Definitions

Probate Terms

A

Account- A contract of deposit between a depositor and a financial institution and includes a checking account, savings account, certificate of deposit and share account OR an arrangement under a terms-of-service agreement in which a custodian carries, maintains, processes, receives or stores a digital asset of the user or provides goods or services to the user.
Accounting period - A calendar year unless another twelve month period is selected by a fiduciary and includes a portion of a calendar year or other twelve month period that begins when an income interest begins or ends when an income interest ends.
Action - With respect to an act of a trustee, includes a failure to act.
Administration - Means the Arizona health care cost containment system administration.
Admitting officer - A psychiatrist or other physician or psychiatric and mental health nurse practitioner with experience in performing psychiatric examinations who has been designated as an admitting officer of the evaluation agency by the person in charge of the evaluation agency.
Adult - A person who is at least eighteen years of age.
Agent - 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.
Application - A written request for an order of informal probate or appointment order

B

Bank - Includes commercial banks, savings banks, trust companies, and any person or association of persons, whether incorporated or not, carrying on the business of banking.
Basis for compensation - An hourly rate, a fixed fee or contingency fee agreement and reimbursable costs.
Beneficiary - As it relates to a trust beneficiary, includes a person who has any present or future interest, vested or contingent, and also includes the owner of an interest by assignment or other transfer. As it relates to a charitable trust, beneficiary includes any person entitled to enforce the trust. As it relates to a beneficiary of a beneficiary designation, beneficiary refers to a beneficiary of an insurance or annuity policy, an account with pay on death designation, a security registered in beneficiary form or a pension, profit sharing, retirement or similar benefit plan, or any other nonprobate transfer at death. As it relates to a beneficiary designated in a governing instrument, beneficiary includes a grantee of a deed, a devisee, a trust beneficiary, a beneficiary of a beneficiary designation, a donee, appointee or taker in default of a power of appointment and a person in whose favor a power of attorney or a power held in any person, fiduciary or representative capacity is exercised.
Beneficiary designation - Refers to a governing instrument naming a beneficiary of an insurance or annuity policy, of an account with pay on death designation, of a security registered in beneficiary form or of a pension, profit sharing, retirement or similar benefit plan, or any other nonprobate transfer at death.
Beneficiary form - A registration of a security that indicates the present owner of the security and the intention of the owner regarding the person who will become the owner of the security on the owner's death.
Benefit plan - An employer's plan for the benefit of an employee or partner.
Broker - A person lawfully engaged in the business of effecting transactions in securities or commodities for the person's own account or for the account of others.

C

Carries - Engages in the transmission of an electronic communication.
Catalogue of electronic communications - Information that identifies each person with which a user has had an electronic communication, the time and date of the communication and the electronic address of the person.
Certified paper original - A tangible document that contains both the text of an electronic will and any self-proving affidavit concerning the electronic will.
Charitable trust - A trust, or portion of a trust, created for a charitable purpose described in Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 14-10405, Subsection A.
Chief medical officer - The chief medical officer under the supervision of the superintendent of the state hospital.
Child - A person who is entitled to take as a child under this title by intestate succession from the parent whose relationship is involved. Child excludes a person who is only a stepchild, a foster child, a grandchild or a more remote descendant.
Claims - In respect to estates of decedents and protected persons, includes liabilities of the decedent or the protected person, whether arising in contract, in tort or otherwise, and liabilities of the estate that arise at or after the death of the decedent or after the appointment of a conservator, including funeral expenses and expenses of administration. Claims do not include estate or inheritance taxes or demands or disputes regarding title of a decedent or a protected person to specific assets alleged to be included in the estate.
Community property - Property of a husband and wife that is acquired during the marriage and that is community property as prescribed in Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 25-211.
Conservator - A person who is appointed by a court to manage the estate of a protected person.
Contact - In-person contact, written communication and all forms of electronic communications.
Contact order - An order allowing contact between a ward and a person with a significant relationship to the ward.
Content of an electronic communication - Information concerning the substance or meaning of the communication that meets all of the following requirements:

(a) Has been sent or received by a user.

(b) Is in electronic storage by a custodian providing an electronic-communication service to the public or is carried or maintained by a custodian providing a remote-computing service to the public.

