What happens if you die without a plan in Arizona?

When someone passes away without a will or trust, the legal term is "dying intestate." It doesn't mean your family gets nothing. It means Arizona's legislature decided who gets what before you had a chance to weigh in.

Arizona's default rules: who gets what

Arizona is a community property state, which means most assets acquired during a marriage belong equally to both spouses. That matters here because the intestacy rules treat community property and separate property differently.

If you're married with children who are all shared with your surviving spouse, your spouse inherits everything. That includes your half of the community property and all of your separate property. This is the simplest scenario and the one that lines up with what most people would have wanted (A.R.S. § 14-2102(1)).

The blended family surprise

If you're married with children from a different relationship, the rules change dramatically. Your surviving spouse receives only half of your separate property and none of your half of the community property. Your children, including children from a prior relationship, inherit the rest by representation (A.R.S. § 14-2102(2)).

Read that again. In a blended family, Arizona law can send your half of the community property (the house, the savings accounts, the retirement you built during this marriage) directly to your children and away from the spouse you're currently married to.

If you are not married

Your children inherit everything, divided equally, by representation. If a child of yours has already passed away, that child's share passes down to their own children (your grandchildren) under A.R.S. § 14-2103(1).

If you have no spouse and no children

Your estate passes to your parents. If both parents have passed, it goes to your siblings, then nieces and nephews, then grandparents, then aunts, uncles, and cousins, in that order, always by representation (A.R.S. § 14-2103(2)–(4)).

Who gets left out entirely

Intestacy laws only recognize certain legal relationships. Stepchildren (unless legally adopted), unmarried partners, close friends, charities, foster children, and in-laws receive nothing. It doesn't matter how long you've been together or what promises were made. Without a will or trust, these people are invisible to the system.

A few more rules you should know

To inherit under intestacy, a person must survive the deceased by at least 120 hours, or five full days (A.R.S. § 14-2104).

Intestacy rules apply only to assets owned solely in the deceased person's name with no beneficiary designation or automatic transfer. Anything in a living trust, jointly-titled accounts with rights of survivorship, life insurance, retirement accounts with named beneficiaries, and payable-on-death accounts all pass outside of probate.

When there is no will or trust, the estate typically still goes through probate. In Arizona, informal probate is straightforward, but it still takes six to twelve months, costs money, and becomes part of the public record.

The real cost of no plan

The financial cost of dying without a plan is real: probate fees, attorney fees, potential disputes among heirs. But the bigger cost is the one families feel most: confusion, conflict, and the knowledge that this isn't what their loved one would have wanted.

A will lets you choose who gets what and who's in charge of making it happen. A revocable living trust goes further. It keeps your family out of probate court entirely, protects your privacy, and provides for you during incapacity. Both are straightforward to create. Both are far less expensive than the alternative.