Trusts · What to watch for
A cheap trust is not a bargain. It is an unfinished promise.
The problem is rarely the price. It is that the package stops at the signature, and the work that makes a trust do anything never happens.
Signing the trust was the easy half.
A trust does two jobs. It says who gets what, and it holds the assets. Online kits and seminar packages are decent at the first job. Almost none of them do the second.
So the binder looks finished, and the house is still titled to you. When you pass away, your family finds that out at the bank, months after they could have fixed it.
How we build a trustA signed trust
A legal document that exists. Under A.R.S. 14-10402 it needs your capacity and intent, a beneficiary who can be identified, and real duties for the trustee.
A funded trust
A trust that owns things. A recorded deed for the house, accounts retitled, beneficiary forms lined up behind it. This is the half that keeps your family out of court.
Where they break
Six ways a bargain trust fails.
We see these at consultations every month, usually brought in by an adult child holding a binder nobody has opened since the signing.
Nobody funded it
This is the big one. The form ships you a signed trust and no deed. Your house is still in your name, so it still goes to probate. The trust sat in a drawer doing nothing.
It was written for another state
Arizona is a community property state under A.R.S. 25-211. A template drafted for a separate property state can mislabel half of what a married couple owns.
It plans for death, not for illness
Most cheap packages skip the illness half entirely. If a stroke takes your ability to sign, your family may need a court to appoint a conservator. That is the case you were trying to avoid.
The signing was wrong
A.R.S. 14-10402 sets what a trust actually needs to exist. Documents signed without the right formalities, or with a beneficiary too vague to identify, are the ones that get challenged.
It never got updated
A trust is not furniture. After a divorce, a new child, a death in the family, or a refinance, an untouched document can name the wrong person entirely.
There is nobody to call
When your trustee has a question at the bank, a website has no answer. Your family is left reading legal language during the worst month of their lives.
The Turquoise difference
Attorney-backed, at a price that stays fair.
Cheap and careful are not opposites. Our Alternative Business Structure is licensed by the State of Arizona. It is what lets a real attorney stand behind your plan without an hourly bill for every phone call.
1,000+
Arizona families helped
458
Trusts navigated
5
Awards won
A modern, honest structure
Arizona lets us run a licensed Alternative Business Structure. That means skilled paralegals do more of the work. Attorneys still oversee all of it, so you get real legal help at a fair price.
Bilingual, English and Spanish
Our owner and founder, Irma C. Davenport, is fluent in Spanish. Every family is served, and every document explained, in the language they know best.
Personal, one-on-one attention
You work with people who know your name and your story, not a case number. Plain answers, and real time for your questions.
Decades of Arizona experience
Our attorneys have guided families through wills, trusts, guardianships, and probate for years, with the judgment that only comes from the work itself.
Already bought one? Bring it in.
A second look costs nothing, and most of what we find is fixable.
- 01
Bring us what you already bought
Seminar binder, online packet, or a trust your parents signed in the nineties. We read it for free and tell you what it actually does.
- 02
We check the title on every asset
County records for the house, statements for the accounts. This is where we find out whether the trust was ever funded, and it usually was not.
- 03
We fix rather than restart when we can
Sometimes an amendment and a deed are all it needs. That costs far less than starting over, and we will say so when it is true.
- 04
You leave with a plan you can explain
In plain language, in English or Spanish, including the one page your trustee will actually need.
Keep exploring
Where this fits in your plan.
Questions about low-cost trusts.
Straight answers, including the ones that talk you out of spending money with us.
Call (480) 863-6303It can be. Valid and effective are different things. A.R.S. 14-10402 sets a low bar to create a trust, and a document can clear that bar while still leaving your house in your own name and headed for probate.
Retitling assets into it. A new deed for the house recorded with the county, bank and brokerage accounts moved to the trust's name, and beneficiary forms reviewed. A trust only controls what you actually put in it.
Pull up your county recorder's site and look at who owns your house. If it lists your name and not your trust, the trust was never funded. Bring us the paperwork and we will check the rest.
We are an Arizona-licensed Alternative Business Structure. Skilled paralegals do more of the work, with an attorney over all of it. You get a real plan without an hourly bill for every step.
Usually, yes. Most of what we repair is missing funding and out-of-date names, not the whole document. We review it first and quote the repair before you commit.
Probate, on top of what you already spent. A.R.S. 14-3801 gives creditors four months from the first published notice, so no case closes before then, and attorney and court costs come out of the estate.
Yes. Irma C. Davenport is fluent in Spanish and handles consultations and documents in Spanish whenever you prefer.
This page is general information for educational purposes and is not legal advice about your documents. Reading it does not make us your lawyers. Bring your paperwork in and we will look at your actual situation.
Turquoise Law Group, PLLC contracts with Roddy & Urness, PLLC or Nancy C. Pohl, PLLC in order to provide legal advice to your matter at an affordable cost.
Schedule your meeting
Have your trust checked for free.
Book a free consultation and bring whatever you signed. We will tell you if it works, in English or Spanish. Or call (480) 863-6303.
- Phone, video, or in our Scottsdale office
- Free and with no obligation
- Available in English and Spanish
Prefer to talk now?
(480) 863-6303