GA Specific

Trusts, Estates & Probate

4.18

Georgia Probate Process: In 7 Simple Steps

Credits Available
Credit Status Total
Georgia CLE Approved 6 Total
OnDemand
5 hours 57 minutes
Melissa Sprinkle
Cameron Saunders
Gracie Shepherd Saas
C. Murray Saylor
With Melissa G. Sprinkle from Harrison LLP + 3 others
Recorded September 08, 2025.
Product ID 100567

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Overview

Learn How to Handle Assets, Taxes, Personal Representatives, and More!

This step-by-step practical instruction offers essential knowledge of probate processes and best practices for handling each unique case effectively. Learn how to tackle crucial first steps; handle the personal executive; gather, value, and distribute all assets; and successfully complete the final accounting and tax returns. Arm yourself with the foundational knowledge and best practices you need to ensure a smooth administration from start to finish. Register today!

  • Don't overlook anything important: confidently navigate critical first steps.
  • Understand executor powers, duties, responsibilities, and compensation guidelines.
  • Learn how to effectively marshal and inventory all assets.
  • Pick up tips for validating, prioritizing, and satisfying creditor claims.
  • Get practical guidance for post-mortem planning, trust administration, and tax hurdles.
  • Put the decedent's affairs to rest by making distributions, filing the final tax return, and completing the final accounting.
  • Discover how to litigate deed contests, lost or contested wills, fiduciary misconduct, and more.

Abbreviated Agenda

  1. Opening the Estate
  2. Preparing the Personal Representatives for the Job
  3. Post-Mortem Tax Planning, Distributions, and Trust Administration
  4. Addressing Creditor Claims
  5. Managing the Estate: Valuations, Spousal Share, and More
  6. Handling Estate Closing, Final Accounting, and Tax Returns
  7. Maintaining an Ethical Practice
  8. Resolving Disputes and Navigating Probate Litigation
Product ID 100567

Credit Details

Credits Available
Credit Status Total
Georgia CLE Approved 6 Total
Select Jurisdiction
CLE

Agenda

All times are shown in
  1. Opening the Estate

    1. What to Do in the First 48 Hours
    2. Obtaining the Will and Getting it Admitted
    3. Locating and Notifying the Beneficiaries
    4. Determining if the Estate Qualifies for a Small Estate Administration
    5. The Estate Timeline - What Must be Done When
    6. Filing the Initial Petition With the Probate Court: Forms and Procedures
    7. Sending Initial Notices to the Public and to State Agencies
    8. Closing the Decedent's Accounts
    9. Obtaining the Estate Tax ID
    10. Laws of Intestacy
  2. Preparing the Personal Representatives for the Job

    1. Educating PRs on Their Duties, Powers, and Responsibilities
    2. Compiling Personal Representative Guide/Instructions
    3. Clarifying Executor Compensation
    4. Advising PRs on Potential Problems and Liability
  3. Post-Mortem Tax Planning, Distributions, and Trust Administration

    1. Managing the Tax Consequences of Elections and Receipt of Non-Probate Assets (e.g. IRA Distributions)
    2. Tax Implications of Transfers
    3. Creating Trusts and Subtrusts for Multiple Beneficiaries to Receive Their Shares of the Estate
    4. What to Do With Bequests and Trust Distributions to Minors
    5. Post-Mortem Tax Planning Approaches: How Much Maneuver Room is Left?
    6. How to Calculate the Omitted Spouse Share or Omitted Child Share
    7. Guarding Disabled Adult Beneficiaries' Benefits Eligibility
  4. Addressing Creditor Claims

    1. Issuing Notices to Creditors: What Works Best
    2. Validating Claims
    3. Determining the Priority of Creditor Rights
    4. Selling Property to Satisfy Claims: What to Sell, How to Do it, and How to Properly Record it
    5. Satisfying Tax Claims and Liens
  5. Managing the Estate: Valuations, Spousal Share, and More

