The Columbarium: Why does Georgia hate lonely widows?

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While it’s common to include partners and children as beneficiaries in your will, you don’t have to. You could leave everything to your favorite celebrity if you want. (New party game: f*ck, marry, kill, bequeath.)

But in most U.S. states, probate courts won’t let you disinherit your surviving spouse entirely—they get a forced share, regardless of what your will says. (Sometimes this is called an elective share; the surviving spouse can choose whether to take what’s left to them in the will or the state-mandated forced share.) 

Whatever is left of your earthly possessions, your still-living husband or wife is guaranteed a portion, even if there are lots of greedy creditors waiting to get their hands on the estate. 

But not in Georgia. Georgia is the only state in the nation with no forced share for surviving spouses. 

I learned about this while reading a 1,000-page law textbook for research, as one does, and I couldn’t get it out of my head. Why was Georgia so callous? So cruel? I had to know. 

As it turns out, Georgia has a whole different system called year’s support. Either a surviving spouse or a minor child can petition the court for exactly that—what they believe is a year’s worth of support from the estate to get back on their feet. The catch is that other potential heirs and creditors can file objections to this petition. Based on all this, the court decides how much money the spouse or child will receive for their year’s support.

It might not be as much as they originally asked for. It might not be anything at all.

Not only does this seem mean-spirited, but it also seems like a logistical nightmare, right? The courts have to do so much extra work, hearing all those petitions and objections and whatnot. 

But when Jeffrey N. Pennell examined Georgia’s probate court records in 1996 and 1997, and again in 2017, he found that it was rarely an issue. The people who had wills almost always provided for their surviving spouses, and in cases of intestacy, the courts granted something. 

So maybe it’s just a different strokes for different folks situation. Still seems harsh, if you ask me. 

My website is about dead parents, not dead spouses. But you can still learn about wills and trusts there. 

Sources: Georgia Probate Law Group; Robert H. Sitkoff & Jesse Dukeminier, Wills, Trusts, and Estates, eleventh edition