Arizona Probate With No Will or Trust: Who Inherits?

When an Arizona resident dies without a valid will, the law calls it dying "intestate." The state's intestate succession statutes then decide who inherits the deceased person's probate assets. Those statutes reflect what the legislature thinks most people would want, but they often produce results families do not expect, especially in blended families.

This article answers eight common questions about Arizona inheritance without a will, including the rights of a surviving spouse, children from a prior marriage, unmarried and childless decedents, stepchildren, and heirs who cannot be found.

Questions Answered in This Article

• What happens when someone dies without a will in Arizona?
• Who inherits property when a person dies without a will in Arizona?
• Does a surviving spouse inherit everything in Arizona?
• What happens if a deceased person leaves children from a previous marriage?
• Who inherits when an unmarried person dies without a will?
• What happens if a person dies without a spouse or children?
• Can stepchildren inherit when a stepparent dies without a will?
• What happens if an heir cannot be located?

How Arizona Intestate Succession Works

What happens when someone dies without a will in Arizona?

Three things happen when an Arizona resident dies without a will.

First, Arizona law writes the will for them. The intestate succession statutes in A.R.S. §14-2101 through A.R.S. §14-2114 decide who receives the probate estate. Nonprobate assets are not affected; life insurance, retirement accounts, POD accounts, survivorship property, beneficiary deed property and trust assets still go to the named beneficiaries or survivors.

Second, the law chooses who can serve as personal representative. Without a will naming someone, the surviving spouse has priority, followed by other heirs (A.R.S. §14-3203). When several adult children share priority, they must agree on who will serve or go to court.

Third, the family may lose some flexibility and incur extra cost. There is no will to waive bond, so the heirs must sign waivers or the personal representative must buy a bond (A.R.S. §14-3603). There are no special instructions for minors, so a minor's inheritance may require a court-supervised conservatorship. And there is no one to fix results the deceased person would not have wanted, such as an estranged relative inheriting.

Whether a probate is required at all still depends on what the decedent owned. Dying without a will does not by itself require probate; it only changes who inherits the assets that pass through probate or small estate affidavits.

Who inherits property when a person dies without a will in Arizona?

Arizona's order of inheritance is:

• Surviving spouse. The spouse takes all or part of the estate under A.R.S. §14-2102, depending on whether the decedent had children from outside the marriage.
• Descendants. Whatever the spouse does not take, or the entire estate if there is no spouse, passes to the decedent's descendants by representation (A.R.S. §14-2103). Children share equally, and the share of a child who died first passes to that child's descendants.
• Parents. If there are no descendants, the estate goes to the decedent's parents equally, or to the surviving parent.
• Siblings and their descendants. If there are no descendants or parents, the estate passes to the descendants of the decedent's parents, meaning brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews, by representation.
• Grandparents and their descendants. If none of the above survive, half passes to the paternal grandparents (or their descendants, such as aunts, uncles and cousins) and half to the maternal side. If one side has no survivors, the other side takes it all.
• The State of Arizona. If no one in these categories survives, the estate passes to the state (A.R.S. §14-2105).

Other rules affect the result:

• An heir must survive the decedent by at least 120 hours to inherit (A.R.S. §14-2104).
• Half-blood relatives inherit the same as whole-blood relatives (A.R.S. §14-2107).
• Adopted children inherit from their adoptive parents as if born to them (A.R.S. §14-2114).
• A child conceived before but born after the death can inherit (A.R.S. §14-2108).
• Someone who feloniously and intentionally kills the decedent cannot inherit (A.R.S. §14-2803).
• Lifetime gifts are not counted against an heir's share unless documented as an advancement (A.R.S. §14-2109).

Spouses, Blended Families and Unmarried Decedents

Does a surviving spouse inherit everything in Arizona?

Often, but not always. Under A.R.S. §14-2102, the surviving spouse inherits the entire intestate estate (both the decedent's separate property and the decedent's one-half of the community property) if:

• The decedent left no descendants, or
• All of the decedent's surviving descendants are also descendants of the surviving spouse.

That covers the common situation of a first marriage where all the children belong to both spouses.

