Arizona route screening
The personal-property route uses a $200,000 ceiling after 30 days, measured after liens and encumbrances.
Sources reviewed August 7, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch October 3, 2026.
A separate real-property affidavit uses a $300,000 ceiling after six months.
Threshold evidence and currency
Currency: No later session-law supersession is recorded in the reviewed source set for this threshold. The edition/currentness label below is the basis for the published figure.
Controlling citation: A.R.S. § 14-3971 — Publisher edition or amendment label not stated; verified October 3, 2026.
Verbatim threshold text from that source:
1. Thirty days have elapsed since the death of the decedent. 2. Either: (a) An application or petition for the appointment of a personal representative is not pending and a personal representative has not been appointed in any jurisdiction and the value of all personal property in the decedent's estate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $200,000 as valued as of the date of death.
| Procedure | Affidavit for collection of personal property |
|---|---|
| What counts | Personal property only; real property is outside this route |
| Value basis | Value less enforceable liens and encumbrances |
| Waiting period | 30 days after death |
The Arizona caveats that can change this answer are listed once, on the Arizona overview.
What a small-estate screen can and cannot decide, and which assets never enter it, is explained once in small-estate affidavit or probate and what counts as a probate asset.
A.R.S. § 14-3971 is titled “Collection of personal property by affidavit; ownership of vehicles; affidavit of succession to real property,” and the title is doing real work. The section sets out more than one route, with different triggers, and treating Arizona as though it had a single number misdescribes it.
Subsection A is the unusual one. Any employer owing wages, salary or other compensation for the decedent’s personal services must pay the surviving spouse the amount owing, up to $5,000, on being presented an affidavit from or on behalf of the spouse. It is available “at any time after the death of a decedent” — there is no thirty-day wait — and it requires only that no application or petition for appointment is pending or granted, or that the representative has been discharged or more than a year has passed since a closing statement was filed. A surviving spouse facing immediate bills can reach a final pay packet in Arizona faster than in states that impose a uniform waiting period on everything.
Subsection B is the general personal-property affidavit and does impose the thirty-day wait: thirty days after death, a person holding the decedent’s tangible personal property, or an instrument evidencing a debt, obligation, stock or chose in action, must deliver it to a claiming successor who presents a conforming affidavit swearing that thirty days have elapsed and that no appointment is pending or has been made.
The same section also provides an affidavit of succession to real property, which is why Arizona real estate can sometimes pass without full administration where in most states it could not. Screening an Arizona estate therefore means asking which affidavit is in play before asking whether any threshold is met.
Source: A.R.S. § 14-3971, read from the enacting state’s own published code on 2026-09-17. Quoted wording is the statute’s; the surrounding explanation is this site’s reading of it and is not legal advice.
Reviewed source note: 1. Thirty days have elapsed since the death of the decedent. 2. Either: (a) An application or petition for the appointment of a personal representative is not pending and a personal representative has not been appointed in any jurisdiction and the value of all personal property in the decedent's estate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $200,000 as valued as of the date of death.
Arizona record: 3/3 verified, 10 matched checks, latest source re-fetch October 3, 2026. Source record · method · report a correction