(c) Is not readily accessible to the public.
Contraindicated - Means that access is reasonably likely to endanger the life or physical safety of the patient or another person.
Court - The superior court.
Criminal history - Police reports, lists of prior arrests and convictions, criminal case pleadings and court orders, including a determination that the person has been found incompetent to stand trial pursuant to Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 13-4510.
Custodial property - An interest in property that is transferred to a custodian pursuant to this article and income from and proceeds of that interest in property.
Custodial trust property - An interest in property transferred to or held under a declaration of trust by a custodial trustee under this chapter and the income from and proceeds of that interest.
Custodial trustee - A person who is designated as trustee of a custodial trust under this chapter or a substitute or successor to the person designated.
Custodian - A person designated pursuant to Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 14-7659 or a successor or substitute custodian designated pursuant to Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 14-7668.

D

Danger to others - Means that the judgment of a person who has a mental disorder is so impaired that the person is unable to understand the person's need for treatment and as a result of the person's mental disorder the person's continued behavior can reasonably be expected, on the basis of competent medical opinion, to result in serious physical harm.
Danger to self:

(a) Means behavior that, as a result of a mental disorder:

(i) Constitutes a danger of inflicting serious physical harm on oneself, including attempted suicide or the serious threat thereof, if the threat is such that, when considered in the light of its context and in light of the individual's previous acts, it is substantially supportive of an expectation that the threat will be carried out.

(ii) Without hospitalization will result in serious physical harm or serious illness to the person.

(b) Does not include behavior that establishes only the condition of having a grave disability.
Department - The department of health services.
Dependent child - A minor child whom the decedent was obligated to support or an adult child who was in fact being supported by the decedent at the time of the decedent's death.
Descendant - All of the decedent's descendants of all generations, with the relationship of parent and child at each generation.
Designated recipient - A person chosen by a user using an online tool to administer digital assets of the user.
Detention - The taking into custody of a patient or proposed patient.
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.
Devisee - A person designated in a will to receive a devise. In the case of a devise to an existing trust or trustee, or to a trustee on trust described by will, the trust or trustee is the devisee and the beneficiaries are not devisees.
Digital asset - An electronic record in which an individual has a right or interest. Digital asset does not include an underlying asset or liability unless the asset or liability is itself an electronic record.
Director - The director of the administration.
Disability - Cause for a protective order as described in Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 14-5401.
Disclaimant - The person to whom a disclaimed interest or power would have passed had the disclaimer not been made.
Disclaimed interest - The interest that would have passed to the disclaimant had the disclaimer not been made.
Disclaimer - The refusal to accept an interest in or power over property.
Distributee - Any person who has received property of a decedent from that person's personal representative other than as a creditor or purchaser. Distributee includes a testamentary trustee only to the extent of distributed assets or increment that remains in that person's hands. A beneficiary of a testamentary trust to whom the trustee has distributed property received from a personal representative is a distributee of the personal representative. For the purposes of this paragraph, "testamentary trustee" includes a trustee to whom assets are transferred by will, to the extent of the devised assets.

E

Electronic - Relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic or similar capabilities.
Electronic communication - Has the same meaning prescribed in 18 United States Code section 2510(12).
Electronic-communication service - A custodian that provides to a user the ability to send or receive an electronic communication.
Electronic medium - A medium having electrical, digital, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic or similar capabilities.
Electronic record - A record that is created, generated, sent, communicated, received or stored by electronic means.
Electronic signature - An electronic method or process that through the application of a security procedure allows a determination that the electronic signature at the time it was executed was all of the following:
- Unique to the person using it.
- Capable of verification.
- Under the sole control of the person using it.
- Linked to the electronic document to which it relates in a manner so that if the document is changed the electronic signature is invalidated.
Electronic will - A testamentary instrument that is executed and maintained on an electronic medium and that is executed in compliance with Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 14-2518.
Environmental law - Federal, state or local law, rule, regulation or ordinance relating to protection of the environment.
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. As it relates to a spouse, the estate includes only the separate property and the share of the community property belonging to the decedent or person whose affairs are subject to this title.
Evaluation - Means:
(a) A professional multidisciplinary analysis that may include firsthand observations or remote observations by interactive audiovisual media and that is based on data describing the person's identity, biography and medical, psychological and social conditions carried out by a group of persons consisting of not less than the following:

(i) Two licensed physicians, who shall be qualified psychiatrists, if possible, or at least experienced in psychiatric matters, and who shall examine and report their findings independently. The person against whom a petition has been filed shall be notified that the person may select one of the physicians. A psychiatric resident in a training program approved by the American medical association or by the American osteopathic association may examine the person in place of one of the psychiatrists if the resident is supervised in the examination and preparation of the affidavit and testimony in court by a qualified psychiatrist appointed to assist in the resident's training, and if the supervising psychiatrist is available for discussion with the attorneys for all parties and for court appearance and testimony if requested by the court or any of the attorneys.

