Arizona: Trustee Notice to Beneficiaries Requirements
The short answer
Arizona supplies two default 60-day notices to qualified beneficiaries: one after the trustee accepts and another after the trustee learns that an irrevocable trust was created or a formerly revocable trust became irrevocable. The first gives acceptance and trustee contact information; the second adds the trust's existence, settlor identity, rights to relevant trust portions and a report, and the same trustee contact information. Trust terms may vary the ordinary initial notices, a recipient may waive notice, and the rules apply only within the statute's January 1, 2009 boundaries.
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This is the general rule in Arizona. Ezel applies current Arizona law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law and initial-notice duty | A.R.S. §§ 14-10105, 14-10813(B); two default 60-day notices that trust terms may vary |
|---|---|
| Triggering events and knowledge rule | Acceptance of trusteeship; knowledge of irrevocable trust's creation; knowledge formerly revocable trust became irrevocable by settlor death or otherwise (§§ 14-10701, 14-10813(B)) |
| Recipients and beneficiary class | Qualified beneficiaries under current, next-line, and termination horizons; qualifying charitable-trust notices also go to the attorney general (§§ 14-10103(14), 14-10110, 14-10813(F)) |
| Deadline after acceptance | Within 60 days after acceptance; qualifying charitable-trust trustee also notifies attorney general within 60 days (§§ 14-10110(B)(2), 14-10813(B)(2)) |
| Deadline after creation or irrevocability | Within 60 days after trustee acquires knowledge of creation or irrevocability; qualifying charitable trust separately sends relevant purpose terms to attorney general within 60 days after creation (§§ 14-10110(B)(1), 14-10813(B)(3)) |
| Required notice contents | Acceptance: acceptance + trustee name/address/phone. Irrevocability: existence, settlor(s), trustee name/address/phone, rights to relevant instrument portions and trustee report (§ 14-10813(B)(2)–(3)) |
| Delivery, service, and publication | Reasonably suitable and likely to result in receipt; first-class mail, personal/last-known-address delivery, or properly directed electronic message; unknown/unascertainable person excused; no publication (§ 14-10109) |
| Waiver, modification, and confidentiality | Trust terms may vary ordinary initial notices; recipient may waive notice. Beneficiary may waive reports/other information and withdraw prospectively; no writing required. Qualified irrevocable-beneficiary request rights and attorney-general charitable notices are mandatory (§§ 14-10105, 14-10109, 14-10813(D)) |
| Legacy exceptions and notice consequences | Acceptance notice covers trustees accepting on/after Jan. 1, 2009; creation notice covers irrevocable trusts created, and revocable trusts becoming irrevocable, on/after that date. While revocable, duties run only to settlor. A beneficiary solely of a satisfied specific distribution remains included for acceptance notice but is excluded from other § 14-10813 rights (§§ 14-10603, 14-10813(E)–(F)) |
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Requirements one by one
Arizona uses two 60-day clocks
A.R.S. § 14-10813(B)(2) starts the first clock when the trustee accepts the
trusteeship. Within 60 days, the trustee notifies qualified beneficiaries of the
acceptance and gives the trustee's name, address, and telephone number.
Subsection (B)(3) starts a separate 60 days when the trustee acquires knowledge that
an irrevocable trust was created or that a formerly revocable trust became
irrevocable, whether because the settlor died or otherwise. That notice states the
trust's existence, identifies the settlor or settlors, gives the same trustee contact
information, and states rights to request relevant portions of the trust instrument
and a trustee's report.
The trust instrument may change the ordinary notices
A.R.S. § 14-10105 generally lets trust terms prevail over the Trust Code. Its
mandatory-rule list protects a qualified beneficiary's request rights for an
irrevocable trust, but it does not protect § 14-10813(B)(2)–(3)'s ordinary initial
notices. Those two notices are therefore statutory defaults that the trust terms may
vary.
The mandatory list separately protects § 14-10110(B). For a qualifying charitable
trust created on or after January 1, 2009 and administered principally in Arizona, the
trustee sends the attorney general relevant charitable-purpose portions within 60
days after creation and acceptance/contact notice within 60 days after accepting.
