What To Do When Your Spouse Dies in Arizona

Order 10 to 15 certified death certificates from the funeral home or county vital records office. Every bank, insurance company, and brokerage will want one. Notify Social Security (the funeral home usually files the initial notice), the deceased's employer, life insurance carriers, and any pension administrators. Do not yet move large amounts of money, retitle the home, or take retirement distributions. Those decisions benefit from a few weeks of attorney and CPA review. There is no penalty for taking the first two weeks for funeral arrangements before opening the rest of the paperwork.

Locate the original will, trust, deeds, marriage certificate, and the most recent beneficiary designations. Many married couples sign a joint trust that splits into two trusts at the first death. Read the trust before you take any action; the document tells you which assets stay in the survivor's hands and which become irrevocable. The successor trustee steps in for any portion the deceased spouse controlled. For a full walkthrough of the administration steps, see the successor trustee and trust administration guide.

How real estate transfers depends on title. Community property with right of survivorship passes by recording the death certificate and an affidavit of surviving joint tenant. Property held in a trust transfers within the trust. The successor trustee may need to record an affidavit of successor trustee or a new deed if the trust splits. Property titled solely in the deceased spouse's name may need probate unless small estate procedures apply.

Record the paperwork now even if title looks clear today. Surviving spouses usually run into title issues 2 to 5 years later, when they try to sell or refinance, and the documents are no longer at hand. Update homeowner's insurance to remove the decedent and add the survivor, or the trust, as the named insured. Fixing it now is a one-afternoon job. Fixing it later, with a closing date pending, is not.

A surviving spouse may be entitled to a one-time $255 Social Security lump-sum death payment (per the SSA) and ongoing survivor benefits. Timing matters: claiming a survivor benefit early and switching to your own at 70 (or vice versa) can be worth tens of thousands of dollars over a lifetime. Coordinate with a CPA or financial planner before electing or switching benefits; the SSA will not undo a poorly timed claim. Context: roughly 30% of women age 65 and older in the U.S. are widowed (U.S. Census), so this is a planning chapter most marriages reach.

Spousal inherited IRAs have three elections: roll the account into your own IRA, treat the inherited account as your own, or keep it as an inherited IRA. Each has different RMD timing and different early-withdrawal rules. The election is generally irrevocable, so do not check a box on a beneficiary-claim form before talking with a CPA. The surviving spouse files a joint return for the year of death. In the two years after, "qualifying surviving spouse" filing status may apply if a dependent child is at home.

Within 6 to 12 months, sit down with an estate attorney to update your own documents. Replace your spouse as agent under power of attorney, healthcare agent, successor trustee, and personal representative. Update beneficiary designations on every account so they no longer route through the decedent.

If the trust splits into A/B, marital, or QTIP shares at the first death, ask the attorney whether any federal or Arizona tax filings are required. Some splits trigger a separate trust tax return going forward. Rev. Proc. 2022-32 lets eligible estates file Form 706 for portability up to 5 years after the date of death (portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion). For households with significant assets, filing even when no tax is owed can preserve millions of dollars of future shelter for the survivor's estate.

In practice: imagine a Scottsdale widow whose husband dies with a $4 million estate. No federal estate tax is owed because everything passed to her, but filing Form 706 within five years locks in his unused exclusion. If her own estate later grows to $10 million, that filing can save her children seven figures in federal estate tax that would otherwise be unavoidable.