(ii) Two other individuals, one of whom, if available, shall be a psychologist and in any event a social worker familiar with mental health and human services that may be available placement alternatives appropriate for treatment. An evaluation may be conducted on an inpatient basis, an outpatient basis or a combination of both, and every reasonable attempt shall be made to conduct the evaluation in any language preferred by the person.

(b) A physical examination that is consistent with the existing standards of care and that is performed by one of the evaluating physicians or by or under the supervision of a physician who is licensed pursuant to Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 32, Chapter 13 or 17 or a registered nurse practitioner who is licensed pursuant to Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 32, Chapter 15 if the results of that examination are reviewed or augmented by one of the evaluating physicians.
Evaluation agency - A health care agency that is licensed by the department and that has been approved pursuant to this title, providing those services required of such agency by Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 36, Chapter 5.
Exempt property - Property of a decedent's estate that is described in Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 14-2403.

F

Family member - A spouse, parent, adult child, adult sibling or other blood relative of a person undergoing treatment or evaluation pursuant to Arizona Revises Statutes, Title 36, Chapter 5.
Fiduciary - A personal representative, guardian, conservator and trustee.
Financial institution - An organization authorized to do business under state or federal laws relating to financial institutions and includes a bank, trust company, savings bank, building and loan association, savings and loan company or association and credit union.
Foreign personal representative - A personal representative appointed by another jurisdiction.
Formal proceedings - Proceedings conducted before a judge with notice to interested persons.

G

Governing instrument - A deed, will, trust, insurance or annuity policy, account with pay on death designation, security registered in beneficiary form, pension, profit sharing, retirement or similar benefit plan, instrument creating or exercising a power of appointment or a power of attorney or a dispositive, appointive or nominative instrument of any similar type.
Grave disability - A condition evidenced by behavior in which a person, as a result of a mental disorder, is likely to come to serious physical harm or serious illness because the person is unable to provide for the person's own basic physical needs.
Guardian - 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.
Guardian ad litem - A person who is appointed pursuant to Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 14-1408.

H

Health care decision maker - A person who is authorized to make health care treatment decisions for the patient.
Health care entity - A health care provider, the department, the administration or a regional behavioral health authority under contract with the administration.
Health care provider - A health care institution as defined in Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 36-401 that is licensed as a behavioral health provider pursuant to department rules or a mental health provider.
Heirs - Except as controlled by Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 14-2711, means persons, including the surviving spouse and the state, who are entitled under the statutes of intestate succession to the property of a decedent.

I

Incapacitated - Lacking the ability to manage property and business affairs effectively by reason of mental illness, mental deficiency, physical illness or disability, chronic use of drugs, chronic intoxication, confinement, detention by a foreign power, disappearance, minority or other disabling cause.
Incapacitated person - 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.
Income - Money or property that a fiduciary receives as current return from a principal asset and includes a portion of receipts from a sale, exchange or liquidation of a principal asset, to the extent provided in Arizona Revised Statutes, Chapter 7, Sections 14-7410 through 14-7424.
Income beneficiary - A person to whom net income of a trust is or may be payable.
Income interest - The right of an income beneficiary to receive all or part of net income, whether the terms of the trust require it to be distributed or authorize it to be distributed in the trustee's discretion.
Independent evaluator - A licensed physician, psychiatric and mental health nurse practitioner or psychologist selected by the person to be evaluated or by such person's attorney.
Informal proceedings - 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.
Information - Data, text, images, videos, sounds, codes, computer programs, software, databases or the like.
Informed consent - A voluntary decision following presentation of all facts necessary to form the basis of an intelligent consent by the patient or guardian with no minimizing of known dangers of any procedures.
Inpatient psychiatric facility - A hospital that contains an organized psychiatric services unit or a special hospital that is licensed to provide psychiatric services.
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. Interested person also includes a person who has priority for appointment as personal representative and other fiduciaries representing interested persons. Interested person, as the term relates to particular persons, may vary from time to time and must be determined according to the particular purposes of, and matter involved in, any proceeding.
Interests of the beneficiaries - The beneficial interests provided in the terms of the trust.
Internal revenue code - See Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 43-105.
Investigator - A person who is appointed by the court under Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 14-5308.

