What It Means to Fund a Trust in Georgia
Funding is the part after the signing. It means changing the name on record for each asset, from your name to the trust’s name.
Georgia law puts it in one line. O.C.G.A. § 53-12-25(a) says a transfer of property in trust “shall require a transfer of legal title to the trustee.” No transfer of title, no trust property.
That is the whole idea. A trust is not a box you drop things into. It is an owner, and an owner has to appear on the paperwork.
Signing day does not move anything. You have a document. Your deeds and accounts are still in your own name that afternoon.
Which assets belong inside is a separate question. Some are meant to stay out on purpose, and which assets should not be in a trust covers those, with a different legal reason for each one.
Step 1: Make the List
Funding fails more often from disorganization than from difficulty. So the first step is not paperwork. It is a list.
Write down every asset you own. For each one, note where it is held and roughly what it is worth. Anything that never makes the list never makes it into the trust.
Sort the list into three piles. Real estate. Accounts. Business interests. Each pile moves a different way, and the rest of the steps follow that order.
Step 2: Deed the Real Estate
Real estate is first because it takes the longest and holds the most value.
A new deed has to be drafted, moving the property from your name into the trust’s name. Georgia is specific about how that deed gets signed. Under O.C.G.A. § 44-5-30, a deed must be signed by the maker, attested by an officer, and attested by one other witness as well. That means two witnesses, one of them official, usually a notary. A notary alone is not enough.
Then it gets filed. O.C.G.A. § 44-2-1 puts Georgia deeds on record with the clerk of superior court in the county where the land sits.
Filing is not optional here, and the reason is specific to trusts. Under O.C.G.A. § 53-12-25(b), when the person handing the property over is also the trustee, the deed has to be recorded before the property becomes trust property. That is the normal setup for a family trust, so this rule almost always applies to you.
The cost is small. Georgia sets the filing fee by state law at a flat $25 per deed, under O.C.G.A. § 15-6-77(f)(1)(A)(i). It does not change by county and it does not change with the length of the deed.
Transfer tax does not apply either. O.C.G.A. § 48-6-2(a)(9) exempts a deed to or from a trustee, as long as nothing of value changes hands. Moving your own home into your own trust is not a sale.
People skip this step because of the mortgage, and that fear is misplaced. Federal law blocks the lender from calling your loan over it. 12 U.S.C. § 1701j-3(d)(8) bars a due on sale clause for a transfer into a trust where you remain a beneficiary. The rule covers homes with fewer than five units.
One real risk does come with this step. Once the deed is filed, call your home insurance carrier and add the trust to the policy. If the trust owns the house and the policy names only you, the carrier can deny a claim.
Each property needs its own deed. At The Hive Law the deed is drafted and filed as part of the plan, and you sign it in front of your own notary and second witness.
Step 3: Retitle the Accounts
Accounts are easier. Nothing gets drafted and nothing gets filed at a courthouse.
Call each bank and brokerage and ask for a change of ownership into the trust. Most have a standard form. The account number usually stays the same and your access does not change.
Banks often ask to see the trust. You do not have to hand over the whole document. Georgia has a short form for this, called a certification of trust, under O.C.G.A. § 53-12-280. It confirms the trust exists, names the trustee, and lists the powers, without showing anyone who your beneficiaries are or what they get.
Expect this step to take several calls rather than one. Each institution has its own process and its own department.
Step 4: Assign the Business Interests
A share of an LLC moves by a written assignment. There is no deed and no bank form.
Georgia’s default runs the opposite way from what most owners assume. Read this part slowly. Your stake can be handed over. O.C.G.A. § 14-11-502 lets you transfer an LLC interest in whole or in part. Your own paperwork can block that, so check it.
What the assignment moves is the money side. The trust gets the profits, the losses, and the payouts.
Voting is a separate thing. Under O.C.G.A. § 14-11-503, the trust becomes a full member only if the other members all agree. Your operating agreement can change that too. So the trust can end up owning the income without owning a vote.
Read the operating agreement before anything gets signed. A one member LLC is usually simple, because there is nobody else to ask. If the LLC holds property, funding a trust with LLC interests goes deeper on how the assignment is written.
Some accounts are never retitled. Retirement accounts and life insurance stay in your own name and pass by the form on file.
That form outranks your will and your trust. It does not matter what the trust says. The company pays whoever is written on the form.
So this step is a review, not a transfer. Pull up each form and read the name on it. A form filled out before a divorce, a birth, or a death is the most common broken piece in an otherwise good plan.
Step 6: Confirm It Actually Landed
The last step is the one people skip, and it is the only one that proves the rest worked.
Go back through the list from Step 1. For each asset, look at the actual title, not your memory of it. A deed, a statement, and a title certificate each show an owner’s name.
If your own name is still on it, that asset is outside the trust. A signed deed sitting in a folder is not a filed deed. A phone call to the bank is not a completed retitling.
Georgia gives no grace period for this. There is no cleanup step at death that catches what was missed.
What the Pour-Over Will Does and Does Not Do
Your plan includes a pour-over will as a backup. It catches anything still in your name at death and sends it into the trust.
It does not avoid probate for what it catches. The asset still goes through court first, then lands in the trust afterward. Your family ends up where you wanted, the slow way, and the amount becomes public.
So the pour-over will is a net, not a plan. It exists for the thing you forgot, not for the things you decided not to bother with.
What Happens to Anything Left Out
An asset left in your own name goes through Georgia probate, exactly as if the trust did not exist.
Probate is not a formality here:
- Cost. A simple estate runs about $14,700 in attorney and court costs.
- Time. A simple estate takes about 13 months. A business or complex estate averages 25 months.
- Control. Your family cannot sell, refinance, or move the asset until the court gives them authority.
We have reviewed trusts that sat in a drawer for years while the house and the accounts stayed in the owner’s name. The document existed and controlled nothing.
That is not a drafting failure. It is a funding failure, and it is fixable while you are alive.
If you want someone to check what a trust already owns, a trust package review at The Hive Law is $1,050, flat fee. Melissa Breyer reads the documents and tells you which assets made it in.
Funding is one piece of a Georgia plan. See the estate planning guide for how the will and the trust fit together.
Your first call is free, about 15 minutes, and happens by phone with Shawn. If you move forward, your next step is the Design Meeting with Melissa, which is credited toward your plan.
The other half of the question is which assets belong inside at all. What assets should go in a trust in Georgia covers that, asset by asset.
