Will requirements in Arizona

Arizona requires you to be 18 and of sound mind. The capacity test is applied as at the date of signing and asks whether you understood the nature of the act, roughly what you owned, and who your natural heirs were.

No Arizona will needs a notary to be valid. The self-proving affidavit is the reason to use one — it lets the will be admitted to probate without your witnesses being located and asked to testify.

Arizona was an early adopter of electronic wills under section 14-2519, with its own requirements around electronic signatures and a qualified custodian to hold the document. This is a distinct execution route rather than a scanned paper will, and the law in this area is moving quickly, so confirm the current procedure before executing electronically.

Arizona accepts holographic wills where the signature and material provisions are in your handwriting. No witnesses are required, and the document does not need to be entirely handwritten — printed material can appear around handwritten dispositive provisions.

The usual caution applies. A holographic will has to be proved as genuinely yours after death, and handwritten wills tend to be less precise than drafted ones, which is exactly what produces litigation between beneficiaries.

Arizona's small-estate structure is genuinely two-track: personal property is collected by affidavit under one limit, and real property is transferred under a separate and higher limit, each with its own waiting period.

This is why aggregated figures mislead. Some sources add the two together and quote a single combined number, which does not reflect how the procedures actually work — an estate can qualify to transfer real property while its personal property exceeds the other limit. Confirm both current figures with the superior court in the relevant county rather than relying on a combined total.

Arizona is one of nine community property states. Property acquired during a marriage is generally community property owned equally by both spouses, while property owned before the marriage or received by gift or inheritance is usually separate.

Your will disposes of your separate property and your one-half interest in the community property. It cannot give away your spouse's half. Couples who moved to Arizona from a common law state should be aware that characterisation of assets acquired elsewhere is its own question, and one worth resolving before drafting.

Arizona provides a statutory health-care power of attorney and living will, letting you appoint someone to make medical decisions and record your treatment preferences. Arizona also has a mental health care power of attorney, which is a separate document addressing psychiatric treatment specifically.

A statutory financial power of attorney covers money and property. Arizona requires specific execution formalities for it, including a witness and a notary, so it is not a document to sign casually.