Terms Used In Arizona Laws > Title 14 > Chapter 3 - Probate of Wills and Administration

• Agent: includes an attorney-in-fact under a durable or nondurable power of attorney, a person who is authorized to make decisions concerning another person's health care and a person who is authorized to make decisions for another person under a natural death act. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• 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
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Bank: means a corporation that holds a banking permit issued pursuant to chapter 2 of this title. See Arizona Laws 6-101
• 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
• Community property: means that property of a husband and wife that is acquired during the marriage and that is community property as prescribed in section 25-211. 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
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• Court: means the superior court. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Deputy director: means the deputy director of the financial institutions division of the department. See Arizona Laws 6-101
• Devise: when used as a noun, means a testamentary disposition of real or personal property and, when used as a verb, means to dispose of real or personal property by will. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Devisee: means a person designated in a will to receive a devise. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Disability: means cause for a protective order as described in section 14-5401. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Distributee: means any person who has received property of a decedent from that person's personal representative other than as a creditor or purchaser. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• 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
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Exempt property: means that property of a decedent's estate that is described in section 14-2403. 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.
• Fiduciary: includes a personal representative, guardian, conservator and trustee. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Forgery: The fraudulent signing or alteration of another's name to an instrument such as a deed, mortgage, or check. The intent of the forgery is to deceive or defraud. ^{Source: OCC}
• Formal proceedings: means proceedings that are conducted before a judge with notice to interested persons. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• 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 person: means any person who is impaired by reason of mental illness, mental deficiency, mental disorder, physical illness or disability, chronic use of drugs, chronic intoxication or other cause, except minority, to the extent that he lacks sufficient understanding or capacity to make or communicate responsible decisions concerning his person. See Arizona Laws 14-5101
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Informal proceedings: means those proceedings conducted without notice to interested persons by an officer of the court acting as a registrar for probate of a will or appointment of a personal representative. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• 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.
• Investigator: means a person who is appointed by the court under section 14-5308. See Arizona Laws 14-5101
• Lease: includes any oil, gas or other mineral lease. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Legatee: A beneficiary of a decedent
• Letters: includes letters testamentary, letters of guardianship, letters of administration and letters of conservatorship. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Minor: means a person who is under eighteen years of age. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Mortgage: means any conveyance, agreement or arrangement in which property is encumbered or used as security. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Oath: includes an affirmation or declaration. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Original will: means either an original paper will or a certified paper original of an electronic will. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• 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 property: includes money, goods, chattels, things in action and evidences of debt. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• 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
• Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
• Probate: Proving a will
• Proceeding: includes action at law and suit in equity. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• 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
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Registered mail: includes certified mail. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Registrar: means the official of the court who is designated to perform the functions of registrar as provided in section 14-1307. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• 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
• Separate property: means that property of a husband or wife that is the spouse's separate property as defined in section 25-213. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Special administrator: means a personal representative as described by sections 14-3614 through 14-3618. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• State: means a state, territory or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. See Arizona Laws 14-9101
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• subscription: includes a mark, if a person cannot write, with the person's name written near it and witnessed by a person who writes the person's own name as witness. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Successor personal representative: means a personal representative, other than a special administrator, who is appointed to succeed a previously appointed personal representative. 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
• Supervised administration: refers to the proceedings described in chapter 3, article 5 of this title. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Survive: means that a person has neither predeceased an event, including the death of another person, nor is deemed to have predeceased an event under section 14-2104 or 14-2702. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Testacy proceeding: means a proceeding to establish a will or determine intestacy. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Testate: To die leaving a will.
• Testator: includes a person of either sex. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
• Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
• Trust: includes an express trust, private or charitable, with any additions, wherever and however created. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Trust company: means a financial institution, corporation or other legal entity that is authorized to exercise general trust powers. See Arizona Laws 14-9101
• Trustee: includes an original, additional or successor trustee, whether or not appointed or confirmed by the court. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Ward: means a person for whom a guardian has been appointed. See Arizona Laws 14-5101