Estate planning in Arizona is a short list of decisions and a longer list of paperwork. This checklist puts both in order. It is written for the person doing the planning, with a final section for the person settling an estate after a death. Each Arizona item links to the statute or the official form so you can read the source yourself.
This is an educational checklist, not legal advice, and it does not replace a conversation with an attorney. RJP Estate Planning is not a law firm; our Planning Consultants help families organize these decisions, and clients work with independent attorneys for legal advice and document preparation. Deliberately, no dollar figures appear here: they change every year and live on the figures page.
1. Decide the people
Every document below names someone. Settle the names first and the paperwork goes quickly.
- Who should inherit, in what shares, and what happens if one of them dies first.
- Who manages money for you if you cannot (your financial agent), and a backup.
- Who speaks for you on medical decisions (your health care agent), and a backup.
- Who would raise minor children, and who would manage what they inherit until an age you choose.
- Who settles your affairs after death (personal representative or successor trustee), and a backup.
- Anyone who should be deliberately left out, and anyone with special circumstances (a disability, a benefits program, a difficult marriage, a business).
2. Take the inventory
Write down what you own and how each item is titled. Titling decides whether an asset passes by will, by trust, by beneficiary form or by survivorship.
- Real estate in Arizona and elsewhere: address, how the deed reads (sole, joint, community property, trust).
Arizona couples can hold property as community property with right of survivorship.
- Bank and brokerage accounts, with any payable-on-death or transfer-on-death designation.
- Retirement accounts and annuities, with the primary and contingent beneficiaries on file.
- Life insurance policies: owner, insured, beneficiaries.
- Vehicles, business interests, digital accounts, and anything with sentimental value you want to direct.
- Debts, mortgages and anyone who depends on you financially.
3. Put the core documents in place
These are the documents an Arizona plan is built from. Which ones you need depends on your situation; an attorney you work with decides the drafting.
- A will that names your personal representative and a guardian for minor children.
Without one, Arizona's intestacy rules decide, starting with the surviving spouse's share.
- A revocable living trust, if avoiding probate or managing assets during incapacity matters to you.
- A durable financial power of attorney.
Arizona's requirements are in A.R.S. § 14-5501; the statutory form is in the forms library.
- A health care power of attorney and a living will.
See A.R.S. § 36-3221 and the living will form; the Arizona Attorney General publishes the free Life Care Planning packet.
- A mental health care power of attorney, which Arizona treats as a separate document.
- A HIPAA authorization so your agents can talk to your doctors.
4. Use the Arizona transfer tools that fit
Arizona has several ways to pass assets outside probate. Each has to be set up while you are alive and match the rest of the plan.
- A beneficiary deed for Arizona real estate you are not placing in a trust.
A.R.S. § 33-405; the form is in the forms library. It must be recorded before death.
- Payable-on-death and transfer-on-death designations on accounts that are not in the trust.
- A beneficiary designation on Arizona vehicle titles through MVD, if you want the car to pass outside probate.
- Beneficiary forms on retirement accounts and life insurance that agree with the will or trust (these forms override both).
- If you have a trust: retitle the accounts and real estate into it. An unfunded trust avoids nothing.
5. Check the situations that need extra care
Tick any that apply and raise them with the attorney and, where relevant, a tax professional.
- A child or beneficiary with a disability who receives, or may receive, needs-based benefits.
- A blended family, a second marriage, or a beneficiary going through a divorce.
- Property in another state or country.
- A business, rental property or farm.
- An estate large enough that the federal estate tax exemption matters.
The current exemption and the other figures that move each year are on the Arizona estate planning figures page.
- Pets, firearms, digital assets, or a family member who should not serve as agent.
6. Sign, store and tell people
A plan nobody can find is the same as no plan.
- Sign with the witnesses and notary each document requires; keep the originals together in one known place.
- Give your agents and personal representative copies, or at least tell them where the originals are.
- Give the health care documents to your doctors and the hospital system you use.
- Keep a one-page summary: where the documents are, who the agents are, where the accounts are.
The free Personal Health Planner covers the medical side.
- Record the beneficiary deed with the county recorder and confirm every beneficiary form was accepted by the institution.
7. Review on a schedule
Put a reminder in the calendar. Plans go wrong by going stale, not by being wrong on the day they were signed.
- After any marriage, divorce, birth, adoption, death, serious diagnosis, or move into or out of Arizona.
- After buying or selling real estate, a business, or opening a large account.
- When an agent, trustee or guardian can no longer serve.
- When the figures change: the estate tax exemption, gift exclusion and Arizona allowances are republished every year.
Check the figures page once a year.
- Every three to five years regardless, with the attorney who drafted the documents.
If you are settling an estate instead
For the person left to carry out a plan, the first questions are different.
- Order several certified death certificates; most institutions keep one.
- Find the will and any trust; the will goes to the Superior Court in the county where the person lived.
- Work out whether probate is needed at all. Arizona lets small estates pass by affidavit.
A.R.S. § 14-3971; the personal property and real property affidavits are in the forms library with the current limits.
- Notify the Social Security Administration, pension payers, insurers and the Motor Vehicle Division.
- Do not distribute anything until debts, taxes and the allowances owed to a surviving spouse and children are understood.
Want to work through this list with someone? Our free, in-person seminars cover every section above in about ninety minutes, or contact us to talk with a Planning Consultant.