J

Joint legal decision-making - Both parents share decision-making and neither parent's rights or responsibilities are superior except with respect to specified decisions as set forth by the court or the parents in the final judgment or order.
Joint tenants with the right of survivorship - and "community property with the right of survivorship" includes co-owners of property held under circumstances that entitle one or more to the whole of the property on the death of the other or others but excludes forms of co-ownership registration in which the underlying ownership of each party is in proportion to that party's contribution.
Jointly held property - Property held in the name of two or more persons under an arrangement in which all holders have concurrent interests and under which the last surviving holder is entitled to the whole of the property.
Jurisdiction - With respect to a geographic area, includes a state or country.

L

Lease - Includes any oil, gas or other mineral lease.
Least restrictive treatment alternative - The treatment plan and setting that infringe in the least possible degree with the patient's right to liberty and that are consistent with providing needed treatment in a safe and humane manner.
Legal decision-making - The legal right and responsibility to make all nonemergency legal decisions for a child including those regarding education, health care, religious training and personal care decisions. For the purposes of interpreting or applying any international treaty, federal law, a uniform code or the statutes of other jurisdictions of the United States, legal decision-making means legal custody.
Legal representative - An individual's personal representative or conservator.
Letters - Letters testamentary, letters of guardianship, letters of administration and letters of conservatorship.
Licensed physician - Any medical doctor or doctor of osteopathy who is either:
(a) Licensed in this state.

(b) A full-time hospital physician licensed in another state and serving on the staff of a hospital operated or licensed by the United States government.
Local administration - Administration by a personal representative appointed in this state pursuant to appointment proceedings described in Arizona Revised Statutes, Chapter 3.
Local personal representative - Any personal representative appointed in this state pursuant to appointment proceedings described in Arizona Revised Statutes, Chapter 3 and excludes foreign personal representatives who acquire the power of a local personal representative pursuant to Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 14-4205.

M

Mandatory income interest - The right of an income beneficiary to receive net income that the terms of the trust require the fiduciary to distribute.
Medical director of an evaluation agency - A psychiatrist, or other licensed physician experienced in psychiatric matters, who is designated in writing by the governing body of the agency as the person in charge of the medical services of the agency for the purposes of this chapter and may include the chief medical officer of the state hospital.
Medical director of a mental health treatment agency - A psychiatrist, or other licensed physician experienced in psychiatric matters, who is designated in writing by the governing body of the agency as the person in charge of the medical services of the agency for the purposes of this chapter and includes the chief medical officer of the state hospital.
Member of the beneficiary's family - A beneficiary's spouse, descendant, stepchild, parent, stepparent, grandparent, brother, sister, uncle or aunt, whether of the whole or half blood or by adoption.
Member of the minor's family - The minor's parent, stepparent, spouse, grandparent, brother, sister, uncle or aunt, whether of the whole or half blood or by adoption.
Mental disorder - A substantial disorder of the person's emotional processes, thought, cognition or memory. Mental disorder is distinguished from:
(a) Conditions that are primarily those of drug abuse, alcoholism or intellectual disability, unless, in addition to one or more of these conditions, the person has a mental disorder.

(b) The declining mental abilities that directly accompany impending death.

(c) Character and personality disorders characterized by lifelong and deeply ingrained antisocial behavior patterns, including sexual behaviors that are abnormal and prohibited by statute unless the behavior results from a mental disorder.
Mental health provider - Any physician or provider of mental health or behavioral health services involved in evaluating, caring for, treating or rehabilitating a patient.
Mental health treatment agency - The state hospital or a health care agency that is licensed by the department and that provides those services that are required of the agency by this chapter.
Minor - A person who is under eighteen years of age.
Mortgage - Any conveyance, agreement or arrangement in which property is encumbered or used as security. Mortgage does not include leases or easements.
Multiple party account - An account payable on request to one or more of two or more parties, whether or not a right of survivorship is mentioned.

N

Net income - The total receipts allocated to income during an accounting period minus the disbursements made from income during the period, plus or minus transfers under this article to or from income during the period.
Nonresident decedent - A decedent who was domiciled in another jurisdiction at the time of the decedent's death.

