Kòd Trust Jòji a, seksyon pa seksyon

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Verifye ak Georgia Statutes yo nan dat 2026-10-14. Enfòmasyon jeneral, pa konsèy legal; tèks ofisyèl la ki kòmande.

Article 1: General Provisions

O.C.G.A. § 53-12-1 ↗ Short title; effect on existing trusts: Names the chapter the Revised Georgia Trust Code of 2010 and applies it to any trust regardless of the date it was created, except to the extent that would impair vested rights and except as another law provides.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-2 ↗ Definitions: Defines the chapter's terms — among them a "qualified beneficiary": a living individual or existing person who, on the date of determination, is a distributee or permissible distributee of trust income or principal, would be one if the current distributees' interests ended that day without ending the trust, or would be one if the trust terminated that day; the Attorney General has a qualified beneficiary's rights in a charitable trust, a designated charity has them when it is in one of those classes, and so does the enforcer of an animal trust. Also "beneficiary" (vested or contingent, born or unborn), "donor", "express trust", "foreign entity", "nonresident", "person", "property" (including digital assets), "settlor", "spendthrift provision", "trust" and "trust instrument".
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-3 ↗ Construction with common law and equity: The principles of common law and equity governing trusts remain Georgia's law except to the extent the chapter or another law modifies them; the chapter does not imply that an uncodified rule did not exist, and the General Assembly's failure to codify an established principle is not evidence that it rejected the principle unless the chapter or another law is inconsistent with it.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-4 ↗ Law governing the validity of the trust: The validity of a trust as to real property is determined by the law of the real property's situs; as to all other property, by the law of the jurisdiction the trust instrument designates unless the designation's effect is contrary to the public policy of the jurisdiction with the most significant relationship to the matter, or, absent an effective designation, by that jurisdiction's law.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-5 ↗ Law governing the meaning and effect of trust provisions: The meaning and effect of the trust provisions are determined by the law of the jurisdiction the trust instrument designates unless the designation's effect is contrary to the public policy of the jurisdiction with the most significant relationship to the matter, or, absent an effective designation, by the law of the jurisdiction with the most significant relationship to the matter at issue.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-6 ↗ Jurisdiction: Trusts are peculiarly subjects of equity jurisdiction; suits by or against a trustee that sound at law may be filed in a court of law. Actions concerning the construction or administration of a trust, or for a court to take any action the chapter authorizes, are maintained in superior court except as section 15-9-127 provides for the Article 6 probate courts; any other action by or against the trustee may be maintained in a court with jurisdiction over the parties and the subject matter.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-7 ↗ When trust and chapter conflict: The trust instrument may vary the effect of the chapter's provisions except as to the requirements for the creation and validity of express trusts, the effect of the spendthrift rules, the beneficiaries' power to modify a trustee's compensation under section 53-12-210, the trustee's duty to administer the trust and exercise discretionary powers in good faith (sections 53-12-240 and 53-12-260), the effect of a provision relieving a trustee from liability (section 53-12-303), the periods of limitation of sections 53-12-45 and 53-12-307, and the rules on trust directors (Article 18); nothing in a trust instrument prohibits or limits a court from taking any action the chapter authorizes.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-8 ↗ Notice to person permitted to bind another person; consent on behalf of another person; representation of others: Notice to a person who may represent and bind another has the effect of notice to the other, and such a representative's consent binds the person represented unless that person objects before the consent would take effect — for a trustee's duty to report, a nonjudicial settlement agreement, a trustee's compensation, a unitrust conversion, the appointment, resignation or removal of a trustee and similar actions. Absent a conflict of interest on the particular question, a conservator, a guardian, an agent, a trustee (for the beneficiaries), a trust director (on its powers), a person the trust instrument designates to receive notice and consent for a beneficiary, a personal representative and an ancestor (for a minor or unborn descendant) may represent and bind; a person with a substantially identical interest may represent a minor, incapacitated, unborn or unascertainable person; a qualified beneficiary in the third class may bind contingent successor beneficiaries; the court may determine whether representation is adequate and appoint a representative.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-9 ↗ Binding nonjudicial settlement agreement: The trustee, any trust director and all other persons whose interests would be affected may enter into a binding nonjudicial settlement agreement on any matter involving the trust, valid only to the extent it does not violate a material purpose of the trust and includes terms the court could properly approve — and not, during the settlor's lifetime, a modification or termination of an irrevocable trust the court could approve only under section 53-12-61(b). Any of them may ask the court to approve the agreement, to determine whether the representation under section 53-12-8 was adequate, whether the agreement violates a material purpose, or whether it contains terms the court could have approved.

Article 2: Creation and Validity of Express Trusts

O.C.G.A. § 53-12-20 ↗ Express trusts: An express trust is created or declared in writing and signed by the settlor or by an agent under a power of attorney containing express authorization (a special-needs trust under 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(d)(4)(B) excepted). It has, ascertainable with reasonable certainty, a settlor's intention to create it, trust property, a reasonably ascertainable beneficiary (except a charitable trust or an animal trust — a power in the trustee or another to select beneficiaries by a standard or in discretion suffices), a trustee and trustee duties specified in writing or provided by law.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-21 ↗ Formal and precatory words: No formal words are necessary to create an express trust; words otherwise precatory create a trust only if they are sufficiently imperative to show the settlor's intention to impose enforceable duties on a trustee and the other elements of an express trust are present.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-22 ↗ Trust purposes: A trust may be created for any lawful purpose.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-23 ↗ Capacity of settlor: A person has capacity to create an inter vivos trust to the extent the person has legal capacity to transfer title to property during life, and capacity to create a testamentary trust to the extent the person has legal capacity to devise or bequeath property by will.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-24 ↗ Non-merger: No trust is invalid or terminated, and no merger of title to trust property occurs, merely because the trustee or trustees are the same person or persons as the beneficiary or beneficiaries.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-25 ↗ Transfer of property in trust: A transfer of property in trust requires a transfer of legal title to the trustee; a transfer that names a trust as grantee is deemed made to the trust's trustee. For an interest in real property to become trust property in a trust of which a transferor is a trustee, the instrument of conveyance is additionally recorded in the appropriate real property records.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-26 ↗ Additions to trust property: Property may be added to an existing trust from any source in any manner if the addition is not prohibited by the trust instrument and the property is acceptable to the trustee.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-27 ↗ Construction; parol evidence: When the construction of an express trust is at issue, the court may hear parol evidence of the circumstances surrounding the settlor at the time the trust was executed and parol evidence to explain latent and patent ambiguities.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-28 ↗ Trusts for animals: A trust may be created to provide for the care of an animal alive during the settlor's lifetime; it terminates on the death of the animal or of the last surviving animal, may be enforced by a person the instrument appoints or the court appoints, and on termination the trustee transfers unexpended property as the instrument directs, under the residuary clause of the settlor's will where the trust was created in a nonresiduary clause, or otherwise to the settlor if living and else to the settlor's heirs.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-29 ↗ Conditions in terrorem in trust documents: A condition in terrorem in a trust instrument is void unless the instrument directs the disposition of the property if the condition is violated, in which event the direction is carried out — but such a condition is not enforceable against an individual for bringing an action to interpret or enforce the instrument, for an accounting, removal or other relief against a trustee, or for entering into a settlement agreement.

