{"id":204,"date":"2016-03-18T00:31:01","date_gmt":"2016-03-18T00:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/articles\/?p=204"},"modified":"2024-04-25T23:21:32","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T03:21:32","slug":"arizona-beneficiary-deeds-and-the-right-of-survivorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/articles\/arizona-beneficiary-deeds-and-the-right-of-survivorship\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona Beneficiary Deeds and the Right of Survivorship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Arizona\u2019s beneficiary deeds are governed by A.R.S. \u00a7 33-405.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/forms\/arizona\/beneficiary-deed\/\">Beneficiary deeds<\/a> are estate planning instruments that allow owners of Arizona real estate to retain absolute control over their property, with the freedom to use, modify, or sell the land at will. When lawfully executed and recorded, beneficiary deeds convey a potential future \u201cinterest in real property, including any debt secured by a lien on real property, to a grantee beneficiary designated by the owner and that expressly states that the deed is effective on the death of the owner transfers the interest to the designated grantee beneficiary effective on the death of the owner,\u201d subject to all the owner\u2019s related obligations (\u00a7 33-405(A)).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The titleholder may also change the beneficiary or revoke the deed (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/forms\/arizona\/revocation-of-beneficiary-deed\/\">Revocation of Beneficiary Deed Form<\/a>) without any obligation to notify the beneficiary because the transfer of the remaining property rights is not finalized until the recipient records the appropriate documentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For simplicity, much of the language relating to beneficiary\ndeeds refers to a single owner. If two or more people share rights to the\nproperty, things get a little bit more complicated. In general, Arizona allows multiple\nindividuals to hold title in one of three ways: tenancy in common, joint\ntenancy, and community property (\u00a7 33-431). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to \u00a7 33-431(A), Arizona presumes tenancy in common\nfor two or more owners (who are not married to each other) unless otherwise\nspecified in the deed. Tenancy in common is the simplest form of co-ownership\nbecause each individual owns a separate portion of the title, which they may\nsell without consent from the others. In effect, tenants in common are a group\nof single owners, which means they may include their share in a will, and\ntherefore, in a beneficiary deed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Under \u00a7 33-431(B), a \u201cgrant or devise to two or more persons\nmay by express words vest the estate in the survivor on the death of a grantee\nor devisee when expressly declared in the grant, transfer or devise to be a\njoint tenancy with right of survivorship.\u201d Joint tenants share full ownership\nwith each other, and the right of survivorship means that when one owner dies,\nhis\/her portion of the rights gets distributed to the remaining owners\n(survivors). As a result, individual owners should not include this property in\na will or a beneficiary deed unless they\u2019re the only one still living. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Community property is the third main form of real property\nco-ownership in Arizona, and is only available to a married couple. To qualify\nas community property, the couple must acquire the real estate during their\nmarriage and clearly state their intention to vest as community property with right\nof survivorship. For our purposes, it makes sense to view this type of vesting as\na form of joint tenancy, but be aware that it is an incomplete definition. See\n\u00a7 33-431(C) for more information, or discuss community property in greater\ndetail with a legal professional. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, is it possible to use a beneficiary deed for jointly-held real estate? The short answer is yes. As explained in \u00a7 33-405(D), \u201ca deed that conveys an interest in the real property to a grantee beneficiary designated by all of the then surviving owners and that expressly states that the deed is effective on the death of the last surviving owner transfers the interest to the designated grantee beneficiary effective on the death of the last surviving owner.\u201d So, in this instance, if all joint owners agree to the future transfer and sign the deed,the beneficiary will gain the title when the last of them dies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The same statute goes on to say that if a beneficiary deed\nis executed by \u201cfewer than all of the owners of real property owned as joint\ntenants with right of survivorship or community property with right of\nsurvivorship, the beneficiary deed is valid if the last surviving owner is one\nof the persons who executes the beneficiary deed. If the last surviving owner\ndid not execute the beneficiary deed, the transfer shall lapse and the deed is\nvoid.\u201d Here is where things start getting tricky, because \u201cthe rights of\na surviving joint tenant or a surviving spouse of an estate held in community\nproperty prevail\nover a grantee beneficiary named in a beneficiary deed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These rules also apply to revoking a recorded beneficiary deed. Under \u00a7 33-405(F), if the real property is \u201cowned as joint tenants with right of survivorship or community property with right of survivorship and if the revocation is not executed by all the owners, the revocation is not effective unless executed by the last surviving owner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/forms\/arizona\/\">View All Available Arizona Real Estate Deed Forms<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each case is unique, and this information may not apply in\nevery situation. Contact an attorney with specific questions or for complex situations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arizona\u2019s beneficiary deeds are governed by A.R.S. \u00a7 33-405. Beneficiary deeds are estate planning instruments that allow owners of Arizona real estate to retain absolute control over their property, with the freedom to use, modify, or sell the land at will. When lawfully executed and recorded, beneficiary deeds convey a potential future \u201cinterest in real [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arizona"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Arizona Beneficiary Deeds and the Right of Survivorship - Deeds.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Beneficiary deeds are estate planning instruments that allow owners of Arizona real estate to retain absolute control over their property, with the freedom to use, modify, or sell the land at will.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/articles\/arizona-beneficiary-deeds-and-the-right-of-survivorship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Arizona Beneficiary Deeds and the Right of Survivorship - 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