Arizona Estate Planning

Arizona Estate planning is the process of arranging your affairs to protect your assets during life, direct your medical care during possible incapacitation, and efficiently direct the distribution of your assets at death.

Douglas K Cook is an Arizona estate planning lawyer with over 40 years of experience as a practicing attorney. Although Douglas K Cook's office is located in Mesa, Arizona, he represents clients throughout the Phoenix, Arizona Metropolitan area including the following east valley cities: Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Tempe, Chandler, & Gilbert.

Community property law presumes that all property acquired during marriage, except by gift or inheritance, is owned equally by each spouse.

Many people believe that estate planning is only for those who have significant wealth, however, estate plans can benefit everybody because they enable people to specify how the assets they leave behind will be distributed, specify steps they would like taken to prolong their lives, designate another to act on their behalf for non-healthcare-related matters if they are incapacitated, and provide for loved ones after their deaths in a supervised manner that is consistent with their desires.

In good economic times it sometimes seems hard to make a mistake. We no longer live in those times! Good planning and proper implementation of plans is always important, but a challenging economic environment can both disclose unique opportunities and expose critical flaws.

Opportunities abound for those with foresight and patience, as do traps for the unwary. An understanding of applicable law is critical to making the right choices.

Over the past several decades estate tax considerations have motivated many married couples to include in their estate plans the creation and funding of one or two trusts upon the death of one of the spouses to hold that spouse’s estate.  The tax purpose of this structure is to avoid estate tax at the first death and to assure that the estate tax exemption of both spouses is preserved and available at the death of the second spouse.

In planning for the financial welfare of loved ones and charitable interests the following should be considered: 1) Annual Gifts, 2) Freezing Gifts, 3) Discounted Gifts, 4) Charitable Gifts, & 5) Life Insurance.