How the Five-Day Rule Works Across All Estate Documents
This rule applies to nearly every type of estate planning document. It covers wills, trusts, payable-on-death accounts, and beneficiary forms. A person named in any of these must survive the decedent by at least five days to inherit.
For the purposes of this article, except as provided in subsection D of this section, a person who is not established by clear and convincing evidence to have survived an event, including the death of another person, by one hundred twenty hours is deemed to have predeceased the event.
A.R.S. § 14-2702(A)The rule also covers co-owned property with right of survivorship. If two co-owners die close together and no one can prove one survived the other by 120 hours, the property splits in half. One half passes as if the first co-owner survived. The other half passes as if the second did.
This means community property and joint tenancy property follow the same approach.
When the Rule Does Not Apply
Arizona carves out several exceptions. The 120-hour rule does not apply when the document speaks directly to simultaneous deaths or common disasters. It also does not apply if the document waives the survival rule or sets a different time period.
Other exceptions prevent odd results. For example, if applying the rule would void a property interest under the Rule Against Perpetuities, the court sets it aside. The same is true if the rule would cause a gift to fail or repeat across multiple documents.
Arizona chose 120 hours to balance two goals. It prevents problems from near-simultaneous deaths without slowing down estate work. Knowing whether your plan uses formal or informal probate helps you see how this rule plays out.
For families building estate plans, this statute shows why clear survival clauses matter. The 120-hour default works in most cases. However, some plans benefit from a longer period, and others work better with no survival rule at all.