Article 3: Revocable Trusts

O.C.G.A. § 53-12-40 ↗ Revocation and modification generally: A settlor has no power to modify or revoke a trust in the absence of an express reservation of that power; a power to revoke includes a power to modify and an unrestricted power to modify includes a power to revoke; any revocation or modification of an express trust is in writing and signed by the settlor.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-41 ↗ Trustee’s consent necessary to enlarge duties: In exercising a power to modify the trust instrument, the settlor does not enlarge the duties or liabilities of the trustee without the trustee's express consent.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-42 ↗ Notice to trustee: A trustee is not liable for failing to act in accordance with the terms of an amendment or revocation of a trust of which the trustee had no notice.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-43 ↗ Power of agent or conservator to revoke trust: A settlor's powers of revocation, amendment or distribution of trust property may be exercised by an agent under a power of attorney only to the extent the trust instrument and the power expressly authorize, and by the settlor's conservator only as section 29-5-23 provides.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-44 ↗ Trust not revocable because life estate holder has reversion: A trust is not considered revocable merely because the life beneficiary has a reversion in or a power of appointment over trust assets, or because the life beneficiary's heirs or estate have a remainder interest.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-45 ↗ Limitation on action contesting validity of revocable trust: A judicial proceeding to contest the validity of a trust that was revocable immediately before the settlor's death is commenced within two years of the death. After the death the trustee may distribute the trust property under the trust provisions without liability for doing so unless the trustee knows of a pending contest or a potential contestant has notified the trustee in writing of a possible contest and a proceeding is commenced within 60 days after the contestant sent the notification; a beneficiary of a trust determined invalid returns any distribution received.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-46 ↗ Duties and enforcement of trust: While the settlor who reserved a power of revocation is alive and the power has not been released, the trustee's duties are owed exclusively to the settlor; as to trust property held for a beneficiary's personal use or enjoyment or designated under the section, the settlor may direct the trustee in its management as a trust director and the trustee has no duty to account annually to the beneficiaries under section 53-12-243(b)(1), to keep the beneficiaries reasonably informed under the common law, or to provide information to a trust director. The section's remaining subsections (2025) address the settlor's incapacity, the agent's and conservator's powers and enforcement.

Article 4: Reformation, Modification, Division, Consolidation, and Termination of Trusts

O.C.G.A. § 53-12-60 ↗ Reformation to correct mistakes: Where clear and convincing evidence proves that the trust provisions were affected by a mistake of fact or law, in expression or inducement, the court may reform them, even if unambiguous, to conform to the settlor's intention; the trustee, a trust director, a beneficiary or, for an unfunded testamentary trust, the personal representative may petition, with notice to the trustee, any trust director and all qualified beneficiaries.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-61 ↗ Power to direct modification or termination; petition to modify or terminate irrevocable trust; proceeding to approve proposed modification or termination; distribution of trust property under order for termination; waiver of notice: The trust instrument may confer on a trustee or another a power to modify or terminate the trust without court approval. During the settlor's lifetime the court approves a petition to modify or terminate an irrevocable trust, even against a material purpose, if the settlor and all qualified beneficiaries consent and the trustee has notice; after the settlor's death, a modification all qualified beneficiaries consent to that is not inconsistent with a material purpose, or a termination where continuance is not necessary to achieve a material purpose. On petition the court may modify for circumstances the settlor did not anticipate, modify administrative provisions, add a trustee or special fiduciary, modify to achieve the settlor's tax objectives, divide or consolidate trusts, or terminate a trust whose costs defeat its purposes, whose purpose is fulfilled, illegal or impossible, or whose continuance would impair its purposes; notice goes to the settlor if living, the trustee, any trust director, all qualified beneficiaries and any holder of a power of appointment; the order conforms as nearly as practicable to the settlor's intention, and distribution on a termination order goes to the current and vested remainder beneficiaries as the order specifies.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-62 ↗ Power of trustee to distribute income or principal of original trust: Unless the original trust instrument expressly provides otherwise, a trustee other than a donor with discretionary authority to distribute income or principal to one or more beneficiaries may exercise that authority by distributing all or part of the principal to a second trust, independently or with court approval, within the section's limits — the current beneficiaries' definition, the notice the trustee delivers at least 30 days before the proposed distribution to the persons the section names, an instrument in writing signed and acknowledged by the trustee and filed with the original trust's records, no extension of the perpetuities period, the limits of section 53-12-270 for a trustee-beneficiary, the tax-qualification constraints on contributions that qualified for the annual exclusion, the marital deduction or the charitable deduction, and the powers of appointment a second trust may confer. As amended by 2025 HB 327.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-65 ↗ Modification or termination of uneconomic trust: After notice to the qualified beneficiaries, the trustee of a trust whose property has a total value less than $100,000, or whose annual trustee's fee is 5 percent or more of the principal's market value as of the last day of the preceding trust accounting year, may terminate the trust on concluding that the value is insufficient to justify the cost of administration (a cemetery trust also notifies the Attorney General); the court may modify or terminate a trust, or remove the trustee and appoint another, on the same finding; on termination the trustee distributes the property consistently with the trust's purposes. The section does not apply to a conservation easement or to a trust governed by Title 10, Chapter 14.

