§ 53-12-243. Duty to Provide Reports and Accounts

1. On reasonable request by any qualified beneficiary, the trustee shall provide the qualified beneficiary with a report of information, to the extent relevant to that beneficiary’s interest, about the assets, liabilities, receipts, and disbursements of the trust, the acts of the trustee, and the particulars relating to the administration of such trust, including the trust provisions that describe or affect such beneficiary’s interest.
2. 1. A trustee shall account at least annually, at the termination of the trust, and upon a change of trustees to each beneficiary of an irrevocable trust to whom income is required or authorized in the trustee’s discretion to be distributed currently, and to any person who may revoke the trust. At the termination of the trust, the trustee shall also account to each remainder beneficiary. Upon a change of trustees, the trustee shall also account to the successor trustee.
   2. An accounting furnished to a beneficiary pursuant to paragraph (1) of this subsection shall contain a statement of receipts and disbursements of principal and income that have occurred during the last complete fiscal year of the trust or since the last accounting to that beneficiary and a statement of the assets and liabilities of the trust as of the end of the accounting period.
3. A trustee shall not be required to report information or account to a beneficiary who has waived in writing the right to a report or accounting and has not withdrawn that waiver.
4. Subsections (a) and (b) of this Code section and the common law duty of the trustee to keep the beneficiaries of the trust reasonably informed of the trust and its administration shall not apply to the extent that the provisions of the trust provide otherwise or the settlor of the trust directs otherwise in a writing delivered to the trustee.
5. Nothing in this Code section shall affect the power of a court to require or excuse an accounting.

History. Code 1981, § 53-12-243 , enacted by Ga. L. 2010, p. 579, § 1/SB 131; Ga. L. 2018, p. 262, § 19/HB 121; Ga. L. 2020, p. 377, § 1-83/HB 865.

The 2020 amendment, effective January 1, 2021, deleted “qualified” preceding the first instance of “beneficiary” in paragraphs (b)(1) and (b)(2) and subsection (c); deleted the former last sentence in paragraph (b)(1), which read: “In full satisfaction of this obligation, the trustee may deliver the accounting to the guardian or conservator of any qualified beneficiary who is not sui juris.”; and, in subsection (d), inserted “and the common law duty of the trustee to keep the beneficiaries of the trust reasonably informed of the trust and its administration”, and substituted “provisions” for “terms”.

Law reviews.

For article, “The Scope of Permissible Investments by Fiduciaries Under Georgia Law,” see 19 Ga. St. B.J. 6 (1982).

For annual survey on wills, trusts, guardianships, and fiduciary administration, see 66 Mercer L. Rev. 231 (2014).

For article on the 2018 amendment of this Code section, see 35 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 219 (2018).

For article with annual survey on wills, trusts, guardianships, and fiduciary administration, see 73 Mercer L. Rev. 281 (2021).