support and outstanding debts, the family’s support comes first.

There is no fixed amount. The award reflects what the family reasonably needs for twelve months, factoring in the previous standard of living, housing costs, medical needs, childcare expenses, and the spouse’s own earning capacity. In smaller estates, year’s support can consume most or all of the property, leaving little or nothing for creditors.

Debts Come Before Heirs

Nothing reaches the heirs until the estate settles its debts. When money runs short, Georgia law under O.C.G.A. § 53-7-40 fixes the order of payment:3Justia Law. Georgia Code 53-7-40 – Liability of Estate; Priority of Claims

  1. Year’s support for the surviving spouse and minor children
  2. Funeral expenses appropriate to the decedent’s circumstances in life
  3. Other administrative costs of managing the estate
  4. Reasonable expenses of the decedent’s final illness
  5. Unpaid taxes owed to the state or federal government
  6. Secured debts, judgments, and other liens, by priority
  7. All remaining claims, including credit card balances and unsecured loans

Heirs receive only what’s left after these obligations are satisfied. If debts exceed assets, unsecured creditors may receive partial payment or nothing. Importantly, heirs are generally not personally responsible for a deceased relative’s debts unless they co-signed or personally guaranteed the obligation.

Who Will Manage the Estate

Without a will naming an executor, the probate court appoints an administrator. That person gathers assets, pays debts, and distributes what remains to the legal heirs.

Georgia law lets the heirs choose first. If all heirs unanimously agree on someone, the court typically approves that selection.4Justia Law. Georgia Code 53-6-20 – Selection or Appointment of Administrator When they can’t agree, the court uses this preference order:

  • The surviving spouse, unless a divorce or separate maintenance action was pending at death.
  • One or more heirs, or the person chosen by a majority-in-interest of them.
  • Any other eligible person.
  • A creditor of the estate.
  • The county administrator.

The court’s overriding goal is appointing whoever will best serve the estate’s interests.4Justia Law. Georgia Code 53-6-20 – Selection or Appointment of Administrator

To start, an interested party files a Petition for Letters of Administration with the probate court in the county where the deceased person lived. The court issues letters of administration, the formal document granting legal authority to act for the estate. The administrator must also post a surety bond to protect heirs and creditors against mismanagement.5Justia Law. Georgia Code 53-6-51 – Requisites Georgia also sets administrator compensation by statute: the default is 2.5% of money received by the estate and 2.5% of money paid out, though heirs may agree to a different arrangement in writing.6Justia Law. Georgia Code 53-6-60 – Compensation of Personal Representatives

When Full Probate May Not Be Necessary

Georgia offers a shortcut that can save families real time and money. Under O.C.G.A. § 53-2-40, heirs can petition the probate court for an order of no administration necessary, which skips the appointment of an administrator entirely.

Two conditions have to line up. Every heir must agree unanimously on how to divide the estate, and the estate must be free of outstanding debts, or any creditors must consent in writing. There’s no dollar cap, so this works for estates of any size when the conditions are met. The heirs submit a signed agreement describing how the property will be divided, the court confirms all legal heirs are accounted for, and if satisfied, issues an order transferring the property without further supervision.

This option works best for families on good terms with no contested debts. One holdout heir or one objecting creditor sends the matter back to standard administration.

What Happens to Your Minor Children

Perhaps the hardest consequence of dying without a will is losing the ability to say who raises your children. A will lets you nominate a guardian. Without one, the probate court decides.

If one parent is still living, Georgia law is simple: the surviving parent becomes the sole natural guardian, even if the parents were divorced and the deceased parent had custody.7Justia Law. Georgia Code 29-2-3 – Guardian of Minor Children in Event of Death

When both parents are gone, the court appoints a legal guardian. Judges will consider close relatives like grandparents, aunts, and uncles, but aren’t required to choose any of them. The focus is on who can provide the most stable environment for the child, weighing the potential guardian’s relationship with the child, their ability to provide housing, and their overall fitness as a caretaker.

One point often overlooked: the person who raises your child isn’t necessarily the person who manages the child’s inherited money. Georgia allows a separate conservator to handle a minor’s financial assets. That can make sense when the best caretaker isn’t the best money manager. The conservator handles the inheritance until the child reaches adulthood. Without a will specifying otherwise and no conservator appointed, the guardian typically handles both roles.

Taxes on an Intestate Estate in Georgia

Georgia imposes no state estate tax and no inheritance tax, so most families owe nothing to the state. Federal rules can still apply.

The federal estate tax only reaches larger estates. For deaths occurring in 2026, an estate must exceed $15,000,000 in gross value before any federal estate tax is owed.8Internal Revenue Service. Estate Tax Most Georgia families won’t come close. For those who do, the top federal rate is 40%, though deductions, including an unlimited marital deduction for property passing to a surviving spouse, can reduce or eliminate the tax.

Separately, if the estate itself earns income after death — interest, rental payments, dividends — the administrator must file IRS Form 1041 once gross income reaches $600 in a tax year.9Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1041 and Schedules A, B, G, J, and K-1

Inherited property also gets a stepped-up basis. Its tax basis resets to fair market value at the date of death. If your parent bought land for $50,000 and it was worth $300,000 when they died, your basis is $300,000. Sell it for $310,000 and you owe capital gains tax on $10,000, not on the $260,000 of appreciation during your parent’s lifetime. The step-up applies whether property passes through intestacy or a will. Document the fair market value as of the date of death, because without proof of basis the IRS can treat it as zero.