O

Online tool - An electronic service provided by a custodian that allows the user, in an agreement distinct from the terms-of-service agreement between the custodian and user, to provide directions for disclosure or nondisclosure of digital assets to a third person.
Organization - A corporation, limited liability company, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, joint venture, association, government or governmental subdivision or agency or any other legal or commercial entity.
Outpatient treatment or "combined inpatient and outpatient treatment" means any treatment program not requiring continuous inpatient hospitalization.
Outpatient treatment plan - A treatment plan that does not require continuous inpatient hospitalization.

P

Paper will - A testamentary instrument that is executed and maintained on a tangible medium and that is executed in compliance with Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 14-2502 or 14-2503.
Parent - 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.
Parenting time - The schedule of time during which each parent has access to a child at specified times. Each parent during their scheduled parenting time is responsible for providing the child with food, clothing and shelter and may make routine decisions concerning the child's care.
Patient - Any person undergoing examination, evaluation or behavioral or mental health treatment under Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 36, Chapter 5.
Party - A person who, by the terms of an account and subject to a request, has a present right other than as a beneficiary or agent to payment from the account.
Pay on death designation - or "POD" means the designation of:
(a) A beneficiary in an account payable on request to one party during the party's lifetime and on the party's death to one or more beneficiaries or to one or more parties during their lifetimes and on the death of all of them to one or more beneficiaries.

(b) A beneficiary in an account in the name of one or more parties as trustee for one or more beneficiaries if the relationship is established by the terms of the account and there is no subject of the trust other than the sums on deposit in the account, whether or not payment to the beneficiary is mentioned.
Payment - or "payable" as it relates to sums on deposit includes withdrawal, payment to a party or third person pursuant to a check or any other request and a pledge of sums on deposit by a party, or any setoff, reduction or other disposition of all or part of an account pursuant to a pledge.
Payor - A trustee, insurer, business entity, employer, government, governmental agency or subdivision or any other person who is authorized or obligated by law or a governing instrument to make payments.
Peace officers - Sheriffs of counties, constables, marshals and policemen of cities and towns.
Persistent or acute disability - A severe mental disorder that meets all the following criteria:

(a) If not treated has a substantial probability of causing the person to suffer or continue to suffer severe and abnormal mental, emotional or physical harm that significantly impairs judgment, reason, behavior or capacity to recognize reality.

(b) Substantially impairs the person's capacity to make an informed decision regarding treatment, and this impairment causes the person to be incapable of understanding and expressing an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of accepting treatment and understanding and expressing an understanding of the alternatives to the particular treatment offered after the advantages, disadvantages and alternatives are explained to that person.

(c) Has a reasonable prospect of being treatable by outpatient, inpatient or combined inpatient and outpatient treatment.
Person - Any individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, government, governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality, public corporation or other legal or commercial entity.
Personal representative - Executor, administrator, successor personal representative, special administrator and persons who perform substantially the same function under the law governing their status. A general personal representative excludes a special administrator.
Petition - A written request to the court for an order after notice.
Physician - A person licensed pursuant to Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 32, Chapter 13 or 17.
Power of attorney - A record that grants an agent authority to act in the place of a principal.
Power of withdrawal - A presently exercisable general power of appointment other than a power exercisable either:

(a) By a trustee and limited by an ascertainable standard.

