(For Effective Date, See note.) Definitions

  1. Law
  2. Georgia Code
  3. Wills, Trusts, and Administration of Estates
  4. Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets
  5. General Provisions
  6. (For Effective Date, See note.) Definitions

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As used in this chapter, the term:

  1. "Account" means an arrangement under a terms-of-service agreement in which a custodian provides goods or services to the user.
    1. "Agent" means an attorney in fact granted authority under a durable or nondurable power of attorney, including a person granted authority to act in the place of an individual under Chapter 6B of Title 10 and a person serving under a financial power of attorney created pursuant to Article 7 of Chapter 6 of Title 10 as it existed on June 30, 2017.
    2. Such term shall not include a:
      1. Health care agent, as defined in paragraph (6) of Code Section 31-32-2;
      2. Person serving under a conditional power of attorney, as defined in subsection (a) of Code Section 10-6-6, unless the conditional power of attorney has become effective at a specified time or on the occurrence of a specified event or contingency; or
      3. Person to whom power and authority regarding the care and custody of a child, including temporary written permission to seek emergency medical treatment or other services for a child, has been delegated under Article 4 of Chapter 9 of Title 19.
  3. "Catalogue of electronic communications" means information that identifies each person with which a user has had an electronic communication, the time and date of the communication, and the electronic address of the person.
    1. "Conservator" means a person appointed:
      1. Pursuant to Code Section 7-1-640 or 7-1-643;
      2. By a court to manage the estate of a living individual; or
      3. By a court pursuant to Article 2 of Chapter 9 of this title to manage the estate of an individual who is missing or believed to be dead.
    2. Such term shall include a guardian of the property appointed prior to July 1, 2005, but shall not include a conservator appointed pursuant to paragraph (1) of Code Section 9-16-14 unless the order appointing such conservator expressly so states and the proceeding pursuant to Chapter 16 of Title 9 in which such conservator is appointed concerns specific property consisting of or including digital assets.
  5. "Content of an electronic communication" means information concerning the substance or meaning of the communication which:
    1. Has been sent or received by a user;
    2. Is in electronic storage by a custodian providing an electronic communication service to the public or is carried or maintained by a custodian providing a remote computing service to the public; and
    3. Is not readily accessible to the public.
  6. "Court" means the probate court.
  7. "Custodian" means a person that engages in the transmission of, maintains, processes, receives, or stores a digital asset or electronic communication of another person.
  8. "Designated recipient" means a person chosen by a user using an online tool to administer digital assets of the user.
  9. "Digital asset" means an electronic record in which an individual has a right or interest. Such term shall not include an underlying asset or liability unless the asset or liability is itself an electronic record.
  10. "Electronic" means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities.
  11. "Electronic communication" has the meaning set forth in 18 U.S.C. Section 2510(12), effective January 1, 2018.
  12. "Electronic communication service" means a custodian that provides to a user the ability to send or receive an electronic communication.
  13. "Fiduciary" means an original, additional, or successor personal representative, conservator, agent, or trustee.
  14. "Information" includes data, text, images, videos, sounds, codes, computer programs, software, and data bases.
  15. "Online tool" means an electronic service provided by a custodian that allows the user, in an agreement distinct from the terms-of-service agreement between the custodian and user, to provide directions for disclosure or nondisclosure of digital assets to a third person.
  16. "Person" means an individual, estate, business or nonprofit entity, corporation, business trust, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, unincorporated organization, joint venture, commercial entity, joint-stock company, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency, instrumentality, or other legal or commercial entity.
  17. "Personal representative" means an original, additional, or successor executor, administrator, county administrator, or administrator with the will annexed, or a person legally authorized to perform substantially the same functions.
  18. "Power of attorney" means a writing or other record that grants a person authority to act in the place of an individual, including a conditional power of attorney, as defined in subsection (a) of Code Section 10-6-6, a power of attorney created pursuant to Chapter 6B of Title 10, and a financial power of attorney created pursuant to Article 7 of Chapter 6 of Title 10 as it existed on June 30, 2017.
  19. "Principal" means an individual who grants authority to a person to act in the place of such individual in a power of attorney.
  20. "Protected person" means an individual for whom a conservator has been appointed, including a minor, as defined in Code Section 29-1-1, and a ward, as defined in Code Section 29-1-1. Such term shall include an individual for whom a petition for the appointment of a conservator is pending, including both a proposed ward, as defined in Code Section 29-1-1, and a respondent, as defined in Code Section 29-11-2.
  21. "Record" means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form.
  22. "Remote computing service" means a custodian that provides to a user computer-processing services or the storage of digital assets by means of an electronic communications system, as defined in 18 U.S.C. Section 2510(14), in effect on January 1, 2018.
  23. "Terms-of-service agreement" means an agreement that controls the relationship between a user and a custodian.
  24. "Trustee" means a person with legal title to property under a trust instrument, as defined in Code Section 53-12-2, that creates a beneficial interest in another. Such term shall include an original, additional, or successor trustee.
  25. "User" means a person whose digital asset or electronic communication is carried, maintained, processed, received, or stored by a custodian or to which a custodian provides services.
  26. "Will" means the legal declaration of an individual's testamentary intention regarding such individual's property or other matters. Such term shall include all codicils to such legal declaration, a testamentary instrument that only appoints an executor, and an instrument that revokes or revises a testamentary instrument.

(Code 1981, §53-13-2, enacted by Ga. L. 2018, p. 1089, § 1/SB 301; Ga. L. 2019, p. 1056, § 53/SB 52; Ga. L. 2020, p. 377, § 1-93/HB 865; Ga. L. 2020, p. 493, § 53/SB 429.)

Code Commission notes.

- Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 2020, a comma was deleted before the semicolon at the end of division (2)(B)(i).

Law reviews.

- For annual survey on wills, trusts, guardianships, and fiduciary administration, see 70 Mercer L. Rev. 275 (2018).


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