Section 7-1-321. Affiliate transfers authorized; powers and duties of affiliated trust company transferees

   (a) Any bank authorized by law to engage in the business of acting as a fiduciary is authorized and empowered to make an affiliate transfer whether or not each governing instrument expressly provides for or contemplates an affiliate transfer or whether or not the fiduciary capacity was created by will, indenture, trust, court order, agreement, or other means. No affiliate transfer shall constitute:

   (1) A resignation or disqualification of the bank as fiduciary; or

   (2) A relinquishment of trust powers by the bank making the affiliate transfer.

Upon execution of an instrument effecting an affiliate transfer by a bank, the affiliated trust company shall, as of the date specified in the instrument, have all of the rights, powers, privileges, appointments, accounts, and designations of the bank regarding each fiduciary capacity so transferred and shall have title to all property, real, personal, and mixed, and all debts due on whatever account, and all other choses in action, and each and every other interest of or belonging to or due to the bank as fiduciary shall be taken and deemed to be transferred to and vested in the affiliated trust company as fiduciary without further act or deed. The affiliated trust company shall file a certificate of transfer with the department setting forth its name, a copy of its governing instrument, a list of the banks with which it is affiliated, a statement of the facts which establish the affiliate relationship, and such other information as may be appropriate.

(b) Upon an affiliate transfer by a bank, the affiliated trust company, in each fiduciary capacity transferred, shall thenceforth be responsible for the performance of all of the duties, responsibilities, and obligations of the bank in such fiduciary capacity, and any claim existing or action or proceeding pending by or against the fiduciary may be prosecuted as if the affiliate transfer had not taken place and the affiliated trust company, as fiduciary, may be substituted in place of the bank, as fiduciary. Neither the rights of creditors to nor any liens upon the property held in any fiduciary capacity shall be impaired by any affiliate transfer.

Code 1981, § 7-1-321, enacted by Ga. L. 1986, p. 1244, § 1; Ga. L. 1994, p. 1780, § 1.