What Is Estate Planning?

You can save your loved ones a lot of money and frustration by devising a plan for the management of your health care and property in the event you become severely disabled or pass away. An Arizona attorney who does estate planning can help you with:

• Advance health care directives that give instructions on how you want your health care managed if you become incapacitated and unable to speak for yourself
• Powers of attorney that appoint someone to manage your property and sign legal papers for you if you become severely incapacitated
• Wills and probate that transfer your property to selected beneficiaries upon your death
• Trusts that provide for the care of minors or disabled persons, minimize taxes or protect against creditors
• Strategies to avoid probate that transfer property at death - insurance, gifts, joint ownership of property, bank accounts
• Medicaid eligibility planning  

Advance Health Care Directives

Advance health care directives are written instructions that tell how you want your health care to be managed if you become so ill you can't speak for yourself. You can include one or more of the following documents:

• Durable Health Care Power of Attorney: You use this form to select someone, an agent, to make health care decisions if you can no longer make decisions for yourself.
• Durable Mental Health Care Power of Attorney: You can use this form to select someone, an agent, to make decisions about your metal health care if a licensed psychiatrist or psychologist finds you aren't capable of giving informed consent.
• Living Will: You use this form to give instructions about the health care you want to receive if you become terminally ill or are in a vegetative state.

These forms must be signed by you and a notary public or a witness. The witness must be at least 18 and can't be a relative, can't be someone who will inherit from you, can't be the person selected to be your health care agent, and can't be a health care giver. You can file these forms with the Arizona Secretary of State's Office, which maintains a secure Advance Directive Registry.

Powers of Attorney

In Arizona, you can sign a durable power of attorney to appoint someone to handle your assets if you become incapacitated. At a minimum, a power of attorney should include the power to:

• Manage and transfer all assets
• Deal with the IRS
• Make gifts on your behalf
• Create and amend any trusts you set up

You don't need to transfer any assets at the time you sign a power of attorney, but it's a good idea to keep the person you've chosen informed about your ongoing financial matters.

Making a Will

In Arizona, you can make a valid will if you are at least 18 years old and of sound mind. The will must be in writing and signed by you or by another at your direction and in your presence. It must be signed by at least two people that signed within a reasonable time after that person witnessed the signing of your will or your acknowledgment of your will.

In the will you can select a guardian for your minor children and designate a person, called an executor or personal representative, to manage the distribution of your property after your death. You can change your will by making a new will that replaces or revokes the old one or by making an addition to the will, called a codicil. Changes such as a marriage, divorce, birth or adoption of a child or new property ownership should cause you to review your will and consider whether it should be changed to fit your new situation

An Arizona lawyer who does estate planning can explain the consequences of some of the most basic choices you must make, such as whether property you want to leave to your minor children should be put into a trust at your death. It makes sense to consult with an Arizona estate planning lawyer and have him or her draft your will so you avoid costly mistakes and achieve your intended results.

Dying without a Will

If you die without a will (known as dying intestate) in Arizona, your assets will be divided amongst your immediate family. Your entire estate, consisting of your separate property and your half of the community property, passes to your spouse if you do not have children or you have children but they are also the children of your spouse. If you have children but not all of them are also your spouse's children, your spouse will receive one-half of your separate property and no interest in your half of the community property. Any part of your estate that does not pass to your spouse goes to your children, parents or siblings.

Related Resources on Lawyers.com^sm

- Contact an Estate Planning attorney in your area for specific advice, and read about Selecting a Good Estate Planning Lawyer
- Need a form? Access hundreds of Personal Legal Forms, including an Living Will, Power of Attorney and Last Will & Testament 
- Read Trust Basics, Gloria Allred Wills & Estate Planning Tips and other Estate Planning articles and information
- Legal Dictionary
- Visit the Legal Forums for discussions on Estates, Wills & Probate topics