Rules of Inheritance

The following outline is a summary of the Georgia Law which     determines who are heirs at law of a Decedent (the person whose death necessitates     the administration of his or her estate). The actual statute may be found     in the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Section 53-2-1.

The heirs are:

  • The spouse if there are no     children (and no children who died before the decedent     leaving living children of their own or descendants of living children).
  • The spouse and children if there are children,      and the children of any child or children who died before the Decedent (as     well as the deceased child’s descendants if any of the deceased child’s     children also predeceased the Decedent).
  • If no spouse, children, descendants of deceased child, grandchild,      etc., the parents.
  • If no spouse, children, descendants of children, or parents     survived the decedent, the brothers and sisters of the     Decedent and the descendants of any deceased brother     or sister who predeceased the Decedent.
  • If none of the above were living at Decedent’s death, the     grandparents.
  • If none of the above, uncles and aunts and descendants     of any deceased uncle or aunt—BUT—if all uncles and aunts are     deceased, then first cousins share equally, rather than     siblings taking their parent’s share.
  • The more remote degrees of kinship are determined by a mathematical     formula involving the relative in question and the closest common ancestor.      If you have gotten this far, please consult O.C.G.A. sec. 53-2-1(b)(8).      You may also need the assistance of an attorney.

This information is also available in the form of a flow     chart you can download from the right sidebar of this page.