2020 Georgia Code
Title 53 - Wills, Trusts, and Administration of Estates
Chapter 6 - Administrators and Personal Representatives
Article 6 - Bond
§ 53-6-50. Persons Required to Give

1. Unless otherwise provided in this Code section, any person who seeks to qualify to serve as the personal representative of an intestate estate or as a temporary administrator shall be required to give bond with good and sufficient security.
2. A national banking association or a bank or trust company organized under the laws of this state that seeks to qualify as a personal representative of an intestate estate or temporary administrator shall not be required to give bond for the faithful performance of its duties unless its combined capital, surplus, and undivided profits are less than $400,000.00 as reflected in its last statement filed with the comptroller of the currency of the United States or the commissioner of banking and finance or unless the instrument under which it seeks to qualify expressly provides that it shall give bond.
3. A person petitioning to qualify as a personal representative of an intestate estate may be relieved from the requirement for giving bond by the unanimous consent of the heirs of the estate. With respect to any heir who is not sui juris, consent may be given by the guardian of the individual. The personal representative of a deceased heir is authorized to consent for that heir. In no case may consent on behalf of an heir who is not sui juris be effective if the person consenting is the person petitioning to serve as personal representative.
4. The provisions of this Code section shall not apply to bonds described in Code Section 53-6-41 and Code Section 53-6-53.

(Code 1981, §53-6-50, enacted by Ga. L. 1996, p. 504, § 10; Ga. L. 1998, p. 1586, § 25.)

- Provisions regarding exemption of financial institutions from fiduciary bond or security requirements, § 7-1-311.

- For article surveying wills, trusts, and administration of estates, see 34 Mercer L. Rev. 323 (1982).

Subsection (a) of this section replaces portions of former OCGA Secs. 53-6-22 and 53-6-26. Subsection (a) requires all personal representatives of intestate estates and temporary administrators to give bond unless otherwise relieved by this Code section. Subsection (b) carries forward former OCGA Sec. 53-7-33, which relieves banks and trust companies from giving bond. Subsection (c) replaces portions of former OCGA Secs. 53-6-22 and 53-6-26 and allows for the waiver of bond by the unanimous consent of the heirs of an intestate estate. This waiver is available only to personal representatives and thus is not available in the case of temporary administrators. (As indicated by the definition of "personal representative" that appears in Code Section 53-1-2, a temporary administrator is not included in that category.) Subsection (d) provides that this Code section does not override the requirement that County Administrators give bond and those provisions that allow the judge to impose bond where cause for such is shown.

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Editor's notes.

- In light of the similarity of the statutory provisions, decisions under former O.C.G.A. § 53-6-36 are included in the annotations for this Code section.

Temporary administrator is required to give good and sufficient bond with security for double the amount of the personal property of the estate. Kelly v. Citizens & S. Nat'l Bank, 160 Ga. App. 405, 287 S.E.2d 343 (1981) (decided under former O.C.G.A. § 53-6-36).

Cited in Deller v. Smith, 250 Ga. 157, 296 S.E.2d 49 (1982).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

ALR.

- Who is resident within meaning of statute prohibiting appointment of nonresident executor or administrator, 9 A.L.R.4th 1223.