Arizona Small Estate Affidavit: How It Works
The short answer
Arizona lets you collect a deceased person’s personal property with a sworn affidavit instead of opening a probate case, as long as the estate is under the state’s limit and you have waited the required number of days after the death. Arizona real estate is not covered by that same affidavit — it has its own separate affidavit, its own higher limit, and a longer wait. The current figures and the statutes behind them are below.
Arizona’s personal property affidavit
Arizona’s simplified route is set out in the Arizona Revised Statutes. It covers personal property — bank accounts, vehicles, brokerage accounts, uncashed checks, belongings — and it works by sworn statement rather than by court appointment. You wait the required period after the death, sign the affidavit, and present it to whoever is holding the property.[1]
Arizona
- Procedure:
- small estate affidavit
- Limit:
- $200,000
- Wait:
- 30 days
- Real estate:
- separate procedure
This limit took effect September 26, 2025.
Real estate worth up to $300,000 uses a separate affidavit, available 6 months after the death.
A.R.S. § 14-3971 — official page read September 18, 2026
The affidavit is one part of settling an Arizona estate. Answer a few questions and Go Forward builds the rest of the list for your situation — the notifications, the accounts, the paperwork — in the order it needs doing.
Build my plan →Steps this page connects to: Check whether probate is required · Order certified death certificates · Prepare the Arizona small estate packet
What the affidavit does not do
- It does not settle debts. Collecting the assets and paying what the person owed are separate problems, and creditors do not go away because you used the simplified route.
- It does not override a beneficiary designation. Life insurance, retirement accounts and payable-on-death accounts go to the named beneficiary regardless.
- It does not work once a probate case is open. If a personal representative has already been appointed, the court process is the process.
- It does not settle a disagreement. If heirs dispute who is entitled to what, a sworn affidavit signed by one of them makes that worse, not better.
If Arizona probate is required anyway
When the estate is too large for the affidavit, the case goes through the superior court in the Arizona county where the person lived, and the personal representative takes on the creditor notice duty: publishing notice and writing to known creditors, which starts the claim window.[2]
Arizona
- Published notice:
- required
- Claim window:
- 4 months after the notice is first published.
A.R.S. § 14-3801 (outer limit in § 14-3803 not opened) — official page read September 18, 2026
Practical next steps
- Order certified death certificates early. Every institution you approach will want one, and ordering a second batch later costs you weeks.
- Total the personal property before you commit to a route, and keep the list — it is what tells you whether the affidavit is even available.
- Separate out anything with a named beneficiary or a joint owner. Those usually transfer on their own and are a different set of phone calls.
- Call the superior court clerk in the right county to confirm the local filing requirements before you have anything notarised.
Sources
- A.R.S. § 14-3971 (small estate affidavit) — Arizona — official statute or court self-help page. Read September 18, 2026.
- A.R.S. § 14-3801 (outer limit in § 14-3803 not opened) (notice to creditors) — Arizona — official statute or court self-help page. Read September 18, 2026.
Each state above links to the statute or court page we read, with the date we read it.
How we source and review these pages, and how to tell us about a mistake: our editorial policy.