Article 5: Spendthrift Provisions and Creditors' Rights and Claims

O.C.G.A. § 53-12-80 ↗ Spendthrift provisions: A spendthrift provision is valid only if it prohibits both voluntary and involuntary transfers of a beneficiary's interest; a term that the interest is held subject to a spendthrift trust, or words of similar import, suffices. A beneficiary may not transfer an interest in violation of a valid spendthrift provision and a creditor or assignee may not reach the interest or a distribution before the beneficiary receives it — except that the provision is not valid, as to a beneficiary's right to a current distribution to the extent it would be subject to garnishment, against claims for alimony or child support, taxes or other governmental claims, tort judgments, restitution orders from a criminal conviction, and judgments for necessaries.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-81 ↗ Limitations on creditors’ rights to discretionary distributions: A transferee or creditor of a beneficiary may not compel the trustee or a trust director to pay any amount payable only in the trustee's or director's discretion, whether or not the discretion is expressed as a standard of distribution (health, education, maintenance and support among them) and whether or not the trustee or director is also a beneficiary — except as to the portion of trust property of which the beneficiary is the donor.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-82 ↗ Rules for trusts; consideration of assets of an inter vivos marital trust following death: Regardless of a spendthrift provision: during the settlor's lifetime the settlor is treated as the donor of all property of a trust revocable by the settlor and the property is subject to the donor's creditors' claims; a creditor of the donor of an irrevocable trust may reach the maximum amount that can be distributed to or for the donor during the donor's life or that could have been distributed immediately before the donor's death, a tax-reimbursement power excepted; after the donor's death, and subject to the donor's right to direct the source of payment, property of a trust that was revocable at the death or became irrevocable by reason of the settlor's incapacity is subject to the claims of the creditors of the donor's estate to the extent the probate estate is inadequate, while payments that would escape those claims if made by beneficiary designation are not reached unless the instrument provides otherwise. The section's subsection (b) states the rules for an inter vivos marital trust after the donor's spouse's death.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-83 ↗ Creditors’ claims against property that is subject to withdrawal right: For the spendthrift article, the holder of a power of withdrawal is treated, while the power may be exercised, in the same manner as the settlor of a revocable trust to the extent of the property subject to the power; the lapse, release or waiver of the power does not make the holder a donor of the trust.

Article 7: Implied Trusts

O.C.G.A. § 53-12-130 ↗ Resulting trusts: A resulting trust is implied for the settlor or the settlor's successors in interest where the settlor did not intend the holder of legal title to have the beneficial interest: a trust that fails in whole or part, a trust fully performed without exhausting the property, or a purchase money resulting trust under section 53-12-131.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-132 ↗ Constructive trusts: A constructive trust is implied whenever the person holding legal title to property, from fraud or otherwise, cannot enjoy the beneficial interest without violating an established principle of equity; the claimant may be found to have waived it by later ratification or long acquiescence.

Article 9: Charitable Trusts

O.C.G.A. § 53-12-170 ↗ Definition; charitable purposes: A charitable trust is one whose settlor provides that the trust property is used exclusively for charitable purposes — the relief of poverty; the advancement of education, of ethics and religion, of health, and of science, the arts and humanities; the protection of the environment; cemeteries and memorials; the prevention of cruelty to animals; governmental purposes; and similar subjects relieving human suffering or promoting civilization.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-171 ↗ Power to select purposes or beneficiaries: The settlor of a charitable trust may retain the power to select the charitable purposes or beneficiaries, or grant the trustee or another the power to select them or to engage in the charitable purposes, without rendering the trust void for indefiniteness.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-172 ↗ Cy pres: Where a charitable purpose becomes unlawful, impracticable, impossible to achieve or wasteful, the court, on a donor's or other interested person's petition, modifies or terminates the trust in the way that as nearly as possible effectuates the settlor's or donor's intention.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-173 ↗ Duration of charitable trusts: A charitable trust is valid even though its provisions continue it for an indefinite or unlimited period.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-174 ↗ Attorney general or district attorney as representative of charitable beneficiaries: In every case involving the rights of beneficiaries under a charitable trust, the Attorney General or the district attorney of the circuit where the major portion of the trust property lies represents the beneficiaries' interests and the state's as parens patriae in all legal matters on the administration and disposition of the trust, may bring or defend actions, and is served as the section provides; venue may lie in any county where a substantial number of beneficiaries reside.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-175 ↗ Enforcement by settlor: The settlor of a charitable trust may maintain a civil action to enforce the trust.

