2022 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; Determination of Amount

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.
5. 1. When the assets of the estate consist only of one or more choses in action of indeterminate value and the personal representative or temporary administrator is not relieved from the requirement for giving bond by subsection (b) or (c) of this Code section, no bond shall be required under subsection (a) of this Code section until the value of any such chose in action is able to be determined by settlement or judgment, whereupon bond shall be set in an amount to be determined in accordance with subsection (c) of Code Section 53-6-51. If the value of any additional such chose in action subsequently is determined by settlement or judgment, the amount of the bond shall be increased in accordance with subsection (c) of Code Section 53-6-51. As used in this subsection, the term ‘chose in action’ shall have the same meaning as provided in Article 2 of Chapter 12 of Title 44.
   2. A personal representative or temporary administrator who qualifies to serve without bond pursuant to paragraph (1) of this subsection shall have no authority to receive the settlement or judgment of a chose in action under this subsection until:
      1. Such personal representative or temporary administrator has posted bond in accordance with paragraph (1) of this subsection; and
      2. Upon the initial posting of bond by such personal representative or temporary administrator in the first instance in which the value of a chose in action is determined by settlement or judgment, amended letters have been issued accordingly.

History. Code 1981, § 53-6-50 , enacted by Ga. L. 1996, p. 504, § 10; Ga. L. 1998, p. 1586, § 25; Ga. L. 2022, p. 207, § 8/HB 620.

The 2022 amendment, effective May 2, 2022, added subsection (e).

Cross references.

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

Law reviews.

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