Blended family? Here's what Arizona law won't do for you.

Here's the part that surprises almost everyone who walks into my office. Under A.R.S. § 14-2102, if you die without a will and you have children who aren't also your surviving spouse's children, your spouse gets only half of your separate property and none of the community property. It all goes to your kids.

What Arizona law actually does with a blended family

In a first marriage where all the kids are "ours," the surviving spouse inherits everything. In a blended family, the statute flips. Your spouse could lose the house, the savings, the retirement accounts (anything titled as community property) because Arizona law assumes your biological children need protecting from a spouse who isn't their parent.

Sometimes that outcome is close to what you'd want. More often, it creates a disaster. Your surviving spouse co-owns your home with your 23-year-old from your first marriage. Nobody's happy. Nobody wanted this.

The "simple will" trap

A lot of blended family couples try to fix the intestacy problem with matching wills. Each spouse leaves everything to the other, trusting that the survivor will eventually pass it along to all the kids.

The problem: a will is revocable. After you die, your surviving spouse can rewrite theirs. They can remarry and leave everything to the new spouse. They can cut your kids out entirely, and there's nothing your children can do about it.

How a QTIP trust solves the core problem

A Qualified Terminable Interest Property trust (QTIP for short) splits the timeline. Your surviving spouse gets income from the trust assets for the rest of their life. They can live in the house. They're financially secure. But they don't control what happens to the principal.

When your spouse passes away, whatever remains in the QTIP trust goes to the beneficiaries you named. Usually, that's your children from your prior marriage. The surviving spouse can't change this. A future spouse can't change it. A creditor can't reach it.

The beneficiary designation problem

Your will or trust only controls assets that are actually in your estate. Retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and accounts with payable-on-death designations pass directly to whoever is listed as the beneficiary. Your trust doesn't override that form.

Arizona law (A.R.S. § 14-2804) automatically revokes an ex-spouse as beneficiary on most instruments after divorce, but that statute doesn't apply to ERISA-governed retirement plans. Federal law controls those, and federal law says the name on the form wins.

Picking a trustee your whole family can live with

Naming your spouse as trustee of a QTIP trust creates a conflict of interest. They control the income they receive and the assets your children are waiting to inherit.

Three approaches work well. Name a neutral third party as trustee. Use co-trustees: your spouse and one of your adult children together. Or name your spouse as trustee but build in an independent trust protector who can step in if distributions become one-sided.

Three more things blended families need to know

Stepchildren don't inherit automatically. If you've been raising your stepdaughter since she was four and you die without naming her, she gets nothing.

Prenups aren't just for divorce. A prenuptial or postnuptial agreement can lock in which assets are separate property and which are community property.

Talk to your family before, not after. One awkward conversation can save your family $50,000 in legal fees and a decade of silence.