Estate Planning in Arizona: Wills, Trusts, and Probate

Estate planning in Arizona is governed mainly by Title 14 of the Arizona Revised Statutes, the state’s version of the Uniform Probate Code. It covers how a person directs who receives their property at death, who manages that transfer, and who makes decisions if the person can no longer act. This reference explains the main tools Arizona recognizes, wills, intestate succession, probate, probate-avoidance devices like beneficiary deeds and living trusts, and incapacity documents, and links to the detailed procedures in each area.

What estate planning covers in Arizona

An estate plan answers two separate questions. The first is what happens to a person’s property and dependents after death. The second is who steps in to handle money and medical decisions during life if the person becomes incapacitated. Arizona law provides a distinct document or procedure for each piece.

Arizona is one of nine community property states, and that shapes almost every part of a plan. Property acquired by either spouse during marriage is generally owned equally by both, while property owned before marriage or received by gift or inheritance stays separate. A person can direct only their own half of the community property plus their separate property, so a married Arizonan’s will controls less than the full value of the household’s assets.

Estate planning also is not only for the wealthy. The documents that avoid a court process, name a guardian for minor children, or authorize a trusted person to pay bills during a hospitalization matter regardless of the size of the estate. The sections below move from the core death-transfer tools to the incapacity documents and the tax picture.

Key terms Arizona uses

Arizona’s probate vocabulary comes from the Uniform Probate Code, and a few terms differ from what people expect.

The person who makes a will is the testator. The person who has died is the decedent. The individual the court appoints to gather assets, pay debts, and distribute what remains is the personal representative, Arizona’s single term for what other states call an executor (when named in a will) or an administrator (when there is no will).

A gift of property in a will is a devise, and a person who receives one is a devisee. A person who inherits when there is no will is an heir, and the rules that decide who those heirs are make up intestate succession. Probate is the court-supervised process of transferring a decedent’s property; assets that pass outside that process, such as a jointly owned home or an account with a named beneficiary, are nonprobate transfers. Understanding which assets are which is the practical center of most Arizona plans.

Making a valid will in Arizona

A will is the document that states who receives a person’s probate property and who serves as personal representative. Under A.R.S. § 14-2501, any person who is at least 18 years old and of sound mind may make one.

Arizona recognizes two forms. A standard typed or printed will must meet the execution rules in A.R.S. § 14-2502: it must be in writing, signed by the testator (or by someone else at the testator’s direction and in their presence), and signed by at least two witnesses who saw the signing or the testator’s acknowledgment of it. The second form is a holographic will. Under A.R.S. § 14-2503, a will is valid without any witnesses if the signature and the material provisions are in the testator’s own handwriting. Arizona is one of a minority of states that accepts handwritten, unwitnessed wills.

Many Arizona wills add a self-proving affidavit, a notarized statement by the testator and witnesses. It is optional, but it lets the court accept the will later without tracking down the witnesses to testify.

When there is no will: intestate succession

When a person dies without a valid will, Arizona’s intestate succession statutes decide who inherits. The starting point is the surviving spouse’s share under A.R.S. § 14-2102, and the community property system drives the result.

If the decedent leaves no descendants, or if every descendant is also a descendant of the surviving spouse, the spouse takes the entire intestate estate. The split changes when the decedent has a child from another relationship: in that case the surviving spouse keeps their own one-half of the community property, receives no share of the decedent’s one-half of the community property, and takes one-half of the decedent’s separate property. The decedent’s descendants take the rest.

The order of inheritance moves outward from there, to descendants, then parents, then more distant relatives, when there is no surviving spouse. Because intestate succession follows a fixed statutory formula rather than the decedent’s wishes, a will (or a nonprobate transfer) is the only way to change who receives the property. Arizona’s full intestacy rules, including how shares pass to children and grandchildren, are covered in a dedicated article linked in the procedures section below.

How probate works in Arizona

Probate in Arizona runs through the Superior Court in the county where the decedent lived. The Arizona Judicial Branch publishes forms and step-by-step guidance through its probate self-service center. The process appoints a personal representative, gives creditors a window to make claims, and ends with distribution to the heirs or devisees.

Arizona offers two tracks. Informal probate is the common path when no one contests the will or the appointment; it is handled largely through a court registrar with limited hearings. Formal probate involves a judge and is used when the will’s validity, the choice of personal representative, or the distribution is disputed.

Not every estate needs probate at all. Under A.R.S. § 14-3971, a successor can collect a decedent’s personal property by sworn affidavit, without opening probate, once 30 days have passed and the total personal property in the estate does not exceed $200,000 (as valued on the date of death, less liens). The same statute allows an affidavit to transfer real property when six months have passed and the decedent’s Arizona real property is worth no more than $300,000, less liens. A separate provision lets an employer release up to $5,000 in unpaid wages to a surviving spouse. These small-estate figures reflect the amounts in the statute as of 2026.

Ways to avoid or simplify probate

Arizonans use several devices to move property outside probate. Each transfers a specific asset directly to a named person at death, so the asset never enters the court process.

A beneficiary deed, Arizona’s version of a transfer-on-death deed, lets a real property owner name who receives the property at death while keeping full control during life. Under A.R.S. § 33-405, the deed transfers title effective on the owner’s death, but only if it is signed and recorded with the county recorder before the owner dies. The owner can revoke it at any time by recording a revocation, and a later-recorded beneficiary deed overrides an earlier one.

Payable-on-death and transfer-on-death designations do the same job for bank accounts, brokerage accounts, and vehicles. Joint ownership with right of survivorship passes the asset to the surviving owner automatically. A revocable living trust holds title to assets during life and distributes them under the trust’s terms at death without probate; Arizona’s trust rules sit in the Arizona Trust Code within Title 14. And for modest estates, the small-estate affidavits under A.R.S. § 14-3971 avoid probate after the 30-day or six-month waiting period. The trade-off among these tools, cost, control, and how much they cover, is where most planning decisions are made.

Planning for incapacity

Estate planning also prepares for the period before death when a person may be unable to manage finances or health care. Arizona provides three main documents, and none of them takes effect after death, they operate only during life.

A durable financial power of attorney authorizes a named agent to handle money, property, and legal matters. It is “durable” because it stays effective even after the principal loses capacity, which is the entire point of signing one in advance.

A health care power of attorney names an agent to make medical decisions. Under A.R.S. § 36-3221, the document must clearly state the intent to create it, be dated and signed by the person, and be either notarized or witnessed by at least one qualifying adult. A living will states a person’s wishes about life-sustaining treatment; under A.R.S. § 36-3261, an adult may use it alongside a health care power of attorney or on its own, verified the same way. Together these documents let a chosen person, rather than a court-appointed guardian, act during an incapacity.

Taxes on an Arizona estate

Arizona imposes no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax. The only death tax that can reach an Arizona estate is the federal estate tax, which applies to estates above the federal exemption and reaches a small fraction of estates. Most Arizona estates owe no death tax of any kind.

The absence of a state-level tax shows up in probate practice. The real-property small-estate affidavit under A.R.S. § 14-3971 asks the successor to confirm only that no federal estate tax is due, with no state counterpart to report. Income tax can still apply, for example, to income a retirement account generates after death, but that is separate from any tax on the transfer itself.

Specific procedures and topics