What Happens in the First Two Weeks After a Death in Arizona?

By Anjali Patel, Estate Planning Attorney at Tyler Allen Law Firm in Phoenix, Arizona

When someone dies, families are often told to start making calls and handling paperwork immediately. In Arizona, the first two weeks are usually less about racing to open probate and more about protecting what is there. An informal appointment order generally cannot issue until 120 hours after death. In the meantime, the practical work is narrower: arrange disposition of the remains, order certified copies of the death certificate, find the original will, and secure the house, vehicles and accounts.

Families often come in during week one convinced they are already behind. Usually they are not. The real risk early on is not delay. It is moving money, selling property or paying bills before anyone has legal authority to do it.

What do you have to do in the first two weeks after someone dies in Arizona?

Start with the things that cannot wait. Arrange the funeral or other disposition, obtain certified copies of the death certificate, locate the original will, and secure the decedent's property. Arizona generally will not issue an informal appointment order until 120 hours have passed since death. That does not mean every probate step is barred during those five days, and it does not create a two-week filing deadline.

Who has the legal right to make funeral decisions

Arizona answers this by statute, not by family consensus. A.R.S. § 36-831 sets a priority order for the duty to bury or arrange disposition. The surviving spouse comes first, unless the couple was legally separated or a divorce petition was pending. Second is an agent under the decedent's most recent health care or durable power of attorney. That only counts if the document specifically grants authority over the remains. After that the order runs to adult children, then a parent, then an adult sibling, then an adult grandchild, then a grandparent.

That second position matters more than people realize. A power of attorney silent on remains does not put the agent ahead of the family. It is worth checking how your powers of attorney were drafted and executed rather than assuming the document covers everything.

If several people share the same priority, the statute does provide a rule. Any one of them may act unless that person knows someone else in the same category objects. If there is an objection, a majority of the reasonably available people in that category makes the decision. A funeral home may still pause when the family conflict is unclear, so this is the kind of disagreement that should be addressed quickly.

The death certificate is the document everything else runs on

The funeral home or crematory ordinarily files the death record electronically. Certified copies come from the Arizona Department of Health Services Bureau of Vital Records or a county office. Order more than you think you need. Five to ten is a reasonable start. Banks, life insurers, retirement plan administrators, the Social Security Administration, county recorders and title companies each want their own copy, and several will not give it back.

Many of the next steps depend on one. Banks, insurers, retirement plans, the Motor Vehicle Division and title companies commonly require a certified copy before they will release information or transfer an asset. This is one of the few administrative errands that is genuinely useful in week one.

What to do with the original will

If you are holding the original will, Arizona imposes a duty on you. Under A.R.S. § 14-2516, after the death and on request of an interested person, the custodian must deliver it with reasonable promptness to someone able to secure its probate. If no such person is known, it goes to the court. There is no fixed number of days, but there are consequences. Willful failure to deliver creates liability to anyone harmed by it. Willful refusal after a court order is contempt.

Find the original, not just a photocopy. A copy may still be usable in some circumstances, but it can create an avoidable evidentiary issue. Check the home safe, filing cabinet, safe deposit box and the drafting attorney's office. If the decedent had a trust, the successor trustee may be able to administer assets that were actually placed in the trust without a probate appointment. That does not mean every asset automatically avoids probate. Funding matters. That is one of the practical differences between a trust-based plan and a will-based plan.

Does probate have to be started right away in Arizona?

No. Arizona prevents you from starting immediately. Under A.R.S. § 14-3307, the registrar may not issue an informal appointment order until at least 120 hours have elapsed since the death. For a decedent who was not an Arizona resident, the delay is thirty days. That longer delay does not apply if the personal representative appointed at the decedent's domicile is the applicant, or if the will directs that Arizona law apply.

There is a deadline at the other end. A.R.S. § 14-3108 sets a two-year outer limit on commencing probate, testacy and appointment proceedings, subject to several exceptions. One exception allows a late proceeding where no court proceeding concerning the estate occurred within those two years. A personal representative appointed that way has sharply limited authority. The role is essentially to confirm title in the rightful successors rather than administer the estate.

So there is no general two-week probate deadline. The two-year limit is the one families should know about, although the statute contains specific exceptions and late proceedings can be sharply limited. Families who put the file in a drawer sometimes find that out the hard way. Most of the recurring problems we see in Maricopa County come from drift rather than haste, which is a theme in the probate traps that catch Arizona families most often.

Many Arizona estates never need probate at all

Check this before anyone pays a filing fee. A.R.S. § 14-3971 allows a small estate affidavit, and House Bill 2116 raised both thresholds for affidavits filed on or after September 26, 2025. Personal property now qualifies at $200,000 or less, up from $75,000, measured net of liens. That affidavit can be used thirty days after death. Real property qualifies at $300,000 or less of equity, up from $100,000. That one cannot be filed until six months after death, in the superior court of the county where the property sits.

Those numbers may cover many Arizona estates, but the calculation is not always intuitive. For real property, the statute uses the decedent's interest after liens and applies specific valuation and filing rules. If the estate is anywhere near the line, read the current requirements in full before relying on the affidavit process. We wrote about the 2025 increase to the small estate limits when the change went through the legislature.

Assets with a named beneficiary are a separate question again. Retirement accounts, life insurance, payable-on-death accounts and jointly held real estate generally pass outside probate regardless of what the will says. A beneficiary form that nobody updated causes more trouble after a death than almost anything else.

What matters most in the first two weeks after a death in Arizona

Secure the property. Lock the house, collect the keys, park the vehicles somewhere safe and keep insurance in force. Redirect the mail so statements stop piling up at an empty address. Keep every receipt for funeral and administration expenses. Those are reimbursable from the estate later, and nearly impossible to reconstruct from memory.

Then slow down. Do not distribute property, sell the car, pay unsecured creditors from your own funds, or close joint accounts just because someone is asking. A family member does not usually become personally responsible for a decedent's credit card bill merely because the bill arrived. The estate has a creditor process for a reason, and authority over an account or asset should be confirmed before anyone moves it.

The surviving spouse's statutory allowances

Arizona gives a surviving spouse two small protections that come off the top. A.R.S. § 14-2402 provides a homestead allowance of $18,000. A.R.S. § 14-2403 lets the spouse take household furniture, automobiles, furnishings, appliances and personal effects worth up to $7,000 over any security interests. Both have priority over claims against the estate except administration expenses. Both are charged against whatever the spouse otherwise receives, unless the will provides otherwise. If there is no surviving spouse, the decedent's minor and dependent children share these amounts.

These will not fund a household. They exist so a creditor cannot strip a surviving spouse of the furniture and the car while the estate is still open.

If you need help with your situation in Arizona, you can book a consultation directly here.