Any sums in a joint account may be paid, on request, to any party without regard to whether any other party is incapacitated or deceased at the time the payment is demanded; but payment may not be made to the personal representative or heirs of a deceased party unless proof of death is presented to the financial institution showing that the decedent was the last surviving party or unless there is no right of survivorship under Code Section 7-1-813.
(Code 1933, § 41A-3808, enacted by Ga. L. 1976, p. 1388, § 8.)
Law reviews.- For article discussing nonjudicial settlement of decedent's estate, see 6 Ga. L. Rev. 74 (1971).
JUDICIAL DECISIONS
Joint account holder entitled to withdraw all funds.
- Under the terms of a joint account agreement and O.C.G.A. § 7-1-817, a daughter was authorized to withdraw all the funds in a joint account created by her father, mother, and herself, following the father's death; the question of withdrawal was a separate question from whether she was entitled to the funds. Howard v. Leonard, 330 Ga. App. 331, 765 S.E.2d 466 (2014).
Joint accounts.
- Trial court erred to the extent the court applied the presumption in O.C.G.A. § 7-1-813(a) to funds which the executors withdrew from the original joint accounts and placed in accounts solely in their name because to the extent they took funds in excess of their ownership from a joint account containing funds owned by two beneficiaries and placed those funds in an account in their name, they severed the joint account relationship and extinguished the presumption that the funds belonged to them. Shirley v. Sailors, 329 Ga. App. 850, 766 S.E.2d 201 (2014).
Cited in Lastinger v. Johnson, 148 Ga. App. 453, 251 S.E.2d 369 (1978); White v. Royal, 150 Ga. App. 57, 256 S.E.2d 662 (1979); Parker v. Peavey, 198 Ga. App. 694, 403 S.E.2d 213 (1991).
OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
Editor's notes.
- In light of the similarity of the statutory provisions, opinions under former Code 1933, § 13-2039 are included in the annotations for this Code section.
Effect of section.
- Although former Code 1933, § 13-2039 (see now O.C.G.A. § 7-1-817) does not give the right of survivorship between two parties to a bank account, the statute protects a bank which makes a payment of an account to a survivor. 1958-59 Op. Att'y Gen. p. 16 (decided under former Code 1933, § 13-2039).
RESEARCH REFERENCES
Am. Jur. 2d.
- 10 Am. Jur. 2d, Banks and Financial Institutions, § 662 et seq.
C.J.S.- 9 C.J.S., Banks and Banking, §§ 292, 293.
ALR.- Conflict of laws as to disposition of and relative rights to bank deposits in the names of more than one person, 25 A.L.R.2d 1240.