The instrument-copy right reaches relevant portions
The irrevocability notice states a right to request a copy of the relevant portions of
the trust instrument. Under § 14-10813(B)(1), the trustee promptly supplies the
portions necessary to describe the requesting beneficiary's interest.
That is not a statutory promise of the complete instrument and every amendment. The
mandatory floor in § 14-10105(B)(8) is similarly framed around reports and other
information reasonably related to administration for a qualified beneficiary of an
irrevocable trust.
Delivery and waiver are functional
A.R.S. § 14-10109 requires a method reasonably suitable under the circumstances and
likely to result in receipt. Its examples are first-class mail, personal delivery,
delivery to the last known residence or business, and a properly directed electronic
message. No publication substitute is required for a person whose identity or
location is unknown and not reasonably ascertainable.
The person entitled to a notice or document may waive it. Section 14-10813(D) also
lets a beneficiary waive reports or other information and later withdraw the waiver
for future items. Neither section requires a signed writing.
What trips people up
- The two notices have different contents. Trustee contact information appears in
both, but trust existence, settlor identity, and request rights belong to the
creation-or-irrevocability notice. - Acceptance has its own statutory meaning. Section 14-10701 looks first to the
trust's method; otherwise delivery of property, exercise of powers or duties, or
another indication can establish acceptance. - The legacy clauses are event-specific. The acceptance notice covers trustees
accepting on or after January 1, 2009. The other notice covers irrevocable trusts
created, and revocable trusts becoming irrevocable, on or after that date. - A satisfied specific gift creates an unusual split. A person whose only trust
entitlement was a specific distribution already made or satisfied remains included
for the acceptance notice, but § 14-10813(F) excludes that status for the other
information and report rules. - No signature package is prescribed. The statutes do not require an oath,
trustee certification, notarization, certified mail, return receipt, or proof-of-
service form for the initial notices.
Common questions
Who is a qualified beneficiary?
A.R.S. § 14-10103(14) uses three horizons: a current distributee or permissible
distributee, a person who would take if the current interests ended, and a person who
would take if the trust terminated on the determination date.
Who receives duties while a trust remains revocable?
Under § 14-10603(A), beneficiary rights remain subject to the settlor's control and
the trustee's duties are owed exclusively to the settlor while the settlor can revoke
the trust. A currently exercisable withdrawal-power holder has the same rights for the
property subject to that power.
Does every qualified beneficiary automatically receive annual reports?
No. Section 14-10813(C) automatically sends reports to distributees and permissible
distributees. Other beneficiaries receive them when they request them. The initial
irrevocability notice states the right to a report but does not make every qualified
beneficiary an automatic annual recipient.
Do representation rules apply?
Yes. A.R.S. § 14-10301 makes the title's specified representation sections apply to
Trust Code trusts. The representative's authority and any conflict rules must be
checked before treating notice to one person as notice to another.
Statutes and sources
- A.R.S. § 14-10103(14) — qualified-beneficiary definition. Official Arizona
Revised Statutes (accessed 2026-07-31). - A.R.S. § 14-10105(A)-(B)(8), (14) — trust-term control and mandatory request and
attorney-general notice rules. Official Arizona Revised Statutes
(accessed 2026-07-31). - A.R.S. § 14-10109(A)-(D) — delivery, unknown recipient, waiver, and separate
judicial-notice route. Official Arizona Revised Statutes
(accessed 2026-07-31). - A.R.S. § 14-10110(A)-(C) — special qualified-beneficiary rights and mandatory
attorney-general charitable-trust notices. Official Arizona Revised Statutes
(accessed 2026-07-31). - A.R.S. § 14-10301 — representation provisions applicable to trusts. Official
Arizona Revised Statutes (accessed
2026-07-31). - A.R.S. § 14-10603(A)-(B) — revocable-settlor control and withdrawal-power rule.
Official Arizona Revised Statutes
(accessed 2026-07-31). - A.R.S. § 14-10701(A)-(C) — acceptance, rejection, and acts that do not accept.
Official Arizona Revised Statutes
(accessed 2026-07-31). - A.R.S. § 14-10813(A)-(F) — two initial notices, contents, report and waiver
rules, legacy dates, and satisfied-specific-distribution exclusion. Official
Arizona Revised Statutes (accessed
2026-07-31).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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