---
title: O.C.G.A. § 53-12-321. Foreign entities acting as trustees.
collection: code
id: 53-12-321
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 53-12-321 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/53-12-321
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/53-12-321.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/53-12-321/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t52-t53-(v40)-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=5e4f6f40_0#page=125
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
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version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: WILLS, TRUSTS, AND ADMINISTRATION OF ESTATES / TRUSTS / NONRESIDENTS AND FOREIGN ENTITIES ACTING AS TRUSTEES
---

# O.C.G.A. § 53-12-321. Foreign entities acting as trustees.

(a) Any foreign entity may act in this state as a trustee, trust director, personal representative, temporary administrator, conservator, or guardian, or in any other like or similar fiduciary capacity, whether the appointment is by law, will, deed, inter vivos trust, security deed, mortgage, deed of trust, court order, or otherwise without the necessity of complying with any law of this state relating to the qualification of foreign entities to do business in this state or the licensing of foreign entities to do business in this state, except as provided in this article, and notwithstanding any prohibition, limitation, or restriction contained in any other law of this state, provided only that the foreign entity is authorized to act in the fiduciary capacity in the state in which it is chartered or licensed or, if the foreign entity is a national banking association, in the state in which it has its principal place of business.

(b) Any foreign entity seeking to exercise fiduciary powers in this state, upon qualifying in this state to act in any of such fiduciary capacities, shall not be required by law to give bond, if bond is relieved by the instrument, law, or court order in which such entity has been designated to act in such fiduciary capacity.

(c) Nothing in this article shall be construed to prohibit or make unlawful any activity in this state by a bank or other entity which is not incorporated or organized under the laws of this state or by a national bank which does not have its principal place of business in this state, which activity would be lawful in the absence of this article.

## History

Code 1981, § 53-12-321, enacted by Ga. L. 2010, p. 579, § 1/SB 131; Ga. L. 2011, p. 551, § 14/SB 134; Ga. L. 2017, p. 193, § 29/HB 143; Ga. L. 2025, p. 806, § 90/HB 327, effective July 1, 2025.

## Amendments

The 2025 amendment, effective July 1, 2025, substituted “a trustee, trust director, personal representative, temporary administrator, conservator, or guardian, or in” for “trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, or” in subsection (a).