Georgia has made some changes to its laws as relating to trusts, effective this year.
https://www.gabar.org/committeesprogramssections/programs/leg/weekly_updates.cfm
One big chance has to do with the "rule against perpetuities." That ancient doctrine said that any attempt to convey rights to somebody else must certainly happen, or certainly fail and never happen, by a certain (can be known in the future, even if not known now) date in the future that cannot be any later than 21 years after the death of the last-surviving person involved with the Trust (or contract, other kind of deal, etc.)
This made the longest -lasting Trust possible under GA law limited to about 100 years, if the person making the Trust named an infant grandchild as a beneficiary. (Kid's expected lifetime plus 21 more years would be about a century).
The new rule for Georgia, which has already been the rule in Florida and other states for several years, is that the vesting period can be up to 360 years. So that nearly triples how long a Trust can last.
REMINDER: If you have a Trust that doesn't comply with the R.A.P., the trust is ineffective period, from day one. It has no legal effect, ever, as long as it is defective in this regard.
But any trust made under the old R.A.P. is fine, and still in effect. It just may disappoint the Grantor of the trust and its Trustee, who might have wished the Trust to last as long as the law allowed, and the Trust did so at the time it was made.
HOWEVER, the new Code sections allow a judge to reform or amend a RAP-defective trust and allow it to be a valid Trust, but only when the judge applies the RAP cut-off date as it existed under the law at the time the Trust was first created (or signed with the intention of creating it and making it valid). So, a defective trust today that was made prior to July of 2018 can be subject to a civil action and Court order where a judge approves of the trust and basically writes-in a proper "21 years from death of longest-surviving person" R.A.P. clause.
For full text of the law, see this link:
http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20172018/177916.pdf
I have not read it myself, yet. But the next trust I write for a paying client will incorporate that new R.A.P. language, if that's what the client wants, to let the trust last as long as possible.
https://www.gabar.org/committeesprogramssections/programs/leg/weekly_updates.cfm
One big chance has to do with the "rule against perpetuities." That ancient doctrine said that any attempt to convey rights to somebody else must certainly happen, or certainly fail and never happen, by a certain (can be known in the future, even if not known now) date in the future that cannot be any later than 21 years after the death of the last-surviving person involved with the Trust (or contract, other kind of deal, etc.)
This made the longest -lasting Trust possible under GA law limited to about 100 years, if the person making the Trust named an infant grandchild as a beneficiary. (Kid's expected lifetime plus 21 more years would be about a century).
The new rule for Georgia, which has already been the rule in Florida and other states for several years, is that the vesting period can be up to 360 years. So that nearly triples how long a Trust can last.
REMINDER: If you have a Trust that doesn't comply with the R.A.P., the trust is ineffective period, from day one. It has no legal effect, ever, as long as it is defective in this regard.
But any trust made under the old R.A.P. is fine, and still in effect. It just may disappoint the Grantor of the trust and its Trustee, who might have wished the Trust to last as long as the law allowed, and the Trust did so at the time it was made.
HOWEVER, the new Code sections allow a judge to reform or amend a RAP-defective trust and allow it to be a valid Trust, but only when the judge applies the RAP cut-off date as it existed under the law at the time the Trust was first created (or signed with the intention of creating it and making it valid). So, a defective trust today that was made prior to July of 2018 can be subject to a civil action and Court order where a judge approves of the trust and basically writes-in a proper "21 years from death of longest-surviving person" R.A.P. clause.
For full text of the law, see this link:
http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20172018/177916.pdf
I have not read it myself, yet. But the next trust I write for a paying client will incorporate that new R.A.P. language, if that's what the client wants, to let the trust last as long as possible.