    1. Marshalling and Valuing Decedent's Assets
    2. Initial Inventory
    3. Maintenance and Management
    4. Determining Elective Share and Homestead Allowance
    5. Spousal Rights: Electing vs. Disclaiming the Share
    6. Claiming Homestead Allowance
    7. Portability Rules; Claiming Unused Lifetime Exclusion
    8. Estate Expenses: Payment and Record-Keeping
    9. What to Do With the Income the Estate is Producing
  6. Handling Estate Closing, Final Accounting, and Tax Returns

    1. Tax Returns and Deadlines - Estate and Income, State and Federal, Decedent's and the Estate's
    2. Informal Closing by Statement of Personal Representative
    3. Compiling and Balancing the Final Account
    4. Final Distributions to Beneficiaries and Liability of Distributees
    5. Closing the Estate and Discharging the Fiduciary
  7. Maintaining an Ethical Practice

    1. Whom do You Represent? Conflicts of Interest
    2. Protecting Client Confidentiality
    3. Attorney Fees
    4. Practicing Law in More Than One State
  8. Resolving Disputes and Navigating Probate Litigation

    1. Will Contests, Deed Contests, Allegations of Undue Influence and Other Causes of Action
    2. Obtaining Court Guidance for Proposed Actions Regarding the Estate Administration
    3. Probate Litigation Rules, Procedures, and Evidentiary Provisions
    4. Fiduciary Misconduct, Liability, Disputes with Beneficiaries
    5. Effective Approaches to Resolving Disputes Without Going to Court

Who Should Attend

This basic level online seminar is designed for attorneys, accountants, tax professionals, trust officers, executors and other fiduciaries and paralegals.

Speakers

Melissa G Sprinkle
Melissa G.
Sprinkle
Harrison LLP
Cameron H Saunders
Cameron H.
Saunders
Page, Scrantom, Sprouse, Tucker & Ford, P.C.
Gracie G Shepherd Saas
Gracie G.
Shepherd Saas
HunterMaclean
C. Murray Saylor
C. Murray
Saylor
The Saylor Law Firm LLP
Speaker bio
Melissa G Sprinkle

Melissa G. Sprinkle

Harrison LLP
Melissa Sprinkle

is of counsel at Harrison LLP. She assists clients with their estate planning and wealth preservation through the creation of wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts, the use of lifetime gifting, and business succession planning. Ms. Sprinkle also assists clients with trust and estate administration, including the probate of the will and other probate court actions. She helps clients further their charitable inclinations by creating charitable trusts and charitable foundations. Ms. Sprinkle advises clients on the tax implications of all such estate, trust, and business succession planning. She also advises on the international aspects of U.S. tax matters and asset structuring and succession planning, as part of a multi-office team that advises trustees and international families and family offices on planning for U.S. beneficiaries, U.S. investments, pre-immigration tax planning for foreign individuals who plan to become a U.S. tax resident, expatriation from the U.S., and FATCA and CRS compliance matters. She also advises tax-exempt entities, including public charities and private foundations, with formation and operation issues. Ms. Sprinkle earned her B.A. degree from Kennesaw State University and her J.D. degree, summa cum laude, from Georgia State University College of Law.

