Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Georgia

A 401K and an IRA are two completely different things. If the IRA has a beneficiary, that beneficiary gets the IRA and nothing passes the will. And since you say there is a 401K, if that does not have a beneficiary, the 4 children split it (if it does have a beneficiary that person gets it).

I agree. An IRA is a non-probate beneficiary designated asset. In most instances, there will be a designated beneficiary and the IRA will pass to that person. There are rules for taxation so I hope that is the case. The beneficiary does NOT have to share any of this money. If the testator wanted a different result then the testator should have provided that the IRA would be divided among the 4 children and not relied on a will.

A 401(k) should also have a beneficiary designation. If it doesn't, then it would be paid to the estate and distributed as per the will.