Arizona probate court is used to deal with estate administration after the estate owner’s death. Probate court is used to deal both with estates that have a will and estates without a will. Arizona probate court is required in cases where the title to an asset or property needs to be signed over to a beneficiary. For example, a title to a vehicle may need to be transferred to a beneficiary.

After a person has passed away they are unable to sign the title over to the beneficiary, so a person is appointed by the Arizona probate court as a designated a “personal representative” or “executor”. The personal representative must have written proof that he or she was appointed to the position by the estate owner. After this has been proven in Arizona probate court, the personal representative would then issue a deed of distribution for the asset to the beneficiary. The deed of distribution would be recorded in probate court along with other proceeding details.

Arizona probate court can be avoided in many cases. Arizona probate court is only used for property that is deemed “probatable” and falls outside of the other legal methods of transferring property in Arizona.  For assets that are worth less than $50,000, the property can be collected by an affidavit outside of Arizona probate court, only in cases where it is legally clear who the beneficiary is supposed to be.

There are a number of other types of property that can avoid probate court including joint ownership property with right of survivorship, community property (which is commonly used to transfer real estate property for married couples after one person’s death), property that is controlled by a trust, payable on death bank accounts and securities, insurance policies with beneficiaries, payable on death IRAs and annuities, and some other types of property.

Arizona probate court may end up being costly and can be avoided with a living trust, payable on death designations for certain assets, and other methods. With Arizona probate court usually taking about 6 months (assuming there are no disputes among beneficiaries) and being a costly way to settle an estate, it can and should be avoided for as many assets of an estate as possible.

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