Article 11: Trustees

O.C.G.A. § 53-12-200 ↗ Capacity of trustee: A trustee has legal capacity under Georgia law to acquire, hold and transfer title to property; an individual is eligible to serve regardless of citizenship or residency; a corporation, partnership or other entity needs the power to act as a trustee in Georgia under section 7-1-242, Article 15 of the chapter or other applicable law.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-201 ↗ Appointment and vacancies: A settlor may appoint trustees or grant that power to others; a trust never fails for want of a trustee. A vacancy occurs when a designated trustee rejects, cannot be identified or located or does not exist, has a guardian or conservator appointed, is disqualified or removed, resigns or dies, or for any other reason no one is serving. Unless the instrument provides otherwise, a vacancy need not be filled while a cotrustee remains. A vacancy that must be filled is filled, in order, by the person the instrument designates as successor, a person appointed as the instrument provides, a person the qualified beneficiaries unanimously appoint, or, on an interested person's petition, a person the court appoints; the court may also appoint an additional trustee or special fiduciary; a petition is served on all qualified beneficiaries; a successor has all the authority of the original trustee.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-202 ↗ Acceptance: Acceptance of a trust is necessary to constitute a person as trustee and may be effected by acts as well as words; after accepting, the trustee may not decline. A designated trustee accepts by substantially complying with a method the trust instrument provides or, where the instrument provides none or the method is not expressly exclusive, by accepting delivery of the trust property, exercising powers or performing duties as trustee, or otherwise indicating acceptance; a designee may act to preserve the trust property without accepting if, as soon as practicable, the person rejects or declines the trusteeship.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-203 ↗ Trustee’s bond: A trustee gives no bond unless the trust instrument requires one or the court finds one necessary to protect the beneficiaries or creditors even against a waiver; the court may excuse, reduce, increase or substitute a bond and release a surety; the cost is charged to the trust; a required bond is secured by a Georgia domiciliary or a licensed commercial surety, payable to the court for the benefit of interested persons and conditioned on the faithful discharge of the trustee's duties; financial institutions and trust companies are excepted as the section provides.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-204 ↗ Cotrustees generally: A power vested in two or more trustees is exercised only by their unanimous action, though a cotrustee may delegate the performance of ministerial acts to one or more other cotrustees; the remaining cotrustee or cotrustees may act during a vacancy in a cotrustee's office unless or until it is filled, and while a cotrustee is unable to act because of inaccessibility, illness or other temporary incapacity, when necessary to accomplish the trust's purposes.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-210 ↗ Compensation of trustee: Trustees are compensated as the trust instrument or a separate written agreement between the trustee and the settlor provides; after the settlor's death or incapacity or while the trust is irrevocable, the instrument or agreement may be modified by the unanimous consent of the trustee and all qualified beneficiaries or by petition under section 53-12-61. Where neither provides for compensation, the trustee and all qualified beneficiaries may agree unanimously, or a qualified beneficiary may petition the court to approve an agreement. Otherwise a corporate trustee is entitled to its published fee schedule if reasonable, and an individual trustee to one percent of cash and the fair market value of other principal received on the initial funding and on later additions, plus an annual fee on the cash and market value of the other principal assets as of the last day of the trust accounting year, prorated by the trustee's length of service that year: 1.75 percent of the first $500,000; $8,750 plus 1.25 percent of the excess over $500,000 to $1 million; $15,000 plus 1.00 percent of the excess over $1 million to $2 million; $25,000 plus 0.85 percent of the excess over $2 million to $5 million; and $50,500 plus 0.50 percent of the excess over $5 million.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-211 ↗ Compensation of cotrustees and successor trustees: Unless a separate written agreement provides otherwise, each cotrustee is compensated as the trust's terms, the trustee's own agreement or a published fee schedule specifies, without apportionment among the cotrustees unless they agree; the annual fee under section 53-12-210(c)(2)(B) is apportioned among trustees and successor trustees according to the proportion of time each rendered services during the year.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-212 ↗ Extra compensation: A trustee receiving the statutory compensation of section 53-12-210(c) may petition the court for greater compensation, with notice to all qualified beneficiaries; after hearing any objection the court allows the extra compensation it deems reasonable, conclusively as to all parties in interest.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-213 ↗ Reimbursement of expenses: A trustee is entitled to reimbursement out of the trust property for reasonable expenses properly incurred in the administration of the trust.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-214 ↗ Compensation from business enterprise: A trustee may receive compensation from a corporation or other business enterprise in which the trust estate owns an interest for managerial, executive or business advisory services, provided the compensation is reasonable and the services are performed under a contract the section describes.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-220 ↗ Resignation of trustee: A trustee may resign in the manner the trust instrument describes, on at least 30 days' written notice to the qualified beneficiaries, the settlor if living and all cotrustees, or by a petition to the court served on all qualified beneficiaries, with the court imposing conditions reasonably necessary to protect the trust property. Resignation does not relieve the trustee of liability for prior actions except as the court or the instrument relieves it; where the resignation would create a vacancy that must be filled, it is not effective until the successor trustee accepts, and the resigning trustee remains liable until then except as a court order or the instrument limits.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-221 ↗ Removal of trustee: A trustee may be removed as the trust instrument provides, or by the court on an interested person's petition or its own motion: for a serious breach of trust; where lack of cooperation among cotrustees substantially impairs the administration; where removal best serves the beneficiaries because of unfitness, unwillingness or persistent failure to administer effectively; where a substantial change of circumstances makes removal best for the beneficiaries, consistent with a material purpose, and a suitable cotrustee or successor is available; or where all the qualified beneficiaries request it on the same findings. As amended by 2025 HB 327, with the court's temporary measures and the removed trustee's duties as the section provides.

Article 12: Accounting by Trustee

O.C.G.A. § 53-12-230 ↗ Interim accounting: At any time following 12 months from the date of acceptance, but not more often than once every 12 months, a trustee may petition the court to approve an interim accounting relieving the trustee from liability for the period covered. The petition states the trustee's name and address, the trust provisions on the matters covered, the beneficiaries (noting any believed to need a guardian ad litem), the period, the receipts and disbursements since the acceptance or the last accounting, a principal schedule (the principal on hand at the start and its investment, assets received from the settlor and still held, additions with dates and sources, assets collected, sold or charged off with the gain or loss, investments made with date, source and cost, deductions with date and purpose, and the principal on hand at the end with each investment's estimated market value), an income schedule (income on hand at the start, received, paid out and on hand at the end), a statement of the assets and liabilities at the period's end, and other information reasonably necessary to explain the accounting; it is served on the beneficiaries and any surety.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-231 ↗ Final accounting: Where the trustee resigns, is removed or dies, or the trust terminates, a beneficiary or the successor trustee may petition the court to require the trustee or the trustee's personal representative to appear for a final accounting, or the trustee may petition the court to approve a final accounting relieving the trustee from liability for the period covered; the settlement period begins from the acceptance or the end of the last interim accounting, and the petition carries the information section 53-12-230(b) lists.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-232 ↗ Equitable accounting: Nothing in the accounting article restricts the right of any party to seek an equitable accounting.