(b) By a person other than in a fiduciary capacity and only on the consent of the trustee or a person holding an adverse interest.
Prepetition screening - The review of each application requesting court-ordered evaluation, including an investigation of facts alleged in such application, an interview with each applicant and an interview, if possible, with the proposed patient. The purpose of the interview with the proposed patient is to assess the problem, explain the application and, when indicated, attempt to persuade the proposed patient to receive, on a voluntary basis, evaluation or other services.
Prescribed form - A form established by a court or the rules of the administration in accordance with the laws of this state.
Principal - Property held in trust for distribution to a remainder beneficiary when the trust terminates, or any person to whom a fiduciary as such owes an obligation.
Proceeding - Action at law and suit in equity.
Professional - A physician who is licensed pursuant to Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 32, Chapter 13 or 17, a psychologist who is licensed pursuant to Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 32, Chapter 19.1 or a psychiatric and mental health nurse practitioner who is certified pursuant to Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 32, Chapter 15.
Property - Anything that may be the subject of ownership, whether real or personal, legal or equitable, or any interest in anything that may be the subject of ownership.
Proposed patient - A person for whom an application for evaluation has been made or a petition for court-ordered evaluation has been filed.
Prosecuting agency - The county attorney, attorney general or city attorney who applied or petitioned for an evaluation or treatment.
Protected person - A minor or any other person for whom a conservator has been appointed or any other protective order has been made.
Protective order - An order appointing a conservator or other order related to management of an adult's property.
Protective proceeding - A proceeding under Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 14-5401 to determine that a person cannot effectively manage or apply his estate to necessary ends, either because he lacks the ability or is otherwise inconvenienced, or because he is a minor, and to secure administration of his estate by a conservator or other appropriate relief.
Psychiatric and mental health nurse practitioner - A registered nurse practitioner as defined in Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 32-1601 who has completed an adult or family psychiatric and mental health nurse practitioner program and who is certified as an adult or family psychiatric and mental health nurse practitioner by the state board of nursing.
Psychiatrist - A licensed physician who has completed three years of graduate training in psychiatry in a program approved by the American medical association or the American osteopathic association.
Psychologist - A person licensed pursuant to Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 32, Chapter 19.1.

Q

Qualified beneficiary - A beneficiary who, on the date the beneficiary's qualification is determined:
(a) Is a distributee or permissible distributee of trust income or principal.

(b) Would be a distributee or permissible distributee of trust income or principal if the interests of the distributees described in subdivision (a) of this paragraph terminated on that date.

(c) Would be a distributee or permissible distributee of trust income or principal if the trust terminated on that date.
Qualified custodian - A person who fulfills the requirements of Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 14-2520.

R

Receive - As it relates to notice to a financial institution, means receipt in the office or branch office of the financial institution in which the account is established. If the terms of the account require notice at a particular place, receive means in the place required by those terms.
Record - Information that is incribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form.
Register - To issue a certificate that shows the ownership of a certificated security or, in the case of an uncertificated security, to initiate or transfer an account that shows ownership of securities.
Regional behavioral health authority - An organization under contract with the administration to coordinate the delivery of mental health services in a geographically specific service area of the state for eligible persons.
Registered nurse - A person who practices registered nursing and who holds a registered nurse license issued pursuant to this chapter or pursuant to a multistate compact privilege.
Registering entity - A person who originates or transfers a security title by registration and includes a broker who maintains security accounts for customers and a transfer agent or other person who acts for or as an issuer of securities.
Registrar - The official of the court designated to perform the functions of registrar as provided in Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 14-1307.
Remainder beneficiary - A person entitled to receive principla when an income interest ends.
Remote-computing service - A custodian that provides to a user computer-processing services or the storage of digital assets by means of an electronic communications system, as defined in 18 United States Code section 2510(14).
Request - Means a request for payment that complies with all terms of the account, including special requirements concerning necessary signatures and rules of the financial institution, and that, if terms of the account condition payment on advance notice, is treated as immediately effective. Request includes a notice of intent to withdraw.
Resident creditor - A person domiciled in, or doing business in this state, who is, or could be, a claimant against an estate of a nonresident decedent.
Respondent - A adult for whom a protective order or the appointment of a guardian is sought.
Revocable - As applied to a trust or a portion of a trust, means revocable by a settlor without the consent of any person, including the trustee or a person who holds an interest that is either adverse or not adverse.

S

Screening agency - A health care agency that is licensed by the department and that provides those services required of such agency by this chapter.
Security - 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.
Security account:
(a) A reinvestment account associated with a security, a securities account with a broker, a cash balance in a brokerage account, cash, interest, earnings or dividends earned or declared on a security in an account, a reinvestment account or a brokerage account, whether or not credited to the account before the owner's death.

(b) A cash balance or any other property held for or due to the owner of a security as a replacement for or product of an account security, whether or not credited to the account before the owner's death.

