Georgia Living Trust Funding Mistakes (Still Trigger Probate)

Quick answer: a Georgia living trust only avoids probate for assets actually retitled into the trust's name while the person is alive. A signed trust document with the house still deeded to the person individually, or a bank account still in their own name, does nothing to avoid probate for those specific assets. See the full comparison in the Georgia probate vs living trust calculator.

What funding actually means

Signing a trust document creates the trust as a legal entity, but it owns nothing by itself. Funding is the separate, ongoing step of moving specific assets into the trust's name:

• Real estate — a new deed, filed with the county, naming the trust (not the individual) as owner.
• Bank and brokerage accounts — retitling the account itself in the trust's name, not just naming the trust as a beneficiary.
• Business interests — assigning ownership of an LLC membership interest or similar into the trust.

Each of these requires separate paperwork with a different institution or office — there's no single step that funds everything at once.

What happens to unfunded assets

Anything still titled in the person's individual name at death is, legally, part of their individual probate estate — regardless of what the trust document says should happen to it. It goes through the same Georgia probate process described throughout this cluster: creditor notice, the six-month debt-payment period, and either common or solemn form administration. A pour-over will, if drafted alongside the trust, can direct these leftover assets into the trust after the fact — but that direction only takes effect once probate has already run.

Why this is so common

Funding tends to get skipped because it happens after the part that feels like "done" — signing the trust in an attorney's office. Retitling a house or a brokerage account is separate paperwork, with a separate institution, often weeks or months later, and it's easy for it to simply not happen without a deliberate follow-up step.

A quick way to check your own trust

Pull up the actual deed for any real estate and the most recent statement for each bank and brokerage account. If the owner listed is the person's own name rather than the trust's name, that asset is not funded — regardless of how thorough the trust document itself is.

Trust funding — frequently asked questions