Article 13: Trustees' Duties and Powers

O.C.G.A. § 53-12-240 ↗ Duties generally: The chapter's duties are in addition to, and not in limitation of, the trustee's common-law duties except to the extent inconsistent with them; on accepting a trusteeship, the trustee administers the trust in good faith, in accordance with its provisions and purposes.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-241 ↗ Duty of prudent administration: In administering a trust, the trustee exercises the judgment and care of a prudent person acting in a like capacity and familiar with such matters, considering the purposes, provisions, distribution requirements and other circumstances of the trust; a trustee who invests and manages trust assets complies with the prudent investor rule of Article 16.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-242 ↗ Duty to inform as to existence of trust: Within 60 days after the date of creation of an irrevocable trust, or of the date on which a revocable trust becomes irrevocable, the trustee notifies the qualified beneficiaries of the existence of the trust and the name and mailing address of the trustee; all irrevocable trusts in existence on July 1, 2010 are deemed to have waived the provision unless the trust instrument says otherwise.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-243 ↗ Duty to provide reports and accounts: On reasonable request by any qualified beneficiary, the trustee provides a report of information, to the extent relevant to that beneficiary's interest, about the assets, liabilities, receipts and disbursements of the trust, the acts of the trustee and the particulars of the administration, including the trust provisions that describe or affect the beneficiary's interest. A trustee accounts at least annually, at the termination of the trust and on a change of trustees to each beneficiary of an irrevocable trust to whom income or principal is required or authorized in the trustee's discretion to be distributed during the period covered by the report, including on the trust's termination on the period's last day, and to any person who may revoke the trust; on a change of trustees the trustee also accounts to the successor. An accounting contains a statement of receipts and disbursements of principal and income during the last complete fiscal year or since the last accounting to that beneficiary, and a statement of the assets and liabilities at the period's end. No report or accounting is required to a beneficiary who waived the right in writing and has not withdrawn the waiver, or to unascertainable charitable beneficiaries of a noncharitable trust; the duties and the common-law duty to keep the beneficiaries reasonably informed do not apply to the extent the trust provisions provide otherwise or the settlor directs otherwise in a writing delivered to the trustee; the court's power to require or excuse an accounting is unaffected. As amended by 2025 HB 327.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-244 ↗ Duty to distribute income: A trustee distributes all net income derived from the trust at least annually.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-245 ↗ No duty to investigate resources: A trustee is under no duty to investigate the resources of any beneficiary when determining whether to distribute trust property to that beneficiary.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-246 ↗ Duty to avoid conflict of interest: A trustee administers the trust solely in the interests of the beneficiaries; the section does not preclude, if fair to the beneficiaries, an agreement between a trustee and a beneficiary on the trustee's appointment or compensation, the payment of reasonable compensation to the trustee, or reasonable compensation for managerial, executive or business advisory services to an enterprise in which the trust estate owns an interest.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-247 ↗ Duty of impartiality: Except to the extent the governing trust instrument clearly manifests an intention that the trustee shall or may favor one or more beneficiaries, a trustee administers the trust impartially, based on what is fair and reasonable to all the beneficiaries and with due regard to the respective interests of income and remainder beneficiaries.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-248 ↗ Exercise of power of appointment: When a person holds a power of appointment, as section 53-12-500 defines it, over property with respect to which the person is also a trustee or a trust director, the duties imposed as trustee or trust director do not apply to the exercise or nonexercise of the power of appointment.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-260 ↗ Discretionary powers: Notwithstanding the breadth of discretion the trust instrument grants — including terms such as "absolute", "sole" or "uncontrolled" — the trustee exercises a discretionary power in good faith.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-261 ↗ Powers of trustee; limitation based on fiduciary duties: A fiduciary has the powers the trust instrument confers and, except as the instrument limits, the powers the section enumerates, exercisable without court order but subject to the fiduciary duties: among them to sell, exchange, partition or otherwise dispose of property; to invest and reinvest; to retain property; to form entities; to continue farming and business operations; to manage real property; to lease; to pay debts, taxes, compensation and the expenses of collecting, caring for, administering and protecting the property; to receive additional property; to deal with other fiduciaries; to borrow and to lend; to vote shares and hold securities in nominee form; to exercise conversion rights; to join with other owners; to adjust, continue and foreclose obligations; to insure; to collect and receipt for rents and income; to employ and compensate agents, attorneys, auditors and advisers; to hold the principal of several trusts undivided; to set reserves; to value and distribute property in kind; to transfer property distributable to a beneficiary under a disability to a conservator, guardian or custodian; and to determine the matters the section lists; where accounts are filed in a court, receipts, disbursements and distributions need not be itemized as the section provides.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-262 ↗ Powers of corporate fiduciaries: A corporate fiduciary may, without court authorization, retain stock or other securities of its own issue received on the creation of the trust or later contributed, including the securities into which they are converted or that derive from mergers, consolidations, stock dividends, splits and similar events, and exercise rights, warrants and conversion features attaching to them, as the section provides.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-263 ↗ Incorporation of powers by reference: By an expressed intention in a will or trust instrument, any or all of the powers the powers part enumerates, as they existed when the testator signed the will or the first settlor signed the instrument, may be incorporated by reference with the same effect as if set out verbatim; after a revocable trust is executed, the settlor or a person authorized to modify it may incorporate the powers as they exist at the incorporation; incorporation adds to, and does not limit, the fiduciary's common-law and statutory powers; a reference to the former statutes the section names is read as the section provides.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-270 ↗ Exercise of power by trustee who is also a beneficiary: Unless the trust provisions expressly indicate otherwise, a person other than a settlor or donor who is a beneficiary and either a trustee or a trust director does not make discretionary distributions to or for that person's own benefit except in accordance with an ascertainable standard, make discretionary allocations between principal and income except in a fiduciary capacity with no power to enlarge or shift a beneficial interest, or make discretionary distributions to satisfy that person's own legal obligations of support; a power so limited may be exercised by a majority of the remaining trustees or trust directors who are not so limited, or as the section otherwise provides.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-280 ↗ Certification of trust by trustee: The trustee may present a certification of trust to any person other than a beneficiary in lieu of a copy of the trust instrument to establish the trust provisions. It contains some or all of: that the trust exists, with the date of the trust and any amendments; the identity of each settlor; the identity and address of each current trustee and, if more than one, the number and identity of those required to exercise the trustee's powers; the trustee's relevant powers and any restrictions on them; the revocability or irrevocability of the trust; how trust property should be titled; that, except as disclosed, the transaction requires no consent or action by anyone other than the certifying trustee; and other information the trustee deems appropriate. It is signed by each trustee, states that the trust has not been revoked, modified or amended in any manner that would make its representations incorrect, and need not contain the dispositive provisions. The recipient may require copies of the excerpts that designate the trustee and confer the power to act in the pending transaction; a person who relies on the certification without knowledge that it is incorrect is not liable and may assume its facts, and a person who enters a transaction in good faith reliance may enforce it; a person who demands the trust instrument in addition to the certification or excerpts is liable for damages, court costs and attorney's fees if the court finds the demand was not made in good faith; the section does not limit the right to a copy of the instrument in a judicial proceeding; a certification in recordable form may be recorded with the clerk of superior court.

