Columbia County Affidavit of Beneficiary Acceptance (Multiple Beneficiaries) Form

When a Georgia transfer-on-death deed names two beneficiaries, the statute treats their acceptances as two separate acts, and this Georgia Affidavit of Beneficiary Acceptance (Multiple Beneficiaries) is built around that rule: one instrument, two affiants, each an adult grantee beneficiary swearing to the required facts and accepting only the share that passes to that affiant under O.C.G.A. Section 44-17-2. The form carries a signature block and a separate sworn certificate for each of the two, so a brother and sister named together in a parent's TOD deed, or a spouse and an adult child named side by side, complete one affidavit for recording even when they sign on different days before different notaries.

Two acceptances on one instrument

Section 44-17-2(c)(2) allows each designated grantee beneficiary who is a sui juris individual to accept the interest passing to that beneficiary, and subsection (c)(3) provides that a designated grantee beneficiary shall not accept on behalf of another, except where a guardian or conservator accepts for a ward or minor. Subsection (d) then opens with the words each designated grantee beneficiary wishing to accept. This form reads those provisions literally. Its first section recites two affiants, each a sui juris individual accepting in an individual capacity, on that affiant's own behalf only; its acceptance section has each affiant accept the interest that passes to that affiant, and states that neither accepts for anyone else. A third beneficiary named in the same deed accepts, or does not, on that beneficiary's own affidavit.

One deed, one parcel, two marriage statements

Three of the four statutory affirmations belong to the deed and the land, so the form states them once and both affiants swear to them: verification of the record owner's death, with a copy of the death certificate attached as subsection (e) directs; the deed book and page where the clerk of superior court recorded the transfer-on-death deed; and the legal description copied from that deed. The fourth, whether the record owner and the designated grantee beneficiary were married at the time of the record owner's death, belongs to each beneficiary separately, so Section 5 presents two pairs of boxes, one pair for each affiant, with one box marked in each pair. The completed example shows a surviving spouse and a son accepting together.

What co-beneficiaries take under the 2026 chapter

Georgia rewrote Chapter 17 of Title 44 by 2026 Act 379. Under amended Section 44-17-2(c)(1), ownership transfers to each grantee beneficiary only when that beneficiary's affidavit has been both executed and recorded after the record owner's death; the amended section states no filing deadline. Under amended Section 44-17-5(b), if one designated grantee beneficiary dies before the record owner, or survives the record owner but dies before accepting, that share lapses and is split evenly among the remaining designated grantee beneficiaries living at the record owner's death, and does not revert to the estate; beneficiaries the deed designated as joint tenants with right of survivorship keep that joint tenancy as to those still living. On acceptance, Section 44-17-5(a) has the beneficiaries take subject to the mortgages, liens, and recorded conveyances that bound the record owner during life.

Sworn twice, sealed twice

Each affiant signs before a notary public or other officer authorized to administer oaths, and the officer completes that affiant's jurat with the venue, the date, and the sworn-to-and-subscribed sentence, signs it in ink as commissioned (O.C.G.A. Section 45-17-8.1), and stamps the seal Section 45-17-6 requires in the labeled area each certificate reserves. An affiant who files without an attorney is a self-filer under Section 44-2-2, presents the affidavit through the GSCCCA electronic filing portal, and completes the PT-61 transfer tax declaration there; the GSCCCA's own PT-61 guidance confirms that the declaration is filed with the acceptance affidavit rather than with the deed. The affidavit is letter size with the three inch top margin of O.C.G.A. Section 15-6-61, and the return name and mailing address of Section 44-2-14(b) sit at the top of the first page directly below the clerk's space.

The package includes the fillable affidavit, a completed example filled in for a realistic Gwinnett County fact pattern with two accepting beneficiaries, and the guide that covers every section, the two jurats, the PT-61 declaration, and recording with the clerk. The guide and this description explain the form and the Georgia statutes behind it in general terms only; neither is legal advice.