Is a trust better than a will in Arizona? It depends on what you want to set up your estate to do.
Arizona has a very aggressive probate system. What I mean by that is the system itself – The courthouse, the court-acquainted attorneys, the Guardians Ad Litem, and all of the professionals that run the probate system in Arizona are aggressive. They don’t want to let things go without having some core oversight and protection.
This is one of the stories that first motivated me to be pretty aggressive in my defense against those people. There was an elderly guy, single. He was kind of estranged from his family but was just living his happy retirement life in Mesa.
He lived a pretty simple life in a manufactured home, but it was in a golf community. He literally went golfing every day, and went down to the club for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner. He was just happy, kind of living the dream. THE dream retirement. He wasn’t wealthy, he didn’t have millions of dollars. He was really just trying to live his own private life in the comfort of his own home.
In Arizona, banks are mandatory reporters, and you might think that you’ve heard something like that before. That’s the same kind of words used in schools, elementary schools, and preschools for teachers. If a kid comes to school and a teacher sees a bruise or some other type of physical-looking injury, the teacher is required to report that to Child Protective Services. They’re mandatory reporters.
Banks are the same thing when it comes to elder abuse. So, if a bank sees a transaction and they think – oh, that’s unusual, the customer doesn’t normally do that, they have to report it, guess to who, guess where it gets reported to – the probate system.
So anyway, this guy, he’s getting on in his years. He’s like, “I’m never going to spend the little bit of money I have.” He’s got a pension, he’s got like no bills, and he’s got a few hundred thousand dollars in savings. This one awesome gal becomes his friend and has just been super helpful over the course of many years. He’s like, “I want to help you. Here’s some money to buy a new car for your family.” He’s just doing what he wants to do.
Ding! Triggers the mandatory reporting in the bank. The bank reports it to the probate system. The probate system, in secret, goes and gets court orders to freeze all of his assets. Finally, when he finds out, he contests this whole thing in court. The judge basically says, “On an emergency basis, I’m going to freeze your assets. You can prove your case when it comes to trial.” Then schedules this thing out over a six and nine-month process for him to prove his case.
During that time period, the probate system is in charge of his money, the probate system is sending people to observe him and supervise him in his own house. It just gets hideous, and his life basically is destroyed.
The poor guy, nine months later, dies before this all gets resolved. His money is still in control of the probate system at that time. The court finally released everything after they charged about $100,000 in fees to protect him. Then, the beneficiaries get the rest. It was insane.
This guy is what motivated me to really aggressively defend my clients. So is a trust better than a will in Arizona? I think it’s way better. A will doesn’t do anything to protect you while you’re alive. It basically just says, here’s my stuff after I’m dead. It has to go through that probate system.
Whereas a trust, you can make it private, you can lock it down, and you can say, nope, this is who gets my stuff. While I’m alive, nobody’s allowed to touch it. Here are the rules that I set in place. So far, our clients have had 100% of their plans go through as expected.
None of them have gotten dragged into that probate system. You ought to consider doing a trust in Arizona. It’s just the better way to protect yourself and your family.
Summary
In Arizona, the choice between a trust and a will depends on your estate goals. Arizona’s aggressive probate system can pose challenges. A poignant example involved an elderly man enjoying his retirement. A kind gesture triggered bank reporting, leading to a frozen asset ordeal by the probate system. Such cases highlight the importance of trusts in Arizona for privacy and asset protection while alive, preventing probate system involvement.