Article 14: Trustee Liability

O.C.G.A. § 53-12-300 ↗ Accountable to beneficiary; breach of trust: The trustee is accountable to the beneficiary for the trust property; a violation by the trustee of any duty the trustee owes the beneficiary is a breach of trust.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-301 ↗ Actions for breach of trust: Where a trustee commits or threatens a breach of trust, a beneficiary may seek to recover damages, compel the trustee to perform the trustee's duties, require an accounting, enjoin the breach, compel redress by payment of money or otherwise, appoint a temporary trustee or suspend the trustee, remove the trustee, and reduce or deny the trustee's compensation; a trust attaches to misapplied assets traced to persons with notice, and a creditor of a trust may follow assets in the hands of beneficiaries; the remedy of section 53-12-363(c) is exclusive for an abuse of discretion under sections 53-12-361 and 53-12-362; the section's remaining subsections address a trust with both charitable and noncharitable purposes.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-302 ↗ Damages for breach of trust; interest: A trustee who commits a breach of trust is personally chargeable with the resulting damages — any loss or depreciation of the trust property, any profit the trustee made, and any amount that would reasonably have accrued to the trust or beneficiary absent the breach, each with interest, and, in the court's discretion, the expenses of litigation including reasonable attorney's fees; interest is the greater of the legal rate on judgments and the interest actually received.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-303 ↗ Relief of liability: No provision in a trust instrument relieves the trustee of liability for a breach of trust committed in bad faith or with reckless indifference to the interests of the beneficiaries; a trustee of a revocable trust is not liable to a beneficiary for an act performed or omitted under the written direction of a person holding the power to revoke, including a delegate of that power, and where the trust is revocable in part the rule applies to that part.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-304 ↗ Liability of successor trustee: A successor trustee is liable to the beneficiary for a breach involving a predecessor's acts or omissions only if the successor knows or reasonably should have known of a situation constituting a breach by the predecessor and improperly permits it to continue, neglects to take reasonable steps to compel the predecessor to deliver the trust property, or neglects to take reasonable steps to redress a known or reasonably knowable breach; a trustee succeeding a trustee who was also the settlor is not liable for the prior trustee's acts or omissions and has no duty to institute an action against the prior trustee, as to the portion of the trust the settlor could revoke, as the section provides.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-305 ↗ Liability of cotrustee: A trustee is liable to the beneficiary for a cotrustee's breach if the trustee participates in it, improperly delegates the administration to the cotrustee, approves, knowingly acquiesces in or conceals it, negligently enables it, or neglects to take reasonable steps to compel redress of a breach the trustee knows or reasonably should have known of; cotrustees jointly liable have contribution from each other by degree of fault.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-306 ↗ Action against cotrustee: A trustee may maintain an action against a cotrustee to compel the performance of duties, to enjoin a breach of trust, or to compel redress of a breach the cotrustee committed; the statutory remedies do not prevent resort to any other remedy statute or the common law provides.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-307 ↗ Limitation of actions: Unless a claim is previously barred, where a beneficiary was sent a written report that adequately disclosed the existence of a claim against the trustee for breach of trust, the claim is barred as to that beneficiary unless a proceeding is commenced within two years after the date the beneficiary was sent the report — a report adequately discloses a claim if it provides sufficient information so that the beneficiary knows of the claim or reasonably should have inquired into it; where no such report was sent, the claim is barred unless commenced within six years after the beneficiary discovered or reasonably should have discovered its subject. A successor trustee's claim against a predecessor is barred unless commenced within two years after the successor takes office; a trustee's claim against a cotrustee, within two years after the cause of action arises. As amended by 2025 HB 327.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-308 ↗ Personal liability of trustee: A trustee is not personally liable on a warranty in a conveyance unless an intention to create personal liability is distinctly expressed, nor, unless the contract provides otherwise, on contracts properly entered into in the fiduciary capacity unless the trustee fails to reveal the representative capacity; a judgment in an action against the trust imposes no personal liability on the trustee or the beneficiary.

Article 15: Nonresidents and Foreign Entities Acting as Trustees

O.C.G.A. § 53-12-320 ↗ Nonresidents acting as trustees: A nonresident eligible to serve as trustee under section 7-1-242, Part 1 of Article 11 or other applicable law may act as a trustee in Georgia; by acting, a nonresident trustee consents to service on the Secretary of State of process in actions arising from the trustee's acts or omissions unless the trustee designates a Georgia agent for service by a filing with the Secretary of State, with service as the section provides. As amended by 2025 HB 327.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-321 ↗ Foreign entities acting as trustees: A foreign entity may act in Georgia as trustee, trust director, personal representative, temporary administrator, conservator, guardian or in a like fiduciary capacity without qualifying or being licensed to do business in Georgia, except as the article provides and provided it is authorized to act in that capacity in the state where it is chartered or licensed or, for a national banking association, where it has its principal place of business; a foreign entity qualifying to act need give no bond where the instrument, law or order relieves it, as the section provides.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-322 ↗ Acting as fiduciary; establishment of place of business prohibited; certificate of authority required: A foreign entity acting in a fiduciary capacity in Georgia under the article does not establish or maintain a place of business, branch office or agency in Georgia for the conduct of business as a fiduciary unless it obtains a certificate of authority to transact business as Title 14, Chapter 2, Article 15 requires.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-323 ↗ Filing statement with Secretary of State; appointment of agent for service: Before acting in a fiduciary capacity in Georgia under the article, a foreign entity files with the Secretary of State a verified statement of its correct name, its state of organization or national-bank status, its principal office, the fiduciary capacity it desires, its authority to act in that capacity where chartered or licensed, the chartering or licensing authority, and the name and address of a Georgia agent for service, as the section further provides.

