Arizona Beneficiary Deed

An Arizona beneficiary deed runs against a death, and the statute names two of them. Section 33-405(A) sets the transfer at the death of the owner. Subsection D sets it at the death of the last surviving owner where title is held with a right of survivorship. Which one governs a parcel is settled by the vesting already sitting in the county records, and this base Arizona form is built on that fact.

Two statutory triggers, printed as one sentence

The conveyance paragraph carries a single fixed sentence stating both. It conveys the described property to the named grantee beneficiaries effective on my (our) death, that is, on the death of the owner or, where the property is held by the owners as joint tenants with right of survivorship or as community property with right of survivorship, on the death of the last surviving owner. Nothing on the page asks which clause applies; the record answers that. Subsection A requires the deed to state expressly that it is effective on the death of the owner. Subsection D requires an express statement for survivorship property, and adds that where fewer than all such owners sign, the deed operates only if the last survivor was among the signers.

Open blocks where a named configuration would print a recital

This is the base form of the Arizona line, and its party blocks are open entries. The owner block takes one or two individual owners with the status and ownership words the record supports, written out rather than selected from preprinted language. The beneficiary block takes one or two names and, for two, the tenancy they take in: A.R.S. Section 33-405(B) allows joint tenants with right of survivorship, tenants in common, the two community property vestings, or any other Arizona tenancy, and makes each interest separate property unless the deed says otherwise. Two signature blocks follow, headed OWNER and SECOND OWNER (if applicable), each with its own acknowledgment certificate, so two owners may acknowledge on different days before different officers; a designation by one owner leaves the second block empty. The form is not set up for an owner that is a company or a trust, for a signature made under a power of attorney, or for title in three or more names.

Both results the legislature printed, neither of them marked

A.R.S. Section 33-405(K) supplies a sufficient form, and inside it sits exactly one question. Where a grantee beneficiary dies first, the statute offers two results for that share: the conveyance becomes null and void, or it becomes part of the estate of the grantee beneficiary. The deed prints both in the statute's own words, each beside its own box, with neither marked on the blank. Subsection C carries a separate rule for a deed no named beneficiary outlives, and the guide states it with its citation. A successor beneficiary is possible under that subsection on a condition the deed states, and this form states none.

Where recording stops being a question of notice

Most Arizona deeds are recorded for priority and notice under Sections 33-411 and 33-412, and an unrecorded one still binds the parties to it. Section 33-405(E) works differently: the deed is valid only if executed and recorded with the recorder of the county holding the land before the death of the owner or the last surviving owner, so a signed deed that never reaches the counter does nothing. Subsection G gives operative effect to the last one recorded before that death. The page answers to A.R.S. Section 11-480, source of the caption, the ten point minimum, and the two inch band whose left three and one half inches carry the requester and return entries. Paragraph B12 of Section 11-1134 exempts a beneficiary deed for nominal consideration from the affidavit of property value, and that notation prints under the legal description.

In Arizona the transfer on death deed and the TOD deed go by one statutory name, the beneficiary deed. Revoking one is its own recorded act under Section 33-405(F) and (L), prepared and recorded separately and not included here. The purchase delivers three files: the fillable beneficiary deed, a completed example on a Coconino County fact pattern, and a guide to the five sections, the execution and certificate rules, and recording. The materials describe this Arizona form and the statutes behind it, and are not legal advice.