Arizona Laws 14-5419. Accounts; definition
A. Except as provided pursuant to subsection F of this section, every conservator must account to the court for the administration of the estate annually pursuant to rules adopted by the supreme court and on termination of the protected person‘s minority or disability, except that for good cause shown on the application of an interested person, the court may relieve the conservator of filing annual or other accounts by an order entered in the minutes.
Terms Used In Arizona Laws 14-5419
- Action: includes any matter or proceeding in a court, civil or criminal. See Arizona Laws 1-215
- Adult: means a person who has attained eighteen years of age. See Arizona Laws 1-215
- Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
- Application: means a written request to the registrar for an order of informal probate or appointment under chapter 3, article 3 of this title. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
- Child: includes a person who is entitled to take as a child under this title by intestate succession from the parent whose relationship is involved. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Conservator: means a person who is appointed by a court to manage the estate of a protected person. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Court: means the superior court. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Disability: means cause for a protective order as described in section 14-5401. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Estate: includes the property of the decedent, trust or other person whose affairs are subject to this title as originally constituted and as it exists from time to time during administration. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
- Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
- Guardian: means a person who has qualified as a guardian of a minor or incapacitated person pursuant to testamentary or court appointment but excludes a person who is merely a guardian ad litem. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Guardian ad litem: includes a person who is appointed pursuant to section 14-1408. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Incapacitated: means lacking the ability to manage property and business affairs effectively by reason of mental illness, mental deficiency, physical illness or disability, chronic use of drugs, chronic intoxication, confinement, detention by a foreign power, disappearance, minority or other disabling cause. See Arizona Laws 14-9101
- Interested person: includes any trustee, heir, devisee, child, spouse, creditor, beneficiary, person holding a power of appointment and other person who has a property right in or claim against a trust estate or the estate of a decedent, ward or protected person. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
- Parent: includes any person entitled to take, or who would be entitled to take if the child died without a will, as a parent under this title by intestate succession from the child whose relationship is in question and excludes any person who is only a stepparent, foster parent or grandparent. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Person: means an individual or an organization. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Personal representative: includes an executor, an administrator, a successor personal representative, a special administrator and persons who perform substantially the same function under the law governing their status. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Petition: means a written request to the court for an order after notice. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Probate: Proving a will
- Property: includes both real and personal property. See Arizona Laws 1-215
- Protected person: means a minor or any other person for whom a conservator has been appointed or any other protective order has been made. See Arizona Laws 14-5101
- Security: includes any note, stock, treasury stock, bond, debenture, evidence of indebtedness, certificate of interest or participation in an oil, gas or mining title or lease or in payments out of production under that title or lease, collateral trust certificate, transferable share or voting trust certificate and, in general, includes any interest or instrument commonly known as a security, or any certificate of interest or participation, any temporary or interim certificate, receipt or certificate of deposit for, or any warrant or right to subscribe to or purchase, any of these securities. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Successors: means persons, other than creditors, who are entitled to property of a decedent under a will or this title. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Testate: To die leaving a will.
- United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Arizona Laws 1-215
- Writing: includes printing. See Arizona Laws 1-215
B. The court may take any appropriate action on filing of annual or other accounts. In connection with any account, the court may require a conservator to submit to a physical check of the estate in the conservator’s control, to be made in any manner the court may specify.
C. An adjudication allowing an intermediate or final account can be made only on petition, notice and a hearing. Notice must be given to:
1. The protected person.
2. A guardian of the protected person if one has been appointed, unless the same person is serving as both guardian and conservator.
3. If no guardian has been appointed or the same person is serving as both guardian and conservator, a spouse or, if the spouse is the conservator, there is no spouse or the spouse is incapacitated, a parent or an adult child who is not serving as a conservator.
4. A guardian ad litem appointed for the protected person, if the court determines in accordance with section 14-1408 that representation of the interest of the protected person would otherwise be inadequate.
D. An order, made on notice and a hearing, allowing an intermediate account of a conservator, adjudicates as to the conservator’s liabilities concerning the matters considered in connection therewith. An order, made on notice and a hearing, allowing a final account adjudicates as to all previously unsettled liabilities of the conservator to the protected person or the protected person’s successors relating to the conservatorship.
E. In any case in which the estate consists, in whole or in part, of benefits paid by the United States department of veterans affairs to the conservator or the conservator’s predecessor for the benefit of the protected person, the United States department of veterans affairs office that has jurisdiction over the area is entitled to a copy of any account filed under this article. Each year in which an account is not filed with the court, the conservator, if requested, shall submit an account to the appropriate United States department of veterans affairs office. If an account is not submitted as requested, or if it is found unsatisfactory by the United States department of veterans affairs, the court on receipt of notice of the deficiency shall require the conservator to immediately file an account with the court promptly.
F. Unless prohibited by order of the court, the conservator may file with the court, in lieu of a final account, a verified statement stating that:
1. The protected person has died. The conservator shall attach a certified copy of the protected person’s death certificate to the statement.
2. The protected person’s successors have all waived in writing their right to have the conservator submit to the court a final account of the conservator’s administration of the protected person’s estate. The conservator shall attach the originals of the written waivers to the statement.
3. The conservator has delivered a copy of a closing statement to the protected person’s successors. The conservator shall attach a copy of the closing statement to the statement.
G. The closing statement that is to be delivered to the protected person’s successors shall be a verified statement stating the following:
1. The protected person has died and the date of the person’s death.
2. The persons receiving the closing statement have a right to have the conservator submit to the court a final account of the conservator’s administration of the protected person’s estate.
3. If the person wishes to have the final accounting reviewed by the court, the person should not sign a waiver that waives this right.
4. If all persons receiving the closing statement choose to waive the right to have the conservator submit to the court a final account, the final account will not be reviewed by the court.
5. A list of the property owned by the protected person, as of the date of the protected person’s death, is attached to the closing statement and that the list states the fair market value of the property as of the date of the protected person’s death.
6. The conservator, by the closing statement, shall inform the protected person’s successors that if they waive court review of the conservator’s final account, the conservatorship will be terminated, the conservator will be discharged from all liabilities relating to the conservatorship, the bond or other security posted by the conservator will be exonerated and any restrictions previously imposed on the assets of the conservatorship will be lifted.
H. The conservator shall file an affidavit with the court that states that the closing statement was sent or delivered to the protected person’s successors on a date before the date that the protected person’s successors signed the written waiver.
I. Unless proceedings are pending against the conservator, on the filing of the statement described in subsection F of this section and the affidavit described in subsection H of this section, the court shall enter an order terminating the conservatorship, discharging the conservator from all liabilities relating to the conservatorship, exonerating and releasing any bond or other security posted by the conservator and releasing any restrictions previously imposed on the assets of the conservatorship.
J. For the purposes of this section, "protected person’s successors" means:
1. The personal representative of the protected person’s estate if the personal representative and the conservator are not the same person.
2. If the conservator and the personal representative of the protected person’s estate are the same person and if the protected person died intestate, the protected person’s heirs.
3. If the conservator and the personal representative of the protected person’s estate are the same person and if the protected person died testate, the devisees under the protected person’s will that has been admitted to probate.