§ 53-8-6 - (Pre-1998 Probate Code) Investment in state and federal bonds and other securities; liability for interest; insured deposits as legal investments; retention of certain property and corpor - Georgia Statutes

O.C.G.A. 53-8-6 (2010)
53-8-6. (Pre-1998 Probate Code) Investment in state and federal bonds and other securities; liability for interest; insured deposits as legal investments; retention of certain property and corporate securities; exchange, conversion, or retention of stock or securities of corporate fiduciary

(a) Executors and administrators may invest trust funds in bonds and other securities issued by this state or by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia bearing a lower rate of interest than 7 percent per annum and shall, in the settlement of their accounts on the funds so invested, be chargeable with no greater interest than that received from the state.

(b) Executors and administrators are authorized to invest trust funds in the bonds or other obligations issued by the United States government and in the bonds of any corporation created by an act of Congress, the bonds of which corporation created by the act of Congress are guaranteed by the United States government. No person, firm, corporation, or association shall be liable to account for a greater rate of interest than the amount actually received on the investment.

(c) Deposits of funds at interest in any chartered state or national bank or trust company which is located in this state and which is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation shall be deemed investments, and the deposits are authorized as legal investments to the extent that the deposits are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, without any order or authority from any court.

(d) Executors, administrators, guardians, and trustees are authorized, unless otherwise provided in the fiduciary instrument, to retain the property received by them on the creation of the estate guardianship or trust (including, in the case of a corporate fiduciary, stock or other securities of its own issue) even though the property may not otherwise be a legal investment and shall not be liable for the retention, except for gross neglect. In the case of corporate securities, they may likewise retain the securities into which the securities originally received may be converted or which may be derived therefrom as a result of merger, consolidation, stock dividends, splits, liquidations, and similar procedures; and they may exercise by purchase or otherwise any rights, warrants, or conversion features attaching to any such securities. This Code section applies to all such property held by the fiduciary on March 28, 1961, under estates or trusts previously created, except that it shall not relieve the fiduciary from liability for loss which had already accrued on or before March 28, 1961, for losses that had occurred.

(e) In the case of a corporate fiduciary, the foregoing authorities shall apply to the exchange or conversion of stock or securities of the corporate fiduciary's own issue, whether or not any new stock or securities received in exchange therefor are substantially equivalent to those originally held; and such authorities shall also apply to the continued retention of all new stock and securities received (resulting from merger, consolidation, stock dividends, splits, liquidations, and similar procedures) by virtue of such conversion or exchange of stock or securities of the corporate fiduciary's own issue, whether or not the new stock or securities are substantially equivalent to those originally received by the fiduciary. The foregoing authorities shall have reference, inter alia, to the exchange of such stock or securities for stock or securities of any holding company (and the continued retention of stock or securities, or both, of the holding company) which owns stock or other interests in one or more other corporations including the corporate fiduciary, whether the holding company is newly formed or already existing and whether or not any of the corporations own assets identical or similar to the assets of or carry on businesses identical or similar to the corporation whose stock or securities were previously received by the fiduciary; and such authorities shall apply regardless of whether any of the corporations have officers, directors, employees, agents, or trustees in common with the corporation whose stock or securities were previously received by the fiduciary.