The Georgia Supreme Court handed down the case of Cabrel v. Lum last term, which contains an excellent elucidation on Georgia law of year's support and can be found here.
I particularly like this holding because it illustrates again why Georgia's doctrine of year's support is not simply a convenient way of administering an estate, as many lawyers (and some probate judges) would have it.
In particular, the Georgia doctrine of year's support contains the common law rule (nowadays somewhat bizarre but in our agrarian past, perfectly sensible) that minor children receiving set-aside property lose all right to income from that property upon 1. their marriage or 2. their attaining the age of majority. During the lifetime of the surviving spouse, all such income can be used for her benefit, and the income of the minor children "is limited to that which remains after all minor beneficiaries have attained majority and the surviving spouse is no longer in life." Cabrel v. Lum, S11A0212, 2011 WL 2119403 (Ga. May 31, 2011)
In essence, year's support creates a bizarre form of trust for minor-child beneficiaries - not at all like anything you'd see from a properly administered (or probated) estate.
I particularly like this holding because it illustrates again why Georgia's doctrine of year's support is not simply a convenient way of administering an estate, as many lawyers (and some probate judges) would have it.
In particular, the Georgia doctrine of year's support contains the common law rule (nowadays somewhat bizarre but in our agrarian past, perfectly sensible) that minor children receiving set-aside property lose all right to income from that property upon 1. their marriage or 2. their attaining the age of majority. During the lifetime of the surviving spouse, all such income can be used for her benefit, and the income of the minor children "is limited to that which remains after all minor beneficiaries have attained majority and the surviving spouse is no longer in life." Cabrel v. Lum, S11A0212, 2011 WL 2119403 (Ga. May 31, 2011)
In essence, year's support creates a bizarre form of trust for minor-child beneficiaries - not at all like anything you'd see from a properly administered (or probated) estate.
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