Clear Money Guide
What this state guide covers
A quick view of the questions, practical details and source notes below.
Updated August 20, 2026. Short answer for Georgia: Georgia publishes no percentage schedule, so anyone quoting you a firm probate figure is estimating. The question that is answerable here is the one that decides most cases: whether the estate can use the small-estate shortcut at all — and in Georgia, there is no dollar figure to clear. Georgia publishes no general small-estate affidavit and no threshold; the route is a petition for an order declaring no administration necessary, which does carry the decedent’s real property and has no dollar cap. What it has instead are conditions: the state’s own form says it “should only be used when the decedent died intestate”, and O.C.G.A. §53-2-40(b) requires unanimous consent of the heirs. Making a will puts an estate outside it.
Does your estate even face probate in Georgia?
A living trust earns its cost by keeping assets out of probate. So the first question is not what a trust costs — it is whether the estate would go through probate anyway. In Georgia the shortcut is: No general small-estate affidavit or dollar threshold. Alternatives: ‘no administration necessary’ order for intestate estates with no debts and unanimous heir agreement (no dollar cap); financial institutions may release up to $15,000 in deposits directly to family for intestate decedents (O.C.G.A. §7-1-239); vehicle title transfer by affidavit via DOR.
Georgia’s own probate-court form answers this: the ‘no administration necessary’ order carries the decedent’s real property and is recorded on the county deed records, with no dollar cap on it. What limits the route is eligibility rather than value — it is open only to an intestate estate with no unpaid debts and unanimous heirs, so making a will puts an estate outside it, which is itself the argument for settling the question in advance. Full detail and citations: Georgia probate cost.
Why Georgia will not give you one number
Georgia uses a hybrid of statutory caps and reasonableness rather than a percentage schedule. What the statute fixes is the standard, not the sum: PR: default statutory commission absent will/agreement (O.C.G.A. §53-6-60) — 2.5% of all sums of money received + 2.5% of all sums paid out, plus 10% commission on interest earned on loans made by the PR; separate provisions for in-kind property. Attorney fees: reasonable (no schedule). Three things then decide the bill — how many billable hours administration takes, whether anyone contests, and whether the estate escapes through the small-estate route above. Court filing alone is $175 base for initial petition for letters (O.C.G.A. §15-9-60); with county surcharges typically ~$205-$210, plus ~$65 publication of notice to debtors/creditors.
Because the fee is not computable, treat any published Georgia probate figure as an estimate — including ours. What is not an estimate is the small-estate gate, and that is usually the decisive fact.
If a trust fits your situation in Georgia
Georgia’s route does carry a house, but only for an intestate estate whose heirs all agree — conditions nobody can guarantee in advance, which is itself the argument for settling the question rather than leaving it to a court. If a revocable living trust is the route you choose, LawDepot builds a state-specific one; funding it is what makes it work.
Build a living trust at LawDepot
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What a living trust costs, and what it does not fix in Georgia
An attorney-drafted revocable living trust package runs a median of $2,700, with the middle half of firms charging $2,500–$3,500 — roughly $1,700 more than the $1,000 median for an attorney-drafted will package. Full breakdown: what a living trust costs.
A trust only avoids probate for assets actually retitled into it. An unfunded trust is the most expensive document in estate planning: you pay for it and the estate goes through probate anyway. Budget for the retitling, not just the drafting.
On the tax side there is nothing extra to solve here: Georgia levies neither a state estate tax nor an inheritance tax, so the trust question in Georgia is purely about probate cost, delay and privacy — not about death taxes.
Where this usually goes wrong
The two failures that cost the most in Georgia are not choosing the wrong document. They are buying a trust and never retitling the house into it, and assuming the trust solved a death-tax exposure it cannot touch. Both are decided years before an estate is settled, which is the only time either is cheap to fix. If the estate is large enough for the arithmetic above to matter, here is what to look for in an advisor who prices the whole estate picture.
Run your own numbers
The break-even depends on your estate, not the average one. The will-vs-trust break-even calculator computes it from the statutory schedules, and the probate cost calculator prices administration in Georgia against any other state.
Cite or share this guide: “Is a Living Trust Worth It in Georgia? (2026),” statute-cited; clearmoneyguide.com/is-a-living-trust-worth-it-in-georgia/. Free to cite with attribution.
Before assuming a trust is necessary, first check whether probate is required in Georgia: the small-estate route may already answer it.
A trust settles what happens after a death, not who may act if capacity goes first, and when nobody holds that authority, what adult guardianship costs in Georgia gives the fees Georgia fixes by statute and says where the state publishes no figure at all.
Skipping probate also means skipping the court’s filing fee, see what Georgia charges to open probate.
Related: how long creditors have to file a claim against an estate in Georgia.