Scottsdale, AZ

Our main office sits on East Bell Road in north Scottsdale, and it is where most of the firm's work gets done. If you are looking at a trust for the first time, sorting out a parent's estate, or trying to work out what a business sale does to your tax picture, this is the office you will most likely visit.

What we handle here

Estate planning is the bulk of it. Revocable living trusts, wills, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, beneficiary work. For families with more complicated balance sheets we do the tax planning that goes with it — exemption planning, charitable structures, entity work, and the coordination with your CPA and financial advisor that keeps the plan from falling apart in practice.

We also handle trust administration and probate. When someone dies, the family usually calls us either because there is a trust that needs administering or because there isn't one and a probate has to be opened in Maricopa County Superior Court.

Why Scottsdale specifically

North Scottsdale has a particular concentration of the situations we spend our time on. Second homes. Business owners at or near an exit. Retirees who moved here from a state with an income tax and a different set of property rules. People who set up a trust in California or Illinois twenty years ago and have not looked at it since.

That last one comes up constantly. An out-of-state trust usually still works after a move to Arizona, but "works" and "does what you think it does" are different things. Arizona is a community property state. If you moved here from a common-law state, the character of your assets changed when you arrived, and a plan drafted elsewhere may not account for that.

The trust that was never funded

The most common problem we see has nothing to do with the document. Someone paid for a trust, signed it, put the binder on a shelf, and never retitled anything into it. The trust is real. It is also empty, which means the estate goes through probate anyway and the family finds out at the worst possible time.

If you have a trust and are not certain the accounts and deeds were actually moved into it, that is worth an appointment on its own.

Serving the East Valley and north metro

From Scottsdale we work with families in Paradise Valley, Ahwatukee, Cave Creek, Carefree, Fountain Hills and Phoenix. We have separate offices in Gilbert, Queen Creek, Phoenix and Surprise if one of those is closer.

Visit the Scottsdale office

8817 East Bell Road, Suite 201, Scottsdale, Arizona 85260. Call 480-515-3716.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a trust, or is a will enough? It depends mostly on what you own and where. In Arizona, an estate that passes through probate is a public court process that takes months. A properly funded revocable trust avoids that. If you own real estate — especially in more than one state — a trust usually earns its cost. If your estate is modest and everything passes by beneficiary designation, a will may be sufficient. We would rather tell you that than sell you a trust you do not need.

We moved to Scottsdale from another state. Is our old trust still valid? Almost certainly valid, and quite possibly no longer doing what you want. Arizona is a community property state, and property you acquire after moving here is characterized differently than it was where you came from. Deeds recorded in your old state also need attention. A review is usually a short appointment.

How long does probate take in Maricopa County? An uncontested informal probate generally runs several months from appointment of the personal representative to closing, and longer if real property has to be sold or a creditor claim is disputed. Contested matters run considerably longer.

Do you handle estates for people who own property in more than one state? Tell us where the property is located so we can discuss the appropriate next steps.