Georgia Legacy Law Group, LLC

Georgia Legacy Law Group, LLC Take advantage of the opportunity to make your wishes and goals known, establish a plan, and provide peace of mind for yourself and those you care about.

Georgia Legacy Law Group, formerly Hill & Watchko, is a boutique law firm specializing in estate planning, probate, estate and trust administration, fiduciary litigation, elder law, special needs planning, and small business law. Whether you are planning ahead of life's issues or addressing the aftermath, Hill & Watchko is a boutique law firm offering our clients thoughtful, creative solutions to

some of life's most sensitive and complex subjects: estate planning, probate, estate and trust administration, wealth transfer strategies, charitable planning, special needs planning elder law, guardianships, conservatorships, long term care planning, Medicaid planning, disability planning, Veterans benefits, premarital and postnuptial agreements, business formation and business succession planning, and creating and advising tax exempt entities.

09/06/2026

Estate plans have a funny way of disappearing into a drawer after they’re signed.

When was the last time you actually looked at your estate plan?

Signing the documents isn’t the end of the planning process. Families change. Assets change. Laws change. And sometimes the people we named years ago are no longer the people we would choose today.

As a general rule of thumb, I recommend taking a fresh look at your estate plan about every three years—and sooner when there’s been a major change in your life.

In this short video, I walk through some of the things that should prompt a review.

If your estate plan has been sitting quietly in a drawer for a few years, it may be worth pulling it back out. The question isn’t simply whether you have a plan. It’s whether the plan you have still fits the life you’re living today.

Georgia Legacy Law Group
Planning for life. Planning wisely.

Who inherits if literally everyone you named is gone?Estate planners have a nickname for this provision, only half jokin...
09/04/2026

Who inherits if literally everyone you named is gone?

Estate planners have a nickname for this provision, only half joking: “the bomb at the family picnic clause.”

Every will and trust names beneficiaries, usually with backups. Spouse, then kids, then maybe grandkids. But what if that whole line is gone at once? It happens. A car accident, a flight, one terrible day.

Without an answer written into your documents, Georgia law decides for you. Your assets could end up divided among relatives you never intended, or in the rarest case, going to the local school board because no eligible heir can be found.

This is easy to skip. It feels remote, so people leave it blank. That is exactly the problem: it only ever matters in the one scenario nobody wants to think through, which is precisely why it belongs in writing now, not left to a formula.

You do not have to dwell on it. You just have to answer it once.

Georgia Legacy Law Group, LLC
770-475-8041 | estatelawga.com

You signed your trust. Did anyone ever fund it?This is the most expensive mistake we see, and it is almost always an hon...
08/30/2026

You signed your trust. Did anyone ever fund it?

This is the most expensive mistake we see, and it is almost always an honest accident.

A living trust only controls what you actually put into it. If the deed to your house still has your name on it instead of the trust's name, if the brokerage account was never retitled, if the LLC interest was never assigned, then the trust is an empty box. Your family still ends up in probate. The exact thing you paid to avoid.

We have opened binders signed a decade ago, beautiful documents, tabbed and lettered, and found that not one asset was ever moved into the trust.

Funding is not glamorous work. It is deeds and account forms and long holds with custodians. But it is the part that makes the plan real, and it is the part that gets skipped.

If you signed a trust and cannot remember what happened afterward, go pull the deed to your house and read the first paragraph. That is the fastest way to find out where you stand.

Georgia Legacy Law Group, LLC
770-475-8041 | estatelawga.com

08/29/2026

Did you know you can now put a beneficiary designation on a deed in Georgia to avoid probate on that property?

Georgia's transfer on death deed is only two years old, and the legislature already went back in and rewrote a good bit of it.

The short version: a TOD deed is a real tool, and for the right family it is the right tool. It is also not a plan. It does not name anyone to act for you if you become incapacitated, it does not touch your bank or investment accounts, and it does not protect a beneficiary who needs protecting.

I walked through what actually changed in the video below. If you have a TOD deed on file or are just learning about them, check out our video.

Your will doesn't control everything you own.This surprises almost every family we sit down with.Your 401(k), your IRA, ...
08/29/2026

Your will doesn't control everything you own.

This surprises almost every family we sit down with.

Your 401(k), your IRA, your life insurance, your payable-on-death bank account: none of those pass under your will. They go to whoever is named on the beneficiary form. That form was probably filled out years ago, maybe at a new-hire orientation you barely remember.

We have seen it go to an ex-spouse (it is shocking how often we see ex-spouses still named on beneficiary designations). We have seen a carefully drafted trust sit empty while the money went somewhere else entirely.

The good news: this one is easy to fix. Pull up your accounts this weekend and check who is listed. Primary and contingent. It takes fifteen minutes.

If the names surprise you, it is definitely time to update your estate plan. Let’s talk.

Georgia Legacy Law Group, LLC
770-475-8041 | estatelawga.com

Attorney advertising. Cleve Hill, Managing Partner.

We had the cutest intern at the office this week!
01/29/2026

We had the cutest intern at the office this week!

Address

11300 Atlantis Place, Ste A
Alpharetta, GA
30004

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+17704758041

Website

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