(c) An investment management or custody account with a trust company or a trust division of a bank with trust powers, and includes the securities in the account, a cash balance in the account, cash, cash equivalents, interest and earnings or dividends earned or declared on a security in the account, whether or not credited to the account before the owner's death.
Separate property - That property of a husband or wife that is the spouse's separate property as defined in Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 25-213.
Settlement - In reference to a decedent's estate, includes the full process of administration, distribution and closing.
Settlor - A person, including a testator, who creates or contributes property to a trust. If more than one person creates or contributes property to a trust, each person is a settlor of the portion of the trust property attributable to that person's contribution except to the extent another person has the power to revoke or withdraw that portion.
Significant relationship - The person either is related to the ward by blood or marriage or is a close friend of the ward as established by a history of pattern and practice.
Social worker - A person who has completed two years of graduate training in social work in a program approved by the council of social work education and who has experience in mental health.
Special administrator - A personal representative as described by Arizona Revised Statutes, Sections 14-3614, 14-3615, 14-3616, 14-3617 and 14-3618.
Special needs trust - A trust established for the benefit of one or more persons with disabilities if one of the purposes of the trust, expressed in the trust instrument or implied from the trust instrument, is to allow the person with a disability to qualify or continue to qualify for public, charitable or private benefits that might otherwise be available to the person with a disability. The existence of one or more remainder beneficiaries without a disability of the trust shall not disqualify it as a special needs trust for the purposes of this paragraph. For the purposes of this paragraph, "person with a disability" means an individual who has a disability pursuant to 42 United States Code section 1382c.
Spendthrift provision - A term of a trust that restrains either voluntary or involuntary transfer of a beneficiary's interest.
State - A state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. State includes an Indian tribe or band recognized by federal law or formally acknowledged by a state.
State hospital - The Arizona State Hospital.
Street name or nominee name - Registration used by a broker or financial institution for holding securities if they are not registered in the name of the beneficial owner.
Successor personal representative - A personal representative, other than a special administrator, who is appointed to succeed a previously appointed personal representative.
Successors - Persons, other than creditors, who are entitled to property of a decedent under a will or this title.
Sums on deposit - The balance payable on an account, including interest and dividends earned, whether or not included in the current balance and any deposit life insurance proceeds added to the account by reason of death of a party.
Superintendent - The superintendent of the state hospital.
Supervised administration - The proceedings described in Arizona Revised Statutes, Sections 14-3501, 14-3502, 14-3503, 14-3504, 14-3505.
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 Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 14-2104 or 14-2702.

T

Terms of a trust - The manifestation of the intent of a settlor or decedent with respect to the trust expressed in a manner that admits of its proof in a judicial proceeding, whether by written or spoken words or by conduct.
Terms-of-service agreement - An agreement that controls the relationship between a user and a custodian.
Terms of the account - Includes the deposit agreement and other terms and conditions of deposit and includes the contract form.
Testator - A person of either sex.
Transfer - A transaction that creates custodial property pursuant to Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 14-7659.
Transferor - A person who makes a transfer pursuant to this article.
Trust - An express trust, private or charitable, with any additions, wherever and however created. Trust also includes a trust created or determined by judgment or decree under which the trust is to be administered in the manner of an express trust. Trust excludes other constructive trusts and excludes resulting trusts, conservatorship, personal representatives, trust accounts, custodial arrangements, business trusts providing for certificates to be issued to beneficiaries, common trust funds, voting trusts, security arrangements, liquidation trusts and trusts for the primary purpose of paying debts, dividends, interest, salaries, wages, profits, pensions or employee benefits of any kind, trusts created by a city or town for the payment of medical insurance, health care benefits or expenses, long-term or short-term disability, self insurance reserves and similar programs administered by a city or town, legal defense trusts and any arrangement under which a person is nominee or escrowee for another.
Trust company - A financial institution, corporation or other legal entity that is authorized to exercise general trust powers.
Trust instrument - An instrument executed by the settlor that contains terms of the trust, including any amendments to that trust.
Trustee - An original, additional or successor trustee, whether or not appointed or confirmed by the court.

U

User - A person that has an account with a custodian.

V

Visitation - A schedule of time that occurs with a child by someone other than a legal parent.

W

Ward - A person for whom a guardian has been appointed. "Minor ward" means a minor for whom a guardian has been appointed solely because of minority.
Will - A codicil and any testamentary instrument that merely appoints an executor, revokes or revises another will, nominates a guardian or expressly excludes or limits the right of an individual or class to succeed to property of the decedent passing by intestate succession. A will may be a paper will or an electronic will.

Probate and Mental Health Presiding Judge
Dean M. Fink

Keith B. Kaplan
Probate and Mental Health Administrator
Contact Probate and Mental Health

This page was last updated on: Wednesday, October 31, 2018 7:39 AM