Arizona Probate Laws: Tracks, Creditors, and Inheritance

Arizona probate laws set out how the Superior Court transfers a deceased person’s assets, validates any will, and pays off debts before the remainder reaches heirs or beneficiaries. Not every estate has to go through it. Whether probate is required depends on how the assets were titled and how much the estate is worth, and Arizona offers a small-estate shortcut plus three different levels of court involvement for everything else.

When Probate Is Required

Probate is triggered by assets held solely in the decedent’s name with no built-in transfer mechanism. Joint tenancy property with right of survivorship passes automatically to the surviving co-owner. Accounts with payable-on-death or transfer-on-death designations go straight to the named beneficiary. Life insurance proceeds and retirement accounts with listed beneficiaries also skip probate. What’s left — solely owned real estate, individual bank accounts, vehicles titled only in the decedent’s name, personal belongings — is the probate estate.

Arizona then applies dollar thresholds. Under A.R.S. § 14-3971, an estate can avoid full probate if the total value of all personal property (after subtracting debts and liens) does not exceed $200,000, and the total value of all Arizona real property (after subtracting liens and encumbrances) does not exceed $300,000.¹ Estates that exceed those numbers in solely owned assets have to go through formal court administration to legally transfer titles.

The Small Estate Affidavit

When an estate fits under the thresholds, heirs claim property with a small estate affidavit instead of opening a case. The rules differ by asset type.

For personal property, a successor can present an affidavit to a bank, employer, or anyone else holding the decedent’s property starting 30 days after the date of death. The affidavit has to state that no personal representative has been appointed and that the estate’s personal property is worth $200,000 or less after debts.¹

For real property, the successor waits at least six months after the date of death, then files a real property affidavit with the Superior Court. The net assessed value of all Arizona real estate in the estate must be $300,000 or less. Once the court processes the affidavit, the successor records a certified copy with the county recorder where the property sits to complete the title transfer.¹

Real property value here is the full cash value on the county’s assessment rolls for the year of death, not a listing-site estimate. Any outstanding mortgage balance is subtracted.

The Three Probate Tracks

Estates that don’t qualify for the affidavit run on one of three tracks. The difference is how much the court stays involved.

Informal Probate

Informal administration is the usual path when nobody is fighting. There are no hearings. The probate registrar reviews the application and, if it’s in order, issues letters of appointment to the personal representative, who then handles the estate largely on their own with minimal ongoing court supervision.² Most informal probates finish in six to eight months.

Formal Probate

Formal proceedings are required when someone challenges the will’s validity, disputes who should serve as personal representative, or when the original will cannot be located. This track is essentially litigation: hearings, evidence, judicial orders.³ Any interested person can petition to start formal proceedings, even if an informal case is already open.

Supervised Administration

Supervised administration is the strictest track. The court keeps continuing authority over the case and must approve every significant action the personal representative takes, including the final distribution.⁴ Courts order it when there are serious concerns about mismanagement, conflicts of interest, or unusual complexity. A year or more is typical.

Opening the Case

Before filing, gather the original will if one exists, a certified death certificate, and an inventory of the decedent’s assets covering bank and investment statements, real estate deeds, vehicle titles, and any valuable personal property. You also need the full names and mailing addresses of every heir and beneficiary, because the court requires notice to each of them.

File with the Clerk of the Superior Court in the county where the decedent lived. Depending on the track, you submit either an Application for Informal Probate or a Petition for Formal Probate. Arizona’s statewide base filing fee is $191.⁵ Individual counties add their own surcharges on top, so the actual amount you pay at the clerk’s window is higher and varies by county.

Bond Requirements

Arizona generally requires the personal representative to post a fiduciary bond. The bond can be waived if the will expressly waives it, if all heirs or devisees file a written waiver with the court, or if the representative is a qualified financial institution such as a bank or trust company.⁶ Even with a waiver, any interested person can petition for a bond by showing their interest is at risk. Attorney-drafted wills typically include a waiver because the bond premium would otherwise come out of the estate.

What the Personal Representative Does

The personal representative is a fiduciary. That means protecting estate assets, keeping detailed financial records, paying legitimate debts, filing tax returns, and eventually distributing property under the will or intestacy law. Estate funds cannot be mixed with personal money, estate property cannot be used for the representative’s benefit, and beneficiaries are entitled to information about the estate.

Arizona law entitles the representative to reasonable compensation for their services.⁷ What counts as reasonable depends on the size and complexity of the estate, the time required, and the representative’s skill level.

