Arizona · A.R.S. 33-405Arizona beneficiary deed: how it works and selling the house after the owner dies

An Arizona beneficiary deed lets an owner name who receives the home at death without the home passing through the will. Under A.R.S. §33-405, a deed that conveys an interest in real property to a designated grantee beneficiary and expressly says it is effective on the owner's death transfers the interest at death – subject to all mortgages, deeds of trust, liens and other encumbrances the owner made or was subject to. It is valid only if executed and recorded with the county recorder where the property is located before the owner's death; it can name a trust, even a revocable one, as grantee. It can name several grantees and say how they hold title; unless it says otherwise, the interest is the grantee's separate property, not community property. It may name a successor beneficiary with the condition for vesting; if no named beneficiary survives the owner, the deed is void unless it says otherwise. For property held in joint tenancy or community property with right of survivorship, the transfer takes effect on the death of the last surviving owner, and a deed not signed by the last surviving owner lapses. During the owner's life, no beneficiary signature, consent or notice is needed for anything – so the owner can still sell or mortgage the home. The owner can revoke it by recording a revocation before death; if several beneficiary deeds are recorded, the last one recorded before death controls; and a will doesn't revoke it. For a sale after the death, the interest has passed to the beneficiaries – not to an estate – so they are the sellers; ask the title company early what it needs from them.