Who Inherits If There Is No Will in Arizona

Who inherits with no will in arizona is a question thousands of families ask every year, often in the first hard weeks after a death. The short answer is that Arizona law writes a will for you. When someone dies without a valid will, the state’s intestate succession statutes — found in Arizona Revised Statutes Title 14, Chapter 2 — decide who gets what.

Those rules do not care who was closest to the person, who helped with caregiving, or what anyone promised out loud. They follow a fixed family ladder. Arizona is also a community property state, which changes the math in ways that surprise many spouses. This guide walks through the rules in plain English, with the actual statute sections and dollar figures, so you know where you stand.

What “intestate” actually means in Arizona

“Intestate” simply means dying without a valid will. “Probate” is the court process that transfers what a person owned into the names of the people entitled to it. A “personal representative” is the person the court appoints to handle that job — other states call this role an executor. In an intestate case, there is no will naming anyone, so the court appoints someone based on priority in A.R.S. § 14-3203, usually the surviving spouse or an adult child.

One rule catches people off guard. Under A.R.S. § 14-2104, an heir must outlive the decedent by at least 120 hours — five full days — or the law treats that heir as having died first. For example, if a husband dies Monday and his wife dies Wednesday, she is generally treated as not surviving him, and his estate passes as if he had no spouse.

Probate does not control everything. Life insurance, retirement accounts, payable-on-death bank accounts, and property held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship pass by beneficiary designation or by title. As a result, some estates never need probate at all.

Who inherits with no will in arizona: the exact shares

Arizona splits property into two buckets. Community property is generally what a married couple earned or bought during the marriage. Separate property is what someone owned before marriage or received by gift or inheritance. A.R.S. § 14-2102 treats the two differently, which is the single biggest reason people misjudge who inherits with no will in arizona.

“By representation” under A.R.S. § 14-2106 means the estate is divided at the first generation with a living member, and a deceased child’s share drops down to that child’s own children. For example, if you had three children and one died before you leaving two kids, those two grandchildren split their parent’s one-third.

Note who is missing from that list. Unmarried partners inherit nothing under Arizona intestacy, no matter how long the relationship lasted. Stepchildren you never legally adopted also inherit nothing. In most cases, that is the harshest surprise in the entire question of who inherits with no will in arizona.

What to do next, step by step

Start by listing what the person owned and how each item was titled. Many families discover most assets pass outside probate. If probate is still needed, Arizona offers a genuine shortcut. Under A.R.S. § 14-3971, as amended by HB 2116 effective September 26, 2025, a small estate affidavit can transfer personal property worth up to $200,000 (net of liens) after 30 days, and real property with an assessed value up to $300,000 (net of liens) after six months. Those caps replaced the old $75,000 and $100,000 limits.

If the estate is larger, informal probate is usually the path. Filing fees generally run a few hundred dollars, and creditors get four months from published notice to make claims under A.R.S. § 14-3801. Do not wait too long:

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