What "By Representation" Actually Means
Representation is the legal method Arizona uses to distribute an inheritance when a person who would have inherited has already passed away. Rather than letting that share disappear, the law passes it down to the next generation.
Here is how it works: the estate is divided into equal shares at the first generation level that has at least one surviving member. Each living person at that level receives one share. Any shares that would have gone to a deceased member of that generation are combined and divided the same way among their surviving descendants.
If under section 14-2103, paragraph 1 all or part of a decedent's intestate estate passes by representation to the decedent's descendants, that estate is divided into as many equal shares as there are surviving descendants in the generation nearest to the decedent that contains one or more surviving descendants and to deceased descendants in the same generation who left any surviving descendants.
A.R.S. § 14-2106(A)A Practical Example
Imagine a parent dies with three children. Two are still living, but the third passed away years earlier, leaving two children of their own (grandchildren of the deceased). Under representation, the estate splits into three equal shares. The two living children each receive one-third. The remaining third is split equally between the two grandchildren.
This same method applies further down the family tree. It also applies when the estate passes to siblings, nieces, nephews, or even more distant relatives under A.R.S. § 14-2103. The goal is to keep each branch of the family proportionally represented in the distribution.
For families with complex structures, this default formula may not reflect what the deceased person would have actually wanted. A per stirpes distribution provision in a will or living trust can accomplish a similar result, but with the ability to customize who receives what.
