The Complete Georgia Estate Planning Checklist

Estate planning in Georgia starts from friendly terrain, no state estate or inheritance tax, a probate process that is manageable when wills are well drafted, and statutory forms for healthcare directives, but friendly terrain still punishes the unprepared with months of court process, family conflict, and avoidable taxes. Here is the complete checklist, sequenced so each layer builds on the last.

Layer One: the Foundational Five

Start with the documents every adult needs, detailed in our foundations guide: a will naming executor and guardians, durable financial power of attorney, Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care, HIPAA authorizations, and a full beneficiary audit. Georgia specifics worth knowing: wills require two witnesses (self-proving affidavits spare witnesses a courthouse trip later); Georgia's year's support provision gives surviving spouses and minor children a priority claim worth understanding; and an executor can be relieved of bond and inventory requirements by the will's language, which good drafting always includes, sparing your family real friction.

Layer Two: Titling and the Probate Question

Assets pass three ways: by beneficiary designation (retirement accounts, insurance, TOD/POD accounts), by titling (joint tenancy with survivorship), and by probate (everything else, per the will). Map every major asset to its channel and check the results against your intent, the classic accident is a will leaving everything to the trust while a 401(k) beneficiary form from 2009 leaves the largest asset to an ex-spouse. Georgia's probate is less fearsome than the national horror stories, but it is public, takes months, and gets complicated with out-of-state property, which passes through ancillary probate in that state unless titled around it.

Layer Three: Whether You Need a Trust

A revocable living trust adds cost and funding discipline in exchange for probate avoidance, privacy, seamless incapacity management, and control over distribution timing. In Georgia it earns its keep when: children would otherwise inherit outright at 18; the family is blended; you own property in multiple states; privacy matters; or beneficiaries need protection from creditors, divorces, or their own youth. The critical follow-through is funding, retitling assets into the trust; an unfunded trust is an expensive binder. Special situations get special tools: special-needs trusts preserve government benefits, and spendthrift provisions protect inheritances from beneficiaries' circumstances.

Layer Four: Taxes and the Advanced Tier

The federal estate exemption sits at $15 million per person (2026, indexed forward) with portability between spouses, so federal estate tax now touches few Georgia families, but those it touches, and owners of appreciating businesses who may grow into it, should plan early: lifetime gifting programs using the $19,000 annual exclusion, 529 superfunding, irrevocable life insurance trusts to keep death benefits out of the estate, and the business transfer strategies that move appreciation to the next generation. For everyone, basis planning now matters more than estate-tax planning: appreciated assets held until death receive a stepped-up basis, which argues against gifting low-basis assets and for gifting cash or high-basis property. Coordinate the whole stack with your attorney, CPA, and planner, then calendar reviews every three years and at every life event.

Tony Colunga · Founder, Attend Wealth

Tony leads Attend Wealth, a fee-based wealth management firm in Atlanta serving professionals, families, and business owners. Advisory services are held to a fiduciary standard. More about Attend