A living trust is a legal arrangement where you, as the grantor, transfer ownership of your assets to the trust during your lifetime. You typically serve as the initial trustee, maintaining full control over your property. When you pass away or become incapacitated, a successor trustee you’ve chosen takes over and manages or distributes the assets according to your instructions.
The key distinction from a will is that assets held in a living trust don’t go through probate — they pass directly to your beneficiaries according to the trust terms, saving your family time and money while keeping your affairs private. Georgia recognizes living trusts under O.C.G.A. Title 53, and unlike some legal documents, they don’t need to be filed with any court or government agency. They become effective as soon as they’re properly signed and funded.
What Are the Benefits for Georgia Families?
1. Avoiding Probate: Probate in Georgia typically takes 6 to 12 months, sometimes longer. A living trust allows your successor trustee to begin managing and distributing assets almost immediately, without waiting for court approval.
2. Maintaining Privacy: A probated will becomes public record. Living trusts remain private — only the people you choose to share them with ever see the terms.
3. Planning for Incapacity: If you become unable to manage your affairs due to illness or injury, your successor trustee can step in without going to court for guardianship or conservatorship — particularly valuable for Georgia families caring for aging parents.
4. Flexibility During Your Lifetime: With a revocable living trust, the most common planning tool, you maintain complete control. You can add or remove property, change beneficiaries, or revoke the trust entirely at any time while mentally competent.
5. Protecting Your Most Valuable Asset: Your home is likely your most valuable asset, and for most Savannah families, it represents far more than a financial investment — it’s where you raised your children and built decades of memories. Once you’ve established a revocable living trust, the next step is funding it: changing your home’s legal ownership from your individual name to your trust’s name via a new, recorded deed. The trust then owns your home, but because you serve as trustee of your own revocable trust, you retain complete control over the property.
As the owner of Johnson Greene Law Group, I’m happy to provide complimentary consultations to discuss your options for trust and estate planning. Reach out at egreene@jlgi.com or call anytime at 202-924-0765. As a wife, parent, and small business owner on Wilmington Island, the feedback I hear most from clients once their documents are executed is a genuine sense of security and clarity about their trust and estate’s future.
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