Legal Dictionary for Arizona
ABANDONMENT = Abandonment occurs when a spouse leaves the children or the other spouse, intending not to return. In a covenant marriage, abandonment for a year or longer, coupled with a refusal to return, is grounds for divorce or legal separation. Child abandonment means the failure of a parent to provide reasonable support and failure [...]
Estate Planning and Arizona Divorce – Powers of Attorney
The power of attorney creates an agency relationship between two persons — the person who delegates authority to do specific things is the principal. The person who is given the authority to act on the principal’s behalf is the agent, or “attorney in fact.” The principal-agent relationship involves a very high degree of trust and [...]
Estate Planning and Arizona Divorce – Intestate Succession
If you should die without a Last Will and Testament, then the laws of the State of Arizona control the disposition of your estate. So in a way, even if you have no formal estate plan, there is an Arizona plan in place for you already. The question is whether you like the result that [...]
Estate Planning and Arizona Divorce – Protecting Your Assets
People often resist talking about the inevitable, and estate planning involves just that. In our experience, though, we’ve found that most clients, once they get started and put all the pieces of the estate puzzle together, are actually relieved having gone through the process. When you create an estate plan, you’ve done all you can [...]
Transmuting Separate Arizona Property into Community Property
How marital property, assets and debts, are to be divided is an issue that must be resolved in every couple’s divorce. Community property will be divided between the spouses because it is marital property. Separate property will not be divided because it is not marital property. The challenge is in characterizing each item — not [...]
The Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO)
If you’re contemplating divorce, then you should know that any debts acquired during the marriage, such as credit card balances, car loans, and mortgages, must also be divided between the parties. Likewise, assets are subject to an equal and equitable division in the divorce, and that includes retirement benefits. Retirement Benefits as Community Property. In [...]
