Estate Planning Attorney for Eastmark, Mesa
Estate planning for Eastmark families. New homes in Edge, Cosmo, Encore, and the rest of southeast Mesa. Trust funding, guardianship for the kids, and the basics done right.
Eastmark went from raw desert to one of Arizona's largest master-planned communities in roughly a decade. Most families closing on homes in Edge, Cosmo, Encore, and Skye are first-time or move-up buyers. Two working parents. Kids who are small or on the way. A mortgage that took the better part of a year to underwrite. Most have no existing estate plan. Eastmark accounts for a meaningful share of our Mesa case load.
Eastmark planning is mostly the basics. The trust funding for the new build comes first because the deed got recorded six months ago and nobody since the title company has touched it. The guardianship clause is the harder piece to write. Naming who raises the kids if both parents are gone, with backups, in a way that survives the family conversation that follows.
Mesa addresses, Queen Creek schools
This catches Eastmark parents off guard. Eastmark sits inside Mesa city limits, but most of the schools (including Eastmark High, which opened in 2019) are Queen Creek Unified District. Some of the elementary kids attend Silver Valley, also QCUSD. A few addresses on the western edge are Mesa Public Schools.
It matters for the guardianship clause. The school district your kids are in may not be the same as the one another guardian's address would put them in. We ask about your continuity preferences when we draft, then write the clause so it reflects them.
New construction, fresh deeds
Trust funding is easy in Eastmark because the deeds are clean. The harder part is that nobody else does it for you. You signed at the title company, the deed was recorded, and the matter went into a folder you haven't reopened.
Moving the house into a revocable trust takes a deed, a signature, and a recording fee. We do it as part of every core package. We've also seen what happens when nobody does it. Clients who paid for a trust three years ago, never funded the home, and ended up in probate anyway when their parent passed.
Eastmark's individual phases (Edge, Cosmo, Encore, Skye, the rest) each have their own HOA structure and CC&Rs. The HOA needs to be notified when a home moves into a trust. It's a small step that's easy to miss. We handle it.
How we work with you
Eastmark is about 20 minutes from our downtown Mesa office via the 60 to Ellsworth. Most planning happens by video. Evening signings work well for clients who'd rather wait until the kids are asleep.
What we do for Eastmark clients
Eastmark estate planning FAQ
We just closed on a new build in Cosmo. When should we start estate planning?
Within the first six months. The home is now your largest asset, and the trust funding step that protects it from probate has to actually happen. The guardianship clause for the kids is the more emotionally weighty part, and you don't want to put it off.
Our address says Mesa but our kids go to Queen Creek schools. Does that matter for the guardianship clause?
It can. The guardian you name might live somewhere with a different school district, which means your kids would change schools if they were placed with that guardian. We add a non-binding letter of intent alongside the will when school continuity matters to the parents. Courts won't enforce it, but families generally honor written wishes.
Do we need a different attorney than someone who works with Mesa or Queen Creek families?
No. Eastmark is in Mesa, and Arizona state law governs all the documents either way. What matters is that your attorney has actually drafted plans for new-build communities with HOA paperwork in the trust funding step and guardianship clauses for parents with young kids. We have. Our recent Eastmark and Cooley Station files look very similar.
Both my husband and I work full-time and our kids are under five. What's the most important first step?
Powers of attorney and a will with a clear guardianship clause. Both can be in place within a few weeks. The trust comes right after, or alongside, depending on how you want to pace it.
We have a child with special needs. What kind of trust do we need?
A special needs trust (sometimes called a supplemental needs trust). It's a specific structure designed to hold assets for the benefit of a person with disabilities without disqualifying them from means-tested public benefits like ALTCS or SSI. We draft these regularly. The structure depends on whether the funding is from the parents' estate, from the child's own assets, or from a third party.
See more on the centralized FAQ page.
Get the basics in place.
Book a free 30-minute consultation. We'll start with the documents your family needs first and quote a flat fee before you commit.
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