The Hive Law
Estate Planning Built Around Your Family's Actual Situation in Georgia
Georgia law does not treat every family the same. Married parents, divorced co-parents, blended families, and grandparents raising grandchildren each face different rules for guardianship, inheritance, and custody. This hub explains what applies to your specific family situation and what to do about it.
Estate Planning for Every Family Structure in Georgia
Most estate planning content assumes one kind of family: married, with their own biological children. Georgia law does not actually work that way for a divorced co-parent, a blended family, an unmarried couple, or a grandparent raising grandchildren. Find the situation that matches your family below.
Estate Planning for Every Kind of Georgia Family
Married with young kids, divorced and co-parenting, blended with stepchildren, widowed, unmarried with children together, or raising grandchildren — Georgia law treats each of these situations differently. The document that protects one family’s children can leave another family exposed, because the underlying legal facts are different.
This hub organizes The Hive Law’s family-specific content by situation, not by a single generic estate planning checklist. Find the article that matches your actual family structure, and get the specific answer instead of a general one.
Why Family Structure Changes the Legal Answer
Georgia’s default rules for guardianship, inheritance, and custody assume a married couple with their own biological children. Once a family looks different — a stepparent, an ex-spouse, an unmarried partner, a grandparent raising grandchildren — the default rules often produce an outcome most people don’t expect and wouldn’t have chosen.
A plan built around your family’s actual structure closes those gaps before they become a problem for the people you’re trying to protect.
Blended and Second Marriages
Divorced and Co-Parenting
Planning For Your Specific Situation
If you own rental properties or a business, your situation has layers a standard estate plan does not address.
The Difference a Trust Makes
Without a Family-Specific Plan
- Georgia probate court decides who raises your children if no guardian is named
- A judge who has never met your family makes the guardian decision
- Your children's inheritance sits under court-supervised conservatorship until they turn 18
- Blended, unmarried, and multi-generational families get no automatic protection under Georgia law
- 9 to 18 months in probate before your family has full access to anything
- The court controls the outcome and the timeline, not your family
With a Complete Family Trust Package
- You choose exactly who raises your children if something happens to you
- A minor's trust replaces court-supervised conservatorship with a trustee you pick
- Blended, unmarried, and multi-generational families get the protection Georgia law doesn't provide automatically
- No probate, no months-long wait for your family to have access
- Built around your family's actual structure, not a generic template
- Your family gets clarity instead of a court's best guess
How It Works
A 15-Minute Call With Shawn
Tell us what is going on with your family. Shawn walks you through your options and what each one costs. Free.
The Design Meeting With Shawn and Melissa
In a 60-minute meeting, Shawn and Melissa review your assets, your family, and your goals together and confirm your price. This meeting is credited toward your plan if you move forward.
Review Every Document With Melissa
Before you sign, Melissa walks through every document with you in plain language. No legal jargon. No confusion about what you are signing.
Sign at Home
You sign at home, in front of a notary and witnesses you line up. Your signing instructions tell you who needs to be there. After you sign, you get a written checklist of what to do next.
Melissa Breyer
Georgia Estate Planning Attorney
Melissa Breyer is a Georgia estate planning attorney who works exclusively on trust-based estate planning and LLC formation. She personally designs and drafts every plan at The Hive Law after the initial call. Every plan is built from scratch for your specific family, your specific assets, and your specific wishes.
121+ Five-Star Google Reviews
What Our Clients Say
After my father passed away, my mother had to rely on my father's employer to navigate the estate. It was a disaster. After this experience, I knew I needed a plan. I turned to The Hive Law to set up a trust. I no longer have to worry about my wife and children going through a difficult process if something happens to me. I highly recommend The Hive Law!
My biggest fear was that if I died first, my wife would have no idea how to navigate the estate and legal system. I reached out to The Hive Law and they put my mind at ease immediately. Their process is easy to follow and they took care of everything. The Hive Law is the best decision I've made for my family's future.
Working with Melissa Breyer to set up our Living Trust was a wonderful experience. She and her entire team were knowledgeable, professional, and made the whole process easy to understand. I highly recommend The Hive Law for all your estate planning needs!
We highly recommend Hive Law. They were extremely patient and responsive, answering our many rounds of questions regarding trusts and estate planning. Shawn consistently responded the same day we sent our questions, even while his family was on vacation, which we greatly appreciated. Shawn was also always available to discuss matters by phone whenever we needed additional clarification on the options we were considering. Both are very knowledgeable in estate planning, and we would confidently recommend Hive Law to friends and family.
The Hive Law made the entire estate planning and trust process easy to understand and stress-free. Melissa and Shawn walked us through every step and answered all of our questions. We feel confident that our family is protected. Highly recommend!
My mom chose The Hive firm to help with estate planning and developing a trust to protect her assets. I sat in on her meeting with Melissa, and Melissa did a great job of simplifying complex legalese into easily understood concepts. Shawn was very quick to get us our documents and all steps in the process were clear and easy. They make a great team and we are thankful for their help!
I used The Hive Law to help me create a trust for my family. The process was straightforward and Melissa and Shawn made sure I understood each step. They were responsive to all of my questions. I feel much more confident about my family's future now. Highly recommend!
