How to Fill Out and Record an Arizona Beneficiary Deed (Transfer on Death)

An Arizona beneficiary deed lets you name someone to receive your real estate automatically when you die, with no probate and no court involvement. It is authorized by A.R.S. § 33-405, and it works because you keep full ownership and control while you are alive; the beneficiary gets nothing until your death.¹ You can sell the property, mortgage it, or change your mind and revoke the deed at any time. The whole process comes down to a correctly filled-out form, a notary, and recording the document with the county recorder before you die. The recording fee is $30.²

What the Deed Has to Say

The statute gives you a template the deed must substantially follow. The core operative language is “I (we) [owner] hereby convey to [grantee beneficiary] effective on my (our) death the following described real property,” followed by the property’s legal description.¹ The words “effective on my death” are what make this a beneficiary deed rather than an immediate transfer.

The form also forces you to decide what happens if your beneficiary dies before you do. You pick one of two options: either the gift to that beneficiary becomes null and void, or it becomes part of that beneficiary’s estate.¹ The two choices produce very different outcomes. If you check “null and void” and your only named beneficiary dies before you, the deed does nothing and the property goes through probate. If you check “part of the estate of the grantee beneficiary,” the property passes to whoever inherits from your beneficiary, which may not be someone you would have picked. You can also name a successor beneficiary directly on the deed to take over if the primary beneficiary dies first, but the deed has to spell out clearly what condition triggers the successor’s interest.

Information You Need Before You Fill It Out

Get any of these wrong and the recorder may reject the deed, or you may create title problems that surface only after you are gone.

Your full legal name exactly as it appears on the current title to the property.
The full legal name of each beneficiary. If you name more than one, state how they will hold title together: joint tenants with right of survivorship, tenants in common, or another recognized form.
The legal description of the property — the lot number, subdivision or tract, and book and page of recorded maps. A street address is not enough. Pull this from your original deed, your title insurance policy, or the county assessor’s parcel search.

Signing and Notarization

Every owner listed on the deed must sign, and a notary public must acknowledge each signature. The beneficiary does not sign, does not have to consent, and does not even need to know the deed exists; the statute says the beneficiary’s agreement is not required for any purpose during the owner’s lifetime.¹ Banks, shipping stores, and law offices commonly offer notary services.

Recording the Deed

A beneficiary deed has no legal effect at all unless it is recorded with the recorder in the county where the property sits, and it has to be recorded before the owner dies. If the owner dies first, even by a day, the deed is void.¹ This is the single most common reason these deeds fail. Do not sign one and leave it in a drawer.

The recording fee is $30 per instrument statewide under A.R.S. § 11-475.² You can record in person, mail the original signed and notarized deed by certified mail, or use an approved electronic recording portal in counties that offer one. Beneficiary deed transfers are also exempt from Arizona’s affidavit of value requirement, so you do not have to file a separate affidavit or state a sale price.³ Keep a copy of the recorded deed with your other estate planning documents so your beneficiary can find it.

If You Co-Own the Property

Arizona is a community property state, and many married couples hold real estate as community property with right of survivorship or as joint tenants with right of survivorship. The statute has a specific rule for these situations: if fewer than all co-owners sign the beneficiary deed, the deed is valid only if the co-owner who signed it turns out to be the last survivor. If the last survivor did not sign, the deed lapses and is void.¹

The practical takeaway is that both spouses, or all co-owners, should sign. The beneficiary deed does not take effect at all until the last surviving co-owner dies; the survivorship rights of the other co-owner come first.¹

Changing or Revoking the Deed Later

You can revoke a beneficiary deed at any time, for any reason, without telling the beneficiary. The statute provides a “Revocation of Beneficiary Deed” form, which you sign, get notarized, and record in the same county before your death — the same procedural steps as the original.¹

You can also just record a new beneficiary deed naming different people. When more than one beneficiary deed exists for the same property, only the last one recorded before the owner’s death controls. Selling the property or transferring it into a trust also ends the beneficiary deed’s effect, because you no longer hold the interest it was going to convey. When the property is co-owned with right of survivorship and not all owners sign the revocation, the revocation follows the same last-survivor rule as the deed itself.¹

What the Beneficiary Inherits Along With the Property

A beneficiary deed does not scrub the property of debts. The statute transfers the property subject to all conveyances, assignments, contracts, mortgages, deeds of trust, liens, security pledges, and other encumbrances from the owner’s lifetime.¹ If there is a mortgage on the house at your death, your beneficiary takes title with the mortgage attached.

Federal law usually protects a relative-beneficiary from being forced to refinance right away. The Garn-St. Germain Act blocks lenders from enforcing a due-on-sale clause when residential property with fewer than five dwelling units transfers to a relative because of the borrower’s death.⁴ The beneficiary can keep making the existing payments.

One boundary worth knowing: Arizona’s long-term care Medicaid program (ALTCS) can still pursue estate recovery against property that transferred by beneficiary deed, and may file a claim or seek a lien to recoup care costs. Avoiding probate does not, by itself, shield the home from that recovery.

Taxes on the Transfer

Property received through a beneficiary deed gets a federal stepped-up basis. Under 26 U.S.C. § 1014, the beneficiary’s tax basis resets to the fair market value on the date of the owner’s death rather than the price the owner originally paid.⁵ If you bought a house for $150,000 and it is worth $400,000 when you die, your beneficiary’s basis is $400,000. A sale near that price produces little or no capital gains tax. That is a real advantage over gifting property during your lifetime, where the recipient inherits your original cost basis and can owe tax on decades of appreciation.

Arizona imposes no state estate tax or inheritance tax, so the transfer itself creates no state-level tax bill for the beneficiary. Federal estate tax applies only to estates above the federal exemption, which is far higher than most individual property transfers.

What the Beneficiary Does After the Owner Dies

Title passes automatically at death by operation of law. There is no court approval, and the beneficiary does not need a new deed. The public record, however, still shows the deceased owner’s name. To clear the chain of title, the beneficiary usually records a certified copy of the death certificate with the same county recorder where the beneficiary deed was recorded. Once that is done, the beneficiary can sell, refinance, or insure the property without complications; a title company handling a later sale will want to see both the recorded beneficiary deed and the recorded death certificate.

1
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 33-405 – Beneficiary Deeds Recording Definitions
2
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 11-475 – Fees Exemptions
3
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 11-1134 – Exemptions
4
GovInfo. 12 USC 1701j-3 – Preemption of Due-on-Sale Prohibitions
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 1014 – Basis of Property Acquired From a Decedent