Estate Planning When You Move to Arizona

A will validly executed under another state's law is generally honored in Arizona under A.R.S. § 14-2506 (Arizona's choice-of-law rule for wills). A revocable living trust drafted in Illinois, New York, or Ohio is similarly enforceable here. So the documents themselves do not become invalid the moment you cross the state line. What changes is how Arizona law characterizes your assets, how Arizona courts will administer the trust, and what your real estate looks like on the deed.

You are not alone in making the move. Arizona was one of the fastest-growing states in the country, adding more than 65,000 net new residents in 2023 (U.S. Census Vintage 2023). New arrivals come from every corner of the country, including community-property states like California and common-law states like Illinois, New York, and Ohio. Either way, the surprises start the same place: the deed, the trust funding schedule, and the basis step-up.

The biggest single change is community property. Arizona treats marital earnings, retirement contributions, and many assets acquired during marriage as 50/50 owned by both spouses, even if titled in one name. Documents drafted under common-law principles often skip this entirely, leading to deeds, trust funding, and tax outcomes that no longer match what you intended.

Most new Arizona residents do not need a full document rewrite. The decision is one of three:

Leave the will alone. If your out-of-state will is recent, names the right people, and does not depend on quirks of the old state's law (a state-specific elective share, a state-specific homestead allowance, or out-of-state trust language baked into the will), it stays valid in Arizona under A.R.S. § 14-2506. A short codicil signed in Arizona can clean up references to the old county, the old executor, or out-of-state guardians.

Restate the trust. A trust restatement keeps the original trust on the timeline (no need to retitle assets out and back in), but rewrites the body of the trust under Arizona law. This is the right call for almost every couple moving from a common-law state, and for any trust that did not contemplate community property characterization. If you want a focused walkthrough, see living trusts.

Full rewrite. Reserved for older trusts (pre-2010), trusts drafted by a non-attorney service, trusts with broken funding, or trusts where the family has changed (death of a beneficiary, divorce, second marriage). If you are starting most provisions over anyway, a fresh trust is cleaner than a restatement.

The two questions that drive the decision: does the existing trust use community-property language, and is it fully funded with the assets you brought to Arizona. If the answer to either is no, restate.

When you buy an Arizona home, decide deliberately how to take title: community property, community property with right of survivorship under A.R.S. § 33-431, joint tenancy with right of survivorship, or in your trust. Each has different probate, tax, and creditor consequences. Community property with right of survivorship is often the best fit for married couples. It combines automatic survivorship with the full step-up in basis on both halves at the first death.

In practice: imagine an Ohio couple who retire to Scottsdale and buy a $700,000 home, taking title as joint tenants with right of survivorship out of habit. When the husband dies, only his half gets a stepped-up basis. If they had instead taken title as community property with right of survivorship, both halves would step up, and the surviving wife could later sell the home with little or no capital gains tax. Same survivorship outcome, very different tax bill.

If you keep a home in your former state, decide whether to retitle it into your Arizona trust now or risk ancillary probate there later. For a vacation home in Colorado, a primary residence still owned in Michigan, or rental property in California, the cost of retitling now is almost always less than the cost of two probates later.

Arizona does not have a bright-line residency statute that fits every snowbird scenario, but the facts that matter are consistent: where you spend more than 183 days a year, where your driver's license is issued, where you vote, where your vehicles are registered, and where your tax returns are filed. Each one is a fact a state revenue department or a probate court will look at if your residency is ever questioned.

If you keep a home in California, Illinois, New York, Minnesota, or another high-tax state, the audit risk is real and the dollars are not small. The cleanest move is to break ties decisively: change your driver's license, register to vote in Arizona, register your vehicles in Arizona, file the next tax year as an Arizona resident, and update your CPA's records. Half-measures invite a dual-residency assessment from the state you left.

Assets you brought to Arizona are generally separate property, but they can lose that protection if you commingle them with community funds (for example, depositing a pre-move savings account into a joint Arizona checking account). To preserve separate property characterization, document what you brought into the state: bank statements as of the move date, pre-move appraisals on real estate, and pre-move retirement balances.

Many couples take the move as the moment to sign a postnuptial agreement that confirms which assets are separate. This is especially valuable in second marriages or where one spouse owned significantly more before the move. Without it, ten or twenty years later, the line between separate and community can become hard to defend.

If your trust names a sibling, adult child, or longtime friend back in your former state, ask whether they can still effectively serve in Arizona. Most can, but logistics matter. A successor trustee who lives in Pennsylvania and has never set foot in your Scottsdale bank branch is going to slow your spouse down at the worst possible moment.

The move is a natural moment to add a co-trustee in Arizona, name a local professional fiduciary as backup, or add a trust protector who can swap trustees later without going to court. None of these require a full trust restatement on their own, but if you are restating anyway, fold them in.

Arizona recognizes out-of-state advance directives under A.R.S. § 36-3208, but Arizona hospitals are most comfortable with Arizona forms. Re-sign your medical power of attorney, mental health care power of attorney, living will, and HIPAA authorization on Arizona forms. Re-sign your financial power of attorney with the Arizona statutory short-form acknowledgements. Out-of-state forms get refused at title companies and banks more often than they should.

Update your driver's license, voter registration, vehicle registrations, the address on every retirement and brokerage account, and your insurance policies. Practical timing: ADOT MVD asks new residents to title and register an out-of-state vehicle promptly after establishing residency, and voter registration must be filed at least 29 days before an election under A.R.S. § 16-120 to vote in it. Confirm with your CPA when you become an Arizona tax resident. If you keep a home elsewhere, the residency question can have a substantial state income tax impact and affects which state probates your estate at death. Lock it down before the next tax year starts.