Article 16: Trust Investments

O.C.G.A. § 53-12-340 ↗ Investment standard: A trustee invests and manages trust assets as a prudent investor would, considering the purposes, provisions, distribution requirements and other circumstances of the trust, with reasonable care, skill and caution; investment and management decisions are evaluated in the context of the portfolio as a whole and an overall strategy with risk and return objectives reasonably suited to the trust; the factors a trustee considers include general economic conditions, inflation or deflation, tax consequences, the portfolio's attributes, the expected return from income and appreciation, needs for liquidity, regularity of income and preservation or appreciation of capital, an asset's special relationship or value to the trust's purposes or a beneficiary or the settlor, the trust's anticipated duration and any special circumstances, as the section further provides.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-341 ↗ Concentrated holdings and diversification: A trustee reasonably manages the risk of concentrated holdings by diversifying or by other appropriate mechanisms, except that the duty does not apply where the trustee reasonably determines that special circumstances make the trust's purposes better served without complying, the trustee is not liable to the extent the instrument limits or waives the duty, and the duty applies on or after January 1, 2011 with the transition rules the section states for trusts irrevocable before that date.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-342 ↗ Duties at inception of trusteeship: Within a reasonable time after accepting a trusteeship or receiving trust assets, a trustee reviews the trust assets and makes and implements decisions concerning their retention and disposition, to bring the trust portfolio into compliance with the purposes, provisions, distribution requirements and other circumstances of the trust and with the requirements of the investment article.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-343 ↗ Reviewing compliance: Compliance with the investment rules is determined in light of the facts and circumstances existing at the time of the trustee's decision or action, not by hindsight.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-344 ↗ Language invoking application of article: Words in a trust's provisions such as "investments permissible by law for investment of trust funds", "legal investments", "authorized investments", the prudent-person formula the section quotes, "prudent man rule", "prudent trustee rule", "prudent person rule" and "prudent investor rule" — unless otherwise limited or modified — authorize any investment or strategy the investment article and Article 17 permit.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-345 ↗ Delegation: A trustee may delegate investment and management functions that a prudent trustee of comparable skills could properly delegate under the circumstances, exercising reasonable care, skill and caution in selecting the agent, establishing the scope and terms of the delegation consistent with the trust's purposes and provisions, and periodically reviewing the agent's actions; the agent owes the trust a duty of reasonable care to comply with the terms of the delegation; a trustee who complies and takes reasonable steps to compel an agent to redress a breach is not liable for the agent's decisions or actions; by accepting the delegation an agent submits to Georgia's jurisdiction.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-360 ↗ Duty of trustee as to receipts and disbursements within scope of Article 17: In allocating receipts and disbursements between principal and income and in any matter within Article 17's scope, a trustee administers the trust in accordance with the governing instrument even where Article 17 provides differently, may exercise a discretionary power of administration the instrument gives even where the result differs from Article 17's with no inference of impropriety from an allocation contrary to it, and otherwise administers in accordance with Article 17; where neither the instrument nor Article 17 provides a rule, the trustee adds a receipt or charges a disbursement to principal as the section provides.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-361 ↗ Power of adjustment: Subject to the section's conditions, a trustee may adjust between principal and income — allocating income to principal or principal to income — to the extent the trustee considers appropriate where the governing instrument refers to the trust's income in describing what is distributable and the trustee, after applying section 53-12-360, is unable to comply with the duty of impartiality; in deciding, the trustee may consider the trust's size, nature and duration, its liquidity and distribution requirements, the needs for regular distributions and for preservation and appreciation of capital, the expected tax consequences, the net income and the change in principal value, the assets held and the other factors the section lists, with the limits its later subsections state.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-362 ↗ Conversion to unitrust: Unless the trust instrument expressly prohibits it, a trustee may release the power to adjust and convert a trust into a unitrust where the trustee determines that the conversion will better carry out the settlor's intent and the trust's purposes, gives written notice of the intention and of how the unitrust will operate to the settlor if living, all living persons currently receiving or eligible to receive income, and all living persons who would receive principal if the trust terminated at the time of the notice, and no beneficiary objects in a writing delivered to the trustee within 60 days after the notice was mailed, with the further conditions and the unitrust's operation as the section provides. As amended by 2025 HB 327.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-363 ↗ Abuse of trustee’s discretion: A court does not change a trustee's decision to exercise or not exercise the power to adjust or to convert to a unitrust unless the decision was an abuse of discretion; where it was, the remedy is to restore the income and remainder beneficiaries to the positions they would have occupied had the discretion not been abused, by the rules the section states.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-364 ↗ Express total return unitrusts: A trust whose governing instrument requires the distribution at least annually of a unitrust amount equal to a fixed percentage of not less than 3 nor more than 5 percent of the net fair market value of its assets, valued at least annually, is an express total return unitrust: the unitrust amount may be determined by reference to one or more years' values, its distribution is considered a distribution of all the income and a reasonable apportionment of the total return, and the instrument may grant the trustee the discretions the section describes.

Article 17: Georgia Principal and Income Act

O.C.G.A. § 53-12-380 ↗ Short title: Names Article 17 the Georgia Principal and Income Act.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-381 ↗ Definitions: Defines the Principal and Income Act's terms — an accounting period (a calendar year unless the fiduciary selects another 12-month period, including a portion that begins or ends with an income interest), beneficiary (an heir or devisee of an estate; an income or remainder beneficiary of a trust), fiduciary (a personal representative or trustee), income (money or property a fiduciary receives as current return from a principal asset, including the portion of sale proceeds Part 4 allocates), income beneficiary and income interest, and the other terms the section lists.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-401 ↗ Apportionment of receipts and disbursements when decedent dies or income interest begins: A trustee allocates to principal an income receipt or disbursement whose due date falls before a decedent's death (for an estate) or before an income interest begins (for a trust), and to income one whose due date is periodic and falls on or after that date; a receipt or disbursement with a non-periodic due date or none accrues from day to day, the portion accruing before the death or the interest's start going to principal and the balance to income; an item is due on the date the payor must pay it, and an entity's distribution on the date fixed for determining who is entitled to it, as the section provides.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-402 ↗ Apportionment when income interest ends: When a mandatory income interest ends, the trustee pays the surviving mandatory income beneficiary, or a deceased beneficiary's estate where the death ended the interest, the beneficiary's share of the undistributed net income not disposed of under the trust's terms — unless the beneficiary held an unqualified power to revoke more than 5 percent of the trust immediately before the interest ended, in which case that portion's undistributed income is added to principal; the section's remaining subsections address a successive income interest and an estate's transfer to a trust.