If the decedent had at least one descendant who is not a descendant of the surviving spouse, such as a child from a prior marriage or relationship, the surviving spouse receives only:

• One-half of the decedent's intestate separate property, and
• No interest in the decedent's one-half of the community property.

The decedent's descendants take the rest.

Remember that in Arizona each spouse already owns one-half of the couple's community property. The surviving spouse keeps his or her own half no matter what. The intestacy rules decide only what happens to the deceased spouse's half and the deceased spouse's separate property.

The surviving spouse may also be entitled to the homestead allowance ($18,000), exempt property (up to $7,000) and a family allowance, which come ahead of most creditors (A.R.S. §14-2402, A.R.S. §14-2403, A.R.S. §14-2404). Assets held as community property with right of survivorship or joint tenancy, and accounts naming the spouse as beneficiary, go to the spouse regardless of the intestacy rules.

What happens if a deceased person leaves children from a previous marriage?

This is where Arizona's intestacy rules surprise people the most. If a married person dies without a will and leaves a child from a previous marriage or relationship, A.R.S. §14-2102 gives the surviving spouse only one-half of the decedent's separate property and none of the decedent's half of the community property. All of the decedent's children, including those from the current marriage, share the remainder by representation.

Consider a husband who dies without a will, leaving his second wife, one adult son from his first marriage, and two children with his second wife. The couple's house is community property titled without survivorship language. The wife already owns half of the house. The husband's half does not go to her; it goes to his three children equally. The wife and her stepson are now co-owners of the house, and if the stepson wants to sell, the result can be a dispute or a forced sale.

Additional consequences in blended families:

• Minor children's shares may require a conservatorship until each child turns 18.
• The surviving spouse may not be able to serve as personal representative without the children's agreement if an heir objects in a formal proceeding (A.R.S. §14-3203(B)).
• Stepchildren of the decedent do not inherit, even if the decedent raised them.

Blended families are the strongest case for a written estate plan. A revocable living trust can protect a surviving spouse for life and still guarantee that the children from the first marriage inherit at the second death.

Who inherits when an unmarried person dies without a will?

When an unmarried person dies without a will, there is no spouse's share to calculate. The entire intestate estate passes under A.R.S. §14-2103:

• To the decedent's descendants (children, and the descendants of any child who died first) by representation.
• If there are no descendants, to the parents equally, or all to the surviving parent.
• If there are no descendants or parents, to the descendants of the parents, meaning siblings, with a deceased sibling's share going to that sibling's children.
• If none of those survive, to grandparents and their descendants, half on each side of the family.
• If no relative in any of these categories survives, to the State of Arizona (A.R.S. §14-2105).

Unmarried partners deserve special mention. Arizona does not recognize common-law marriage created in Arizona, and an unmarried partner, no matter how long the relationship, is not an heir. Without a will, trust, beneficiary designation or survivorship titling, a surviving partner inherits nothing from the probate estate and has no priority to serve as personal representative. A divorced former spouse is also not an heir (A.R.S. §14-2802).

An unmarried person who wants a partner, friend, stepchild or charity to inherit must put that in a will or trust.

What happens if a person dies without a spouse or children?

If the decedent left no surviving spouse and no descendants, the estate goes up and out through the family tree under A.R.S. §14-2103:

• Parents first. Both surviving parents share equally. If only one parent survives, that parent takes everything.
• Then siblings. If neither parent survives, the estate passes to the descendants of the parents by representation, meaning the decedent's brothers and sisters share equally, and a sibling who died first is represented by his or her children (the decedent's nieces and nephews). Half-siblings inherit the same as full siblings (A.R.S. §14-2107).
• Then grandparents' lines. If there are no parents or descendants of parents, half of the estate goes to the paternal grandparents or their descendants (aunts, uncles and cousins on the father's side), and half goes to the maternal side in the same way.
• Finally, the state. If no grandparent or descendant of a grandparent survives on either side, the estate passes to the State of Arizona (A.R.S. §14-2105).

Arizona law does not go further out to more remote relatives such as great-grandparents' descendants.

These estates frequently involve many heirs scattered across the country, some unknown to each other. Identifying and documenting every heir, and getting several equal-priority heirs to agree on a personal representative, often adds time and cost. When there is real doubt about who the heirs are, a formal proceeding to determine heirs may be needed.