Speaker bio
Cameron H Saunders

Cameron H. Saunders

Page, Scrantom, Sprouse, Tucker & Ford, P.C.
Cameron Saunders

is an attorney at Page, Scrantom, Sprouse, Tucker & Ford, P.C. He is licensed in Alabama and Georgia to practice law, and focuses his practice in estate and trust planning and administration, probate matters, and nonprofit/tax exempt organizations. Mr. Saunders assists individuals and families preserve and transfer wealth to their loved ones and charitable organizations by crafting and implementing a variety of estate planning techniques, including the routine preparation of wills, powers of attorney, advance health care directives, and revocable and irrevocable trusts. He also assists individual and corporate administrators, executors, and trustees with estate, probate, and trust administrations. Such strategies focus on advising individuals and families with regards to estate planning, income, estate, gift, and generation-skipping tax issues, and tax savings and minimizing strategies. Mr. Saunders has helped blended families, non-married couples, and others configure optimum estate planning options. He advises family businesses about succession planning and other entrepreneurs in entity formation matters. Mr. Sanders' practice also involves representing beneficiaries of estates and trusts. He frequently supports a family's team of accountants, financial planners, insurance agents, and other financial advisors in the preparation of estate plans, and filing of gift tax returns, estate tax returns, and fiduciary income tax returns. He also routinely receives guardian ad litem appointments from local courts. Mr. Saunders often works closely with nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations, from counseling donors in achieving charitable planning and giving goals to helping numerous entities and organizations of all sizes and budgets obtain and maintain federal tax exemption as well as routinely guiding these nonprofit and other tax-exempt organizations with incorporating or designing effective policies. He earned his B.B.A. degree from University of Georgia and his J.D. degree, cum laude, from Mercer University, Walter F. George School of Law.

Speaker bio
Gracie G Shepherd Saas

Gracie G. Shepherd Saas

HunterMaclean
Gracie Shepherd Saas

is an attorney in HunterMaclean's estates and trusts practice group. She assists individuals and families with a wide range of estate planning, trust administration, and probate matters, helping clients navigate complex legal and financial considerations to protect their assets and plan for the future. Ms. Shepherd Saas also continues to handle fiduciary litigation, representing trustees, executors, and beneficiaries in disputes involving estates, trusts, and fiduciary responsibilities. Her experience extends to trust and estate litigation, fiduciary liability, and professional liability. Ms. Shepherd Saas also advises hospitals and healthcare companies on legal and ethical challenges, including treatment consent, end-of-life care, and the behavioral health process under Georgia law. In addition to her work in estates and trusts, she has experience with general and commercial litigation, including contract disputes, trade secrets litigation, product liability, and real estate litigation. Ms. Shepherd Saas is admitted to practice before all state trial and appellate courts in Georgia and all U.S. District Courts of Georgia. She is a member of the State Bar of Georgia and the Savannah Bar Association, and has served on the executive boards of the Savannah Bar Association Young Lawyers Division and the Savannah Chapter of the Georgia Association for Women Lawyers. Ms. Shepherd Saas attended Thomas Edison State College, where she earned her B.A. degree in liberal studies and humanities in less than two years. Before law school, she worked as a business reporter covering the 2008 financial crisis; and in her family's cotton brokerage firm in Waynesboro, Georgia, assisting cotton producers and merchants with pricing, contracting, and hedging strategies. Ms. Shepherd Saas earned her J.D. degree from the University of Georgia School of Law.

Speaker bio
C. Murray Saylor

C. Murray Saylor

The Saylor Law Firm LLP
C. Murray Saylor

is a partner at The Saylor Law Firm LLP. His practice areas include estate planning, wills and trusts, probate and estate administration, tax planning, tax return preparation and IRS representation, business planning and business law and incapacity planning, antenuptial/prenuptial agreements, postnuptial adjustments, business estate planning, corporate law, buying and selling of businesses, employee compensation, employee benefits, executive compensation, and transfer tax. Mr. Saylor is a CPA, has obtained the AICPA accreditation of personal financial specialist and is an accredited estate planner, National Association of Estate Planners and Councils. He is a member of the American Association of Attorney-CPAs; Atlanta Tax Forum, director; Atlanta Estate Planning Council; Atlanta Bar Association, Section chair 2013-2015, Board of Directors 2009-2015, member of the Estate Planning and Probate Section; State Bar of Georgia, member of the Fiduciary Law Section; and American Bar Association, member of the Probate and Real Property and Tax sections. He is licensed in both Georgia and Pennsylvania. Mr. Saylor earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; and his J.D. degree at the Temple University.

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