Arizona Will Laws: Signing, Revoking, and Probate

Arizona will laws let any adult 18 or older and of sound mind decide who inherits their property, but the state’s community property system, witness rules, and intestacy defaults shape what a will can actually accomplish.¹ Get the execution right and your wishes control. Get it wrong, or skip the will entirely, and a fixed statutory order takes over.

Who Can Make a Will in Arizona

You need to be at least 18 and of sound mind at the moment you sign.¹ Capacity is measured at signing, not before or after, so a person with a progressive condition like dementia can still execute a valid will during a lucid interval as long as they understand what they own, who their natural beneficiaries are, and what a will does.

If someone later challenges your capacity in probate, they carry the burden of proof and typically need medical records, expert evaluations, or testimony from people who saw you around the time you signed.

What You Can and Cannot Leave in Your Will

Arizona is a community property state, and that directly limits what your will controls. Property either spouse earns or acquires during marriage belongs equally to both, regardless of whose name is on the title. Wages, bank accounts, retirement benefits, real estate bought with marital funds, and business interests built during the marriage all fall into this category.

You can only bequeath your half of community property. Your spouse already owns the other half, and your will cannot touch it. Separate property is different: anything you owned before the marriage, gifts or inheritances you received individually during the marriage, and anything designated as separate in a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement is yours alone to distribute.

This distinction hits hardest for couples who move to Arizona from a common law state. Property one spouse acquired individually elsewhere generally stays that spouse’s separate property after the move. Arizona has no statute that reclassifies it as community property at death, and Arizona does not give the surviving spouse an elective share right to claim a portion of the deceased spouse’s separate property. A surviving spouse whose partner owned everything individually before relocating could end up with nothing if the will doesn’t provide for them.

How to Sign a Valid Will

Arizona recognizes three formats. Each has its own signing rules.

Paper Wills

A standard paper will must be in writing, signed by you (or signed in your name by someone else at your direction and in your presence), and signed by at least two witnesses.² Each witness must sign within a reasonable time after watching you sign or after you acknowledge your signature to them.

Pay attention to who witnesses. For any will signed on or after October 1, 2019, a witness cannot be someone who inherits under the will, or a relative of someone who inherits, unless the will is made self-proving with a notarized affidavit.³ Using a beneficiary as a witness without that affidavit opens the will to challenge. The safest approach is two witnesses with no stake in the estate.

Holographic (Handwritten) Wills

Arizona recognizes holographic wills, and they need no witnesses at all. The signature and the material provisions must be in your own handwriting.⁴ Courts have accepted holographic wills written on notebook paper and inside personal letters, provided the handwriting can be verified.

The real risk with holographic wills is vagueness. Without professional guidance, people write ambiguous instructions. “My jewelry to my daughters” without specifying which pieces go to whom is a litigation invitation. Another frequent mistake is omitting a residuary clause, the catch-all provision that directs where everything not specifically mentioned goes. Without one, any unlisted assets pass through intestacy, and the state decides who gets them regardless of what the rest of the will says.

Electronic Wills

Arizona is one of a handful of states that recognize electronic wills, a framework that took effect June 30, 2019. An electronic will must be created and maintained as a readable electronic record and must include a copy of your current government-issued photo ID.⁵

At least two witnesses must electronically sign. They can be physically present with you or electronically present through a live audio-video connection, but a witness who participates electronically must be physically located within the United States at the time of signing.⁵ Every signature, yours and each witness’s, must include a date.

Electronic wills also need a qualified custodian who is not related to you or to any beneficiary, and who uses a storage system that protects against destruction, alteration, and unauthorized access.⁶ The custodian also has to store an audio and video recording of the signing ceremony.

Make It Self-Proving

A self-proving affidavit is a notarized statement attached to your will in which you and your witnesses swear under oath that everything was properly signed and that you were of sound mind. It is optional, but it makes probate significantly smoother because the court can accept the will without tracking down witnesses to testify years later.⁷

You can add it when you sign the will or any time afterward, as long as the testator and the original witnesses all appear before a notary or another officer authorized to administer oaths.⁷ Because a self-proving affidavit also cures the interested-witness restriction, there is little reason to skip it.

Separate Lists for Personal Belongings

Arizona lets you create a separate written list directing who should receive specific personal items like furniture, jewelry, or family heirlooms, without rewriting your will each time you change your mind.⁸ Your will must reference the list, but the list itself can be created before or after the will is signed and can be updated at any time. It must be in your handwriting or signed by you, and it must describe both the items and the recipients clearly.

This tool only works for tangible personal property other than money. You cannot use it to transfer real estate, bank accounts, or investment holdings.