Stepchildren and Missing Heirs

Can stepchildren inherit when a stepparent dies without a will?

Generally, no. Arizona's intestate succession statute, A.R.S. §14-2103, lists descendants, parents, descendants of parents, and grandparents and their descendants. Stepchildren are not on the list, and stepchildren are not the decedent's descendants. A stepchild who was never legally adopted by the stepparent receives nothing from the stepparent's probate estate when the stepparent dies without a will, even after decades of being raised as the stepparent's own child.

There are a few ways a stepchild still ends up receiving property:

• Adoption. A stepchild legally adopted by the stepparent is the stepparent's child for inheritance purposes (A.R.S. §14-2114). Arizona also permits adult adoption (A.R.S. §14-8101).
• Through the stepchild's own parent. If the stepparent's property passes to the stepchild's parent (the surviving spouse), the stepchild may later inherit it from that parent.
• Nonprobate designations. If the stepparent named the stepchild as a beneficiary of life insurance, a retirement account, a POD account, a vehicle title or a beneficiary deed, the stepchild receives that asset.
• A will or trust. The surest way for a stepparent to provide for stepchildren is to name them in a will or trust.

If you are a stepparent who wants to treat stepchildren the same as your own children, write it down. Arizona law will not do it for you.

What happens if an heir cannot be located?

The personal representative has a duty to make a diligent effort to identify and find every heir. Notice of the appointment must be mailed to each heir and devisee whose address is reasonably available within 30 days of appointment (A.R.S. §14-3705), and an heir cannot be cut out simply because he or she is hard to find.

Common steps include searching public records, social media, obituaries and old family papers, asking relatives, and, in harder cases, hiring a professional heir search firm. If a search turns up nothing, several options exist:

• Formal proceeding. The personal representative can ask the court to approve the search, determine the heirs, and give instructions. Notice to unknown or unlocatable persons can be given by publication under A.R.S. §14-1401.
• Hold the share. The personal representative can keep the missing heir's share in the estate account while the search continues.
• Unclaimed property. If the heir still cannot be found when the estate is ready to close, Arizona's unclaimed asset statute, A.R.S. §14-3914, provides for the missing heir's share to be turned over for safekeeping under the state's unclaimed property laws, where the heir can claim it later. The personal representative is then relieved of responsibility for that share.
• Survival rule. If evidence shows the heir did not survive the decedent by 120 hours, the heir does not inherit, and the share passes as if he or she predeceased (A.R.S. §14-2104). If the heir died after the decedent, the share passes to the heir's own estate.

Missing heir situations add time to a probate and usually justify hiring a probate attorney to protect the personal representative from later claims.

Hire an Arizona Probate Attorney for a Flat Fee

Arizona probate attorney and former CPA Richard C. Keyt represents personal representatives in uncontested informal Arizona probates in every Arizona county for a $5,000 flat fee. The estate ultimately pays the fee, not the family members personally. Ricky has practiced law with his father, Richard Keyt, since 2012, and he handles the court filings, notices, creditor deadlines, inventory and closing documents so the personal representative can settle the estate without guessing.

To hire Richard C. Keyt, complete our Arizona Probate Questionnaire. If you have questions first, call Ricky at 480-664-7472, email him at rck@keytlaw.com, or book a free office, phone or Zoom video consultation.

To learn more, see our Arizona probate articles and Arizona probate FAQs.

Keep Your Own Family Out of Probate

Probate is what happens to families when someone dies without the right plan. Arizona estate planning attorney Richard Keyt has practiced Arizona law since 1979 and prepares custom estate plans built around a revocable living trust, which lets your family skip Superior Court probate entirely. The flat fee is $3,497 for one person and $4,497 for a married couple or life partners. See the 36 documents and services we provide.

To get started, complete our Arizona Estate Plan Questionnaire, call Richard Keyt at 480-664-7478 or email rk@keytlaw.com. See more of our Arizona Wills, Trusts & Estate Planning Articles.

This article provides general information about Arizona probate law as of October 2026. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Statutes, court fees and procedures change, and every estate is different. Talk with an Arizona probate attorney about your specific situation.