Article 18: Trust Directors

O.C.G.A. § 53-12-500 ↗ Definitions: Defines Article 18's terms: a "directed trustee" is a trustee subject to a trust director's power of direction; a "power of appointment" is a nonfiduciary power to designate a recipient of an ownership interest in or another power over trust property, to rescind or terminate such an interest or power, or to determine when a beneficiary has the rights of sections 53-12-242 and 53-12-243 or similar rights under the instrument; a "power of direction" is a power over a trust the instrument grants a person in a capacity other than as trustee — over the administration, investment, management or distribution of the property, a power to consent and the other powers the section lists; and a "trust director" is a person granted a power of direction, as the section provides.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-501 ↗ Application of article; construction of trust instrument: Article 18 applies when the trust instrument evidences the settlor's intent to provide for the office and function of a trust director, whatever terms it uses; it does not apply to a power of appointment, a power to appoint or remove a trustee or trust director, a settlor's power to revoke or amend, a beneficiary's power to the extent its exercise affects the beneficiary's own or a represented person's beneficial interest, or a power the instrument holds in a nonfiduciary capacity that must be so held for the settlor's tax objectives; a power to designate a recipient exercisable other than as trustee is a power of appointment and not a power of direction except as the instrument provides.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-502 ↗ Authority, procedures, and powers of trust directors: A trust instrument may grant powers of direction to a trust director, who then has, except as the instrument provides, any further powers appropriate to their exercise or nonexercise and the same power to employ and compensate persons that a trustee has under section 53-12-261(b)(23); a director who is also a beneficiary is subject to section 53-12-270's limits; a power to modify the trust does not enlarge the trustee's duties or liabilities without the trustee's express consent, and a trustee is not liable for failing to act on a modification or termination of which it had no notice.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-503 ↗ Role of directors; petitioning court for instructions: A trust director has, in exercising or not exercising a power of direction, the same fiduciary duty and liability as a trustee in a like position and under similar circumstances; a director holding a power individually has no cotrustee liability as to a trustee or another director, while one holding a power jointly with a trustee or another director has cotrustee liability within the jointly held power's scope; except as the instrument provides, a director does not have the duties of sections 53-12-242 and 53-12-243(b); the instrument may vary a director's duty or liability as it could a trustee's; an action against a director for breach is commenced within the same period as section 53-12-307 provides for a trustee, and a report or accounting has the same effect on it; the instrument may make a power of direction contingent on events or terminate it, and a director may petition the court for instructions, as the section provides. As amended by 2025 HB 327.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-504 ↗ Directed trustees; role; trustee’s duty as to directed trustee; petitioning court for instructions: A directed trustee takes reasonable action to comply with a trust director's exercise or nonexercise of a power of direction and is not liable for the action — unless compliance would clearly constitute an act committed in bad faith, with which the trustee must not comply; a direction is within scope if the trustee believes in good faith that it is. Subject to the instrument, a directed trustee provides information to a director as if the director were a beneficiary to whom income is required or authorized to be distributed and responds to a director's reasonable requests; a trustee relying on a director's information is not liable for a resulting breach unless the trustee acts in bad faith, nor for a failure to inform a beneficiary that results from the director's failure to inform the trustee. Except as the instrument provides, a trustee has no duty to monitor, investigate, review or evaluate a director, to provide information beyond the section's, to advise the director, to act beyond refusal on a bad-faith direction, to compel the director, to petition about the director, or to inform anyone that the trustee would have acted differently, and assumes no such duty by taking one of those actions; a director's release of a trustee induced in bad faith or by false or incomplete information is ineffective; the instrument may impose further duties; a directed trustee with reasonable doubt may petition the court for instructions, as the section provides.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-505 ↗ Relief from duty and liability: A trust instrument may relieve a cotrustee from duty and liability with respect to another cotrustee's exercise or nonexercise of a power to the same extent a directed trustee is relieved with respect to a trust director's power of direction under Article 18.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-506 ↗ Eligibility; applicable rules: An individual is eligible to serve as a trust director regardless of citizenship or residency; an entity needs the power to act as a trustee in Georgia. The rules applicable to a trustee apply to a trust director for jurisdiction under section 53-12-6, for all matters Article 11 governs — including appointment and acceptance, compensation, and resignation and removal — and for accounting under Article 12.

Article 19: Utilization of Electronic Communications

O.C.G.A. § 53-12-510 ↗ Definitions: Defines Article 19's terms: "electronic"; an "electronic address" (a unique username or other identifier at which information may be received by electronic means, including an email or internet address and any information system designed for the exchange of information); an "electronic portal" (a website or similar electronic service through which a person may retrieve information); an "electronic record"; an "electronic signature" (an electronic symbol or process attached to or logically associated with a record and executed or adopted with the intent to sign); "information"; a "record" (information inscribed on a tangible medium or stored in an electronic or other medium and retrievable in perceivable form); and the further terms the section lists.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-511 ↗ Method of providing notice: Governs notice to a person and the sending of a record under the chapter, a trust instrument or any matter involving a trust — but not whether the notice complied with privacy, confidentiality or security duties. Notice or a record is accomplished in a manner likely to result in receipt and reasonably suitable under the circumstances, and is presumed likely to result in receipt, unless proven otherwise by clear and convincing evidence, when accomplished by personal delivery; registered or certified mail or statutory overnight delivery to the person's last known residence or business or the address last used to receive notices; an electronic address the person consented to use; or an electronic portal where the person was granted access and informed that notices and records will be made available there, the notice or record is made available, the person is notified concurrently or afterward that it has been, and for at least 90 days after that notification the person's access is not terminated without consent and the record remains available — an objection to an electronic address or portal defeats the presumption. Where a record was sent solely through a portal and the existence of a claim would not otherwise have been adequately disclosed for section 53-12-307, the limitation period is tolled if the beneficiary's access is terminated without consent or the record is no longer available, unless within 30 days the beneficiary is notified of an alternative means to obtain it, and recommences when the record is resent. A person consents to an electronic address by providing or using it for trust matters as the section describes; requiring a person to activate an account does not prevent access from having been granted; a record is made available only if the person can download or otherwise preserve a copy outside the portal; an unsent notification is deemed given on the person's next access; a required password reset is not a termination of access. For section 53-12-307 the sending of a record in a manner likely to result in receipt is presumed reasonably suitable; otherwise suitability is judged in context. Notice is deemed accomplished on the date of actual knowledge of the contents and not accomplished where the sender has actual knowledge of non-receipt; notice need not be given to a person whose identity or location is unknown and not reasonably ascertainable, and may be waived; an action is not ineffective for a failure of notice where the person acted with reasonable care to comply; notice of a judicial proceeding follows the rules of civil procedure; and the section is applied consistently with reasonable and expanding electronic practices. Added by 2025 HB 327.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-512 ↗ Application: Applies to all records and signatures relating to trusts — exercises, delegations, determinations, releases, waivers, renunciations, disclaimers and other actions on powers and rights; notices and records the chapter or a trust instrument requires, including notices under section 53-12-242, reports and accounts under section 53-12-243 and accountings under Article 12; nonjudicial settlement agreements; notices of a decanting; and the other records the section lists — except a writing and signature creating or declaring an express trust under section 53-12-20. It is applied to facilitate electronic records and signatures consistently with other law and reasonable practices, does not invalidate a record or signature valid under other law, and provides that a record or signature is not denied legal effect solely because it is electronic, that an electronic record or signature satisfies a writing or signature requirement of Georgia law or a trust instrument, that an electronic record or signature is attributable to a person if it was the person's act, shown in any manner including a security procedure's efficacy, and the further rules on retention, notarization and paper certification the section states. Added by 2025 HB 327.
O.C.G.A. § 53-12-513 ↗ Construction with federal provisions: The chapter's provisions conform to section 102 of the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (15 U.S.C. § 7002) and supersede, modify and limit that act's requirements. Added by 2025 HB 327.

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