Changing or Revoking a Will

You can revoke a will in two ways. Execute a new will that expressly revokes the prior one or contradicts it, or physically destroy the will (burning, tearing, or obliterating it) with the intent to revoke. Someone else can destroy it on your behalf only if they do so in your presence and at your direction.⁹

Drafting a new will without expressly revoking the old one creates problems. If the new will disposes of your entire estate, courts presume you meant to replace the old one. If the new will only covers part of your estate, courts presume you meant to supplement it, revoking only conflicting provisions.⁹ Either presumption can be rebutted with clear and convincing evidence, but relying on presumptions is a gamble. Include a sentence in the new will stating that it revokes all prior wills and codicils.

Divorce

If you divorce after creating a will, Arizona automatically revokes every provision that benefits your former spouse, including property distributions, powers of appointment, and nominations for your ex-spouse to serve as executor or trustee. The law also revokes provisions benefiting your ex-spouse’s relatives.¹⁰ The will is read as though your former spouse and their relatives disclaimed those gifts.

Three exceptions override this automatic revocation: the will’s own language can preserve the ex-spouse’s benefits, a court order can do the same, or a contract between the spouses regarding the marital estate can keep the provisions alive.¹⁰ If you remarry the same person, the revoked provisions come back to life. Better to update the will yourself than to rely on automatic revocation.

What Happens If You Die Without a Will

Without a valid will, your estate passes through intestacy in a rigid statutory order.

If you have a surviving spouse and all of your children are also children of that spouse (or you have no children at all), your spouse inherits everything, both your separate property and your half of community property. If you have children from a different relationship, your spouse receives only half of your separate property and none of the community property half that belonged to you.¹¹ The rest goes to your descendants.

With no surviving spouse, the entire estate passes to your descendants. If none exist, it goes to your parents. If your parents have died, it passes to their descendants (your siblings, nieces, and nephews), and if there are none, out to grandparents and their descendants.¹² A friend, charity, or stepchild receives nothing under intestacy. Only a will can put them in line.

Contests, Deadlines, and No-Contest Clauses

Arizona permits will contests on grounds including undue influence, fraud, improper execution, and lack of mental capacity. The challenger carries the burden of proof in every case. Undue influence claims usually turn on a power imbalance: whether the testator was vulnerable due to age, illness, or isolation, whether the alleged influencer had access and opportunity, and whether the will changed suddenly to favor them. Fraud claims involve deception about the will’s contents or about facts that induced the signing. A court can invalidate the tainted provisions or the whole will.

Some wills include a no-contest clause (sometimes called an in terrorem clause) that disinherits anyone who challenges the will. Arizona enforces these clauses with one important limit: the penalty is unenforceable if the person who filed the challenge had probable cause to do so.¹³ The clause deters frivolous contests but cannot punish an evidence-based challenge.

Deadlines are tight. During informal probate, interested parties generally have four months from the opening of probate to file an objection seeking formal proceedings. After probate closes, the window to reopen is limited to one year from closing or two years from the date of death, whichever comes first. Once these deadlines pass, courts rarely revisit the will’s validity.

When You Can Skip Probate: Small Estate Affidavits

Not every estate needs full probate. Heirs can collect personal property using a small estate affidavit if the total value of the decedent’s personal property, minus debts and liens, does not exceed $200,000. You must wait at least 30 days after the death, and no probate case can be pending or previously opened (unless the personal representative has been discharged or more than a year has passed since closing).¹⁴

For real property, a separate affidavit is available if the net value of the decedent’s Arizona real estate does not exceed $300,000, based on the county assessor’s full cash value in the year of death. This affidavit is filed with the Superior Court, and the waiting period is six months after the death.¹⁴ These thresholds were increased by House Bill 2116, effective September 26, 2025, a substantial jump from the previous limits.

Estate Taxes

Arizona does not impose a state-level estate or inheritance tax. Federal estate tax may still apply if your total estate exceeds the federal exemption. For 2026, that exemption is $15 million per person, set by the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act signed into law in July 2025. Married couples can effectively double this through portability, meaning the surviving spouse can use any unused portion of the first spouse’s exemption. Estates above the threshold face a top federal rate of 40%. The annual gift tax exclusion for 2026 is $19,000 per recipient, or $38,000 for married couples giving jointly.¹⁵

1
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-2501 – Who May Make a Will
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Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-2502 – Execution of Paper Wills; Witnessed Wills; Holographic Wills; Testamentary Intent
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Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-2505 – Witnesses; Requirements; Definition
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Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-2503 – Holographic Will
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Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-2518 – Electronic Will; Requirements; Interpretation
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Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-2520 – Qualified Custodian
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Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-2504 – Self-Proved Wills; Sample Form; Signature Requirements
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Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-2513 – References to Separate Lists; Requirements
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Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-2507 – Revocation of Will; Requirements
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Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-2804 – Termination of Marriage; Effect; Revocation of Probate and Nonprobate Transfers; Federal Law; Definitions
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Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-2102 – Intestate Share of Surviving Spouse
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Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-2103 – Heirs Other Than Surviving Spouse; Share in Estate
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Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-2517 – Penalty Clause for Contest; Restriction
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Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-3971 – Collection of Personal Property by Affidavit
15
Internal Revenue Service. What’s New – Estate and Gift Tax