Working with Shawn and Melissa at The Hive Law has been an excellent experience. They were one of three firms we contacted, but she made the strongest impression during our initial call. They asked great questions to understand our situation and clearly explained what we needed to put in place. We initially had some reservations about their fully virtual approach, but those concerns were quickly put to rest. After the first two calls, it was clear how easy they are to work with and how well connected we felt. Communication has been clear, organized, and reassuring throughout the process. Shawn and Melissa are professional, approachable, and thorough. We feel confident we're in good hands and highly recommend The Hive Law for estate planning.
The Hive Law Firm, and specifically Melissa, has been wonderful to work with during our estate planning process. She is knowledgeable, patient, and thorough. She answered all of our questions and made the process easy to understand. I highly recommend The Hive Law!
Shawn and Melissa were amazing to work with! My partner and I recently bought a house and wanted to get important things like wills, healthcare directives, etc. set up. They were incredible at answering all our questions and working with us to make sure we felt confident in all of the legal aspects. Having tried to do this online before with one of the DIY tools, it was just an amazing experience to get to talk through what we wanted with a knowledgeable human and have them take care of the details.
Hive Law was awesome to work with! Melissa and Shawn explained everything, kept things stress-free, and were always quick to respond to my questions. They made the whole process simple and smooth from start to finish. Highly recommend if you want a team that's knowledgeable but also easy to work with.
I lost my father in February of this year without any estate planning in place. The process of dealing with the probate court has been overwhelming and expensive. After this experience, I contacted The Hive Law to set up a trust so my children never have to go through what I've been through. Melissa and Shawn were compassionate, knowledgeable, and made the entire process simple. I highly recommend The Hive Law!
I used to know the bare minimum about probate and trust. I first encountered Shawn Breyer on Facebook. He was offering a webinar that I watched. That gave me a better understanding of probate versus trust. I was impressed enough to have him and his wife represent me. I had my initial one on one interview with Melissa Breyer, it went smoothly and she made everything clear. We are now proceeding with getting a revocable trust in place.
The Hive Law has been amazing throughout the process of setting up our trust. Every detail is considered and no stone is left unturned. They have been easy and enjoyable to work with. I would absolutely recommend them! Don't let your estate be turned over to Probate!!
The Hive Law helped us set up a revocable trust. Their webinar is great for answering any questions you may have, to clarify and avoid probate. Get in touch with them right away, you won't be disappointed.
Melissa was great! She gave me an honest review of my future plans that I already have in place. Turns out, I already had my ducks in a row!!! She was a pleasure to talk with!!
For several years now I have been thinking about having a will drawn up, but continued to procrastinate until an older sibling had a medical situation occur which none of the family was prepared for. This was the determining factor for me to get it done. We never know when an emergency medical situation could arise and I didn't want my other siblings to be scrambling around trying to figure things out in the event I couldn't make any decisions for myself, or God forbid I pass away. My attorney (Melissa), was very funny and made the whole experience quite entertaining. She listened to what I wanted and explained the type of plan I needed. Thanks Melissa & Shawn for making the process an enjoyable experience.
The Hive Law Firm did an excellent job helping my mother-in-law with her estate plan. The process felt overwhelming at first, but their team walked us through every step with compassion and professionalism. They listened to our concerns, explained things in simple terms, and made sure our mother's wishes were honored. We're very grateful for their guidance.
The Hive Law firm did an outstanding job helping my family members with their estate planning. They made the process clear, smooth and stress free. Truly professional and caring team, highly recommend!
The whole process of creating a family trust felt simple, clear, and stress-free. We really appreciated how patient, helpful, and easy to communicate with the team was throughout everything. Shawn and Melissa gave us great guidance and helped us feel confident every step of the way. We're grateful for their support and would definitely recommend them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Georgia law does not treat every family the same for estate planning. Guardianship, inheritance, and custody rules apply differently depending on whether parents are married, divorced, never married, or a stepparent is involved. A plan built for a married couple with biological children often leaves gaps for blended, unmarried, or multi-generational families.
If your child’s other legal parent is alive, that parent generally keeps custody automatically. If both legal parents are gone, a Georgia probate court appoints a guardian based on its own judgment, unless you named one in a will.
Naming a guardian in your will does not override your ex-spouse’s custody rights. A surviving legal parent has custody priority under Georgia law unless they are shown to be unfit, regardless of who you name in your will.
Stepchildren do not automatically inherit in Georgia. Stepchildren who were never legally adopted have no automatic inheritance rights under Georgia law, even after decades as a family, unless they are named directly in a will or trust.
Georgia does not recognize new common-law marriages since 1997 or domestic partnerships for inheritance purposes. Unmarried partners need their own coordinated set of documents, since one partner’s plan does not automatically cover the other.
Update your plan after any major family change: marriage, divorce, remarriage, the birth or adoption of a child, the death of a spouse, a child turning 18, or becoming a caregiver for an aging parent.
Find Out Where You Stand
You’ve been meaning to do this for a while now. That’s normal. Most families wait until something happens, then wish they hadn’t.
A 15-minute call tells you exactly what you have, what’s missing, and what your family needs next. No paperwork, no obligation, just a straight answer.
- No sales pitch. Just a straight answer about where you stand.
- No confusing terms. We explain everything in plain English.
- A real next step. You’ll know exactly what to do when we hang up.
Where We Serve
Georgia Counties We Serve
We help families across Georgia protect their assets and avoid probate. Select your county to learn more about estate planning where you live.