Limitation on Action Contesting Validity of Revocable Trust

  1. Law
  2. Georgia Code
  3. Wills, Trusts, and Administration of Estates
  4. Trusts
  5. Revocable Trusts
  6. Limitation on Action Contesting Validity of Revocable Trust

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  1. Any judicial proceeding to contest the validity of a trust that was revocable immediately before the settlor's death shall be commenced within two years of the settlor's death.
  2. Upon the death of the settlor of a trust that was revocable immediately before the settlor's death, the trustee may proceed to distribute the trust property in accordance with the trust provisions. The trustee shall not be subject to liability for doing so unless:
    1. The trustee knows of a pending judicial proceeding contesting the validity of the trust; or
    2. A potential contestant has notified the trustee in writing of a possible judicial proceeding to contest the trust and a judicial proceeding is commenced within 60 days after the contestant sent such notification.
  3. A beneficiary of a trust that is determined to have been invalid shall be liable to return any distribution received.

(Code 1981, §53-12-45, enacted by Ga. L. 2010, p. 579, § 1/SB 131; Ga. L. 2011, p. 752, § 53/HB 142.)

The 2011 amendment, effective May 13, 2011, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, revised punctuation in paragraph (b)(2).

Law reviews.

- For annual survey of law on wills, trusts, guardianships, and fiduciary administration, see 62 Mercer L. Rev. 365 (2010).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Action time barred.

- Because a decedent died in May 2013, the two-year period in O.C.G.A. § 53-12-45(a) barred the niece's challenge to the decedent's revocable trust's validity asserted in January 2017; it was immaterial whether § 53-12-45(a) was a statute of limitation or repose because the niece had actual notice of the trust two months after the decedent died. Howell v. Bates, 350 Ga. App. 708, 830 S.E.2d 250 (2019).

ARTICLE 4 REFORMATION, MODIFICATION, DIVISION, CONSOLIDATION, AND TERMINATION OF TRUSTS

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Am. Jur. 2d.

- 76 Am. Jur. 2d, Trusts, § 67 et seq.

Am. Jur. Pleading and Practice Forms, Trusts, §§ 8, 9, 13, 14, 35 to 37.


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