Notifying Creditors

One of the first jobs after appointment is notifying creditors. A.R.S. § 14-3801 requires two forms of notice: publication in a local newspaper once a week for three consecutive weeks, and direct written notice mailed to every creditor the representative knows about or can reasonably identify.⁸

Creditors then have four months from the first publication date to submit claims. For creditors who receive direct mail notice, the deadline is either four months from publication or 60 days from the mailing, whichever is later.⁸ Miss the deadline and the claim is permanently barred. The representative reviews each claim, pays valid debts from estate funds, and can reject claims believed to be invalid. This four-month window is also the reason no probate realistically closes in less than about five or six months.

Family Allowances That Come Off the Top

Arizona carves out set amounts for the surviving spouse and dependent children that take priority over almost all other claims, including most creditors.

Homestead allowance of $18,000 to the surviving spouse. With no surviving spouse, the decedent’s minor and dependent children split the $18,000.⁹
Exempt property up to $7,000 in household furniture, appliances, vehicles, and personal effects beyond any amounts owed on them. If the estate lacks enough qualifying property, other estate assets are used to reach the $7,000 value.
A reasonable family allowance in cash for living expenses during administration, based on the family’s previous standard of living and other available resources. If the estate can’t cover all creditor claims, the family allowance cannot continue longer than one year.

These allowances come out before creditors and other beneficiaries receive anything. They also reduce whatever the spouse or children would otherwise inherit under the will or intestacy law, so they aren’t bonus money on top of an inheritance.

Who Inherits Without a Will

When someone dies without a valid will, Arizona’s intestacy statutes decide who gets what. Because Arizona is a community property state, the rules treat community property and separate property differently, and this is where families most often get surprised.

Under A.R.S. § 14-2102, the surviving spouse’s share depends on whether the deceased had children and whether those children are also the surviving spouse’s. If there are no surviving children, or if all children are also the spouse’s children, the surviving spouse inherits the entire intestate estate — both the decedent’s half of community property and all separate property. If one or more children are not the spouse’s children, the surviving spouse receives half of the decedent’s separate property and no share of the decedent’s half of community property. The decedent’s children inherit the rest.¹⁰

That second scenario is the one that catches blended families. A surviving spouse in a second marriage where the deceased has children from a prior relationship keeps their own half of community property outright but receives nothing from the decedent’s half if stepchildren are in the picture.

With no surviving spouse, the estate passes to the decedent’s descendants. If there are no descendants, it goes to the decedent’s parents, then siblings, then more distant relatives in a defined statutory order. Adopted children are treated the same as biological children for inheritance.

Contesting a Will

Any interested person can challenge a will’s validity through formal testacy proceedings. The recognized grounds are lack of capacity (the signer didn’t understand what they owned, who their family members were, or what the will would do), undue influence (someone in a position of trust pressured the signer into a will that didn’t reflect their actual wishes), fraud or forgery, and improper execution such as missing the required witnesses. A holographic will entirely in the decedent’s handwriting is a separate valid form.

A contest turns what might have been an informal probate into a formal proceeding with hearings and evidence.³ The person contesting the will bears the burden of proof, and general dissatisfaction with the distribution isn’t enough. Concrete evidence supporting one of the recognized grounds is required.

Taxes

Arizona imposes no state estate tax and no inheritance tax, so the only estate-level tax exposure is federal. The federal estate tax applies only to estates exceeding $15,000,000 in 2026, which puts it out of reach for nearly every family.¹¹ More commonly, the personal representative files a federal income tax return for the estate itself using IRS Form 1041 when the estate earns more than $600 in gross income during administration.¹² The representative also files the decedent’s final individual income tax return for the year of death.

How Long It Takes and How It Closes

The four-month creditor window is the floor. Nothing closes before it runs. Informal probate with straightforward assets and cooperative heirs generally finishes in six to eight months from filing to final distribution. Formal and supervised administrations often run a year or more, especially when disputes go to litigation or unusual assets like business interests or out-of-state property need appraisal.

To close, the personal representative files a Closing Statement (informal) or a Petition for Settlement (formal or supervised) with the court. The filing confirms all debts and taxes have been paid and all assets distributed, and it ends the representative’s authority over the estate.

1
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-3971 – Collection of Personal Property by Affidavit; Ownership of Vehicles; Affidavit of Succession to Real Property
2
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-3301 – Informal Probate or Appointment Proceedings; Application; Contents
3
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-3401 – Formal Testacy Proceedings; Nature; When Commenced
4
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-3501 – Supervised Administration; Nature of Proceeding
5
Arizona Judicial Branch. Superior Court Filing Fees – Section: Probate, Conservatorship, Guardianship, and Fiduciary Cases
6
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-3603 – Bond Required; Exceptions
7
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-3719 – Compensation of Personal Representative
8
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-3801 – Notice to Creditors
9
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-2402 – Homestead Allowance
10
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-2102 – Intestate Share of Surviving Spouse
11
Internal Revenue Service. Estate Tax
12
Internal Revenue Service. File an Estate Tax Income Tax Return