Estate Planning, Answered Plainly

Probate is the court process that transfers property after someone dies. The court validates the will if there is one, appoints someone to administer the estate, requires notice to heirs and creditors, and supervises the accounting before anything is distributed.

Three things about it surprise people. It takes months and often longer than a year. It is a public court file, so the inventory of what someone owned and who received it can be read by anyone. And nothing can be sold or transferred until the court authorizes it, which is why an estate sometimes cannot sell a house that has a buyer waiting.

Georgia law decides who inherits, in a fixed order that does not consider what you would have wanted. Dying without a will is called dying intestate.

Under O.C.G.A. 53-2-1, a spouse with no children inherits everything. A spouse who survives alongside children shares equally with them, except that the spouse never receives less than a one-third share — so with three children, the spouse takes a third and the children divide the rest. With no spouse and no children, the estate passes to parents, then to siblings, then outward by degree of kinship.

The statute has no room for anything else. Stepchildren you raised but never adopted, an unmarried partner of thirty years, a charity you supported all your life, a friend who cared for you — none of them inherit. And the court, not you, appoints the person who administers your estate and decides who raises your minor children.

A will directs who receives your property and names the person you want to handle your estate and, if you have minor children, the guardian you want raising them.

What a will does not do is avoid probate. A will is instructions to the probate court, so having one means the court follows your wishes rather than the statute — but it still goes to court, still becomes public, and still takes time.

A trust is an arrangement in which property is held for the benefit of the people you name. With a revocable living trust you create it during your lifetime, you control it, you can change or revoke it whenever you like, and you continue to use your property exactly as you always have. Nothing about your daily life changes.

What changes is what happens when you die. Property held in the trust passes to your family under the terms you wrote, without the court.

Different tools, and most complete plans include both.

A will alone means probate. A trust that holds your property means your family avoids it. The question is usually not which one but whether the trust is actually funded — see the next answer, which is where most plans fail.

Funding means retitling your property into the name of the trust. A trust is a container; funding is putting things in it. An unfunded trust is an empty container, and the property still goes through probate.

The house is the piece that matters most, and it requires a new deed. A trust that does not hold your house does not keep your house out of probate. We prepare and record that deed as part of every plan rather than leaving it to you afterward. It is the step most firms skip, and it is the reason most trusts fail.

A short will that works alongside a trust. Anything you did not get into the trust during your lifetime — something bought late, something overlooked — pours into the trust at your death so it is distributed under the same terms as everything else. It is a safety net, not a substitute for funding the trust properly.

Both handle an estate through probate: inventory the assets, notify creditors, pay debts and taxes, and distribute what remains.

The difference is who chose them. An executor is named in a will. An administrator is appointed by the court when there is no will, or when the named executor cannot serve. If you die without a will, the court picks the person — which may not be the person you would have picked.

The work itself: gathering assets, giving notice to heirs and creditors, paying valid debts and final taxes, accounting to the court, and distributing what is left. In a probate estate it happens under court supervision and on the court's timetable. Property held in a funded trust is administered privately, by the person you named, without any of that.

A document naming someone to handle your financial affairs if you cannot — pay bills, manage accounts, deal with insurance, sign documents.

It matters because it addresses a problem a will cannot. A will operates only after death. A power of attorney operates while you are alive but unable to act. Without one, your family may have to petition a court to be appointed conservator, which is expensive, slow, and public. The authority ends at your death, when your will or trust takes over.

Georgia's combined document for medical decisions. It names the person you want making health care decisions if you cannot make them yourself, and it records your wishes about treatment at the end of life.

Its real value is that it spares your family from guessing, and from disagreeing with each other, in the worst week of their lives. You have already answered the question.

Federal privacy law prevents medical providers from discussing your care with anyone you have not authorized. A HIPAA authorization names the people who may receive your medical information. Without one, the person you chose to make your medical decisions may not be able to get the information needed to make them.

A short document proving your trust exists and that you have authority to act for it, without disclosing its terms. Banks and title companies ask for proof; the certification satisfies them while keeping the substance of your plan — who receives what — private.

Georgia began allowing them on July 1, 2024. You record a deed naming who receives the property when you die. Nothing changes while you are alive: you still own the house outright, you can sell it, refinance it, or revoke the deed whenever you like, and the person you named holds no interest in it at all until your death.

That is what separates it from a survivorship deed, which is how we title most married couples at closing. Under a joint tenancy with right of survivorship, the other owner owns the property with you today. Both of you must sign to sell or refinance, their creditors can reach it, and you cannot remove them without their consent.

Longer than families expect. A straightforward estate with a valid will and cooperative heirs generally runs several months to a year. Add a missing heir, a disputed will, an out-of-state property, or a house that needs to be sold, and it stretches well beyond that.

Meanwhile the bills continue. Mortgage payments, insurance, taxes, and upkeep all come due while the estate waits on the court.

Yes. A probate file is a court record. The will itself, the inventory of what was owned, the debts, and often who received what can be read by anyone who asks the clerk — including people you would not have chosen to tell.

Property held in a funded trust does not go through probate and does not become a public record.

As closing attorneys, we get the file after the mess — the estate that cannot sell the house, the six heirs and one missing signature, the family that waits a year for a court to release what was always theirs. We started Parkway Planning to prevent the messes we kept inheriting.