Disposition of Remains Decision Authority in Georgia

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Written directions and appointed decision makers

Under Ga. Code § 31-21-7(a), a sound-minded adult may set the location, manner, and conditions of disposition in a preneed contract. Its directions cannot be canceled or substantially revised except by a person authorized in that contract or when reserved resources are insufficient under the contract. § 31-21-7(b)(2)(B) permits an adult to appoint a disposition decision maker by a notarized affidavit; its optional attached directions call for substantial compliance if lawful and sufficiently funded. The health care agent defined in § 31-32-2(6) comes first in § 31-21-7(b), then the qualifying military designee under paragraph (1.1), then the separate affidavit designee under paragraph (2), before the spouse. A health care directive appointing that agent must be written and signed by the declarant or a directed signer under § 31-32-5(a), with two qualifying adult witnesses under § 31-32-5(c).

Family order and decisions within a class

After the designated persons, § 31-21-7(b)(3)–(12) ranks the spouse; child or children; parent or parents; siblings; grandparents; guardian at death; estate personal representative; more distant kin in descending inheritance order; responsible public officer when disposition is a governmental responsibility; and another willing person after a written good-faith search attestation. Children, siblings, and grandparents generally act by majority, but their paragraphs allow a smaller group to act after reasonable efforts to notify others and no known opposition from more than half of the class. Under § 31-21-7(b)(5), one parent may act after unsuccessful reasonable efforts to locate the other; for later equal-degree kin, any one may act under paragraph (10).

Loss of authority and court review

Under § 31-21-7(c), a holder forfeits the right by failing to act within the earlier of two days after death notice or three days after death. Under § 31-21-7(c)(1), a known murder or voluntary-manslaughter charge connected with the death also causes forfeiture, with restoration after dismissal or acquittal. Paragraphs (3)–(4) cover a pending marriage-dissolution petition and probate-court-found estrangement. § 31-21-7(d) lets the decedent’s county probate court award control to the most fit person and decide a deadlock; under § 31-21-7(d)(1), an equal-rank holder or a funeral home with custody may petition when a majority cannot agree.

Funeral-home reliance

Under § 31-21-7(e), a funeral home may rely on an authorization and a person it reasonably believes holds the right. When it knows of no equal-rank objection, it may follow the first such person to arrange disposition unless another class member gives written objection. § 31-21-7(d)(3) lets it pause during a dispute until a court order or signed agreement; § 31-21-7(f) protects good-faith reliance on a person later found to have falsely claimed the right.

What trips people up

Under § 31-21-7(d)(4), paying or promising to pay funeral costs does not by itself improve a person’s rank, and the estate personal representative gains no extra claim solely from that office. The court may still consider willingness to pay as one of its statutory factors.

Statutes and sources

• Georgia Code § 31-21-7 — disposition directions, priority, forfeiture, court process, and reliance.
• Georgia Code §§ 31-32-2 and 31-32-5 — health care agent and directive formalities.
• 2025 S.B. 153, signed — current wording of § 31-21-7(c)(4).