Out of State Personal Representative / Executor / Trustee

Our office is frequently contacted by nominated out of state personal representatives, executors and trustees to assist a family after the passing of a loved one. The initial question often seems to focus on whether they must travel to Arizona to administer a trust or estate. The short answer is most of the time you do not. Let’s walk through the essential issues:

First, any personal representative, executor or trustee needs to be formally appointed to act on behalf of a trust or estate. Depending on what type of estate planning was utilized by the deceased that process is either done privately or publicly. In many cases, the appointment does not require a trip to Arizona. Our office can utilize many different methods to transmit documents to confirm the appointment of who will be legally authorized to act on behalf of the trust or estate. The only essential requirement is that the nominated person have the ability to sign the necessary documents in front of a notary public.

Next, as you will note in our discussion about the four steps of administration there are a number of matters that need attention. Our office can facilitate getting a house inventoried, cleaned out and sold. We also routinely have family heirlooms packed and shipped to heirs. We can handle receiving mail, and securing property. We can assist with most property items in a trust or estate.

Because our office regularly is involved in these matters, we have access to qualified appraisers, CPAs, financial and insurance professionals, and anyone else needed to fully administer a trust or estate. If property is located in other states besides Arizona, we have resources available to us to collect and transfer those assets as well. In short, we are available to do as much or as little of the heavy administrative lifting as the family requires.