Trust planning & modification in Scottsdale, ArizonaIrrevocable is not the same as unchangeable.
A trust is signed on one day and lives for decades. Families grow, assets move, and the tax code rewrites itself. We design new trusts with change built in, and bring older trusts current under the Arizona Trust Code, from a one-page amendment to a full decanting.
Already have a trust? Bring it. The first thing we do is read every page and tell you what it can still do.
Why a good trust goes stale
Nobody's life holds still for thirty years.
Most trusts we review were well drafted for the day they were signed. The problem is the date. Six things drift, and any one of them is reason enough to open the document again.
The law moved
The federal estate and gift exemption is $15 million per person in 2026, indexed and with no sunset. Formula clauses written for a $1 million or $3.5 million exemption can now force a division at the first death that nobody wants, and cost the survivor a second step-up in basis.
The family changed
Marriages and divorces. New grandchildren. A child with a disability who now needs a supplemental needs share. A beneficiary who struggles with money, a creditor, or an addiction, and should receive through a trustee rather than outright.
The trustee is gone
The named successor has died, retired, moved out of state, or was a bank that no longer exists under that name. A trust with no workable successor can end up in court for the simplest appointment.
The assets changed
A company was sold. Real estate was exchanged. Retirement accounts grew into the largest asset in the plan, while the trust's IRA language still assumes the stretch rules that ended with the SECURE Act.
You moved
A trust drafted in another state may still carry that state's law, situs, and courts into Arizona for no reason but inertia. Arizona's decanting statute reaches trusts whose governing jurisdiction is transferred here.
The instrument has a defect
A drafting error, an ambiguous clause, a schedule of assets that was never completed, or a tax election that never worked the way it was meant to. Arizona allows a trust to be reformed to correct a mistake, even an irrevocable one.
The first questions
Three questions decide almost everything.
Before anyone talks about tools, we read the instrument for three things: whether it is still revocable, who holds a power to change it, and who would have to agree. The answers sort every trust into one of four paths.
- Is the trust still revocable?
- Yes: the settlor amends or restates it. § 14-10602 No consent, no court.
- No: next question.
- Can a trustee or protector change it without anyone's consent?
- Yes: the trustee decants, or the trust protector acts. § 14-10819 · § 14-10818 The trustee or protector signs. Court approval is optional.
- No: next question.
- Can the interested persons agree?
- Yes: a nonjudicial settlement agreement or a consent modification. § 14-10111 · § 14-10411 A court may be asked to confirm.
- No: petition the superior court for unanticipated circumstances, a mistake, or the settlor's tax objectives. §§ 14-10412 · 14-10415 · 14-10416
Two details matter more than the diagram shows. A trustee's decanting power under § 14-10819 exists by statute, so it is available unless the instrument expressly takes it away. And consent has two speeds: with the settlor's participation, the settlor and beneficiaries can agree to changes even if they cut against a material purpose of the trust; without the settlor, the beneficiaries' agreement generally cannot defeat a material purpose, which is why a court is sometimes asked to confirm.
The instruments
Eight ways to modify a trust in Arizona, matched to the trust you have.
Each one is a different document with a different set of signatures. Choosing the lightest instrument that gets the job done is most of the craft.
Amendment
A targeted change to specific provisions of a revocable trust, signed by the settlor. Right for a new successor trustee, a changed distribution, or a corrected name.
Restatement
The whole revocable instrument rewritten and re-signed under the same trust name and date, so titles and beneficiary designations stay intact. Right when the changes outnumber the pages.
Nonjudicial settlement agreement
Interested persons agree in writing on any matter a court could have approved: interpreting terms, approving accounts, changing trustees, changing situs. No filing, no hearing.
Modification by consent
The settlor and beneficiaries, or the beneficiaries alone within limits, agree to modify or end an irrevocable trust. The lightest route when everyone is alive, adult, and aligned.
Decanting
A trustee with discretion over distributions appoints the assets into a new trust with better terms for the same beneficiaries. No prior court approval, and Arizona treats it as a special power of appointment.
Trust protector
A named person holds specific powers the instrument gives them, such as amending administrative terms, removing a trustee, or changing situs, without court involvement.
Court modification
For unanticipated circumstances, to reform a mistake of fact or law, or to achieve the settlor's tax objectives. Filed in the superior court with notice to interested persons.
Combination or division
Merge duplicate trusts into one, or split one trust into separate shares by beneficiary, tax status, or asset type, so each share can be run on its own terms.
The pour
Decanting, explained in one pour.
Wine is decanted to leave the sediment behind. A trust is decanted for the same reason. The trustee pours the assets from the original trust into a new trust with cleaner terms, and the beneficiaries stay exactly who they were.
Under A.R.S. § 14-10819 a trustee who has discretion to make distributions may appoint part or all of the trust property to the trustee of another trust, without prior court approval, so long as the statute's guardrails are met. The trustee may ask the court to bless the exercise before or after, and may carry it out simply by restating the instrument.
What carries over
- The beneficiaries. The new trust must be in favor of the beneficiaries of the original trust.
- Any fixed, nondiscretionary income payment to a beneficiary.
- Any nondiscretionary annuity or unitrust payment.
- The tax treatment of the trust, the trustee, the settlor, and the beneficiaries.
What can improve
- Trustee succession, removal, and replacement.
- Administrative, investment, and accounting provisions.
- Spendthrift and asset-protection terms for a beneficiary at risk.
- Governing law and situs, including a move to Arizona.
- Supplemental needs language for a beneficiary receiving public benefits.
Where the statute stops
- No new beneficiaries who were never beneficiaries of the original trust.
- No loosening of an ascertainable standard when the decanting trustee is also a possible beneficiary.
- Nothing that adversely affects tax treatment.
- Nothing that violates Arizona's rule against perpetuities limits.
- Nothing the instrument expressly forbids.
The 2026 recalibration
Many trusts were built around a number that no longer exists.
For a decade, plans were drafted against a countdown: the doubled exemption was scheduled to fall by roughly half at the end of 2025. The July 2025 tax law cancelled the sunset and set the exemption at $15 million per person, indexed, with no expiration. Anything that assumed the cliff deserves a second read.
Inherited IRAs on a ten-year clock
The SECURE Act replaced the lifetime stretch with a ten-year payout for most non-spouse beneficiaries. A conduit trust drafted for the stretch may now push an entire retirement account out to a beneficiary within a decade, which is the opposite of what a protective trust was for. The fix is usually a redraft of the retirement provisions or a decanting into accumulation terms.
Arizona has no estate or inheritance tax
For most Arizona families the federal number is the only one, and at $15 million per person most estates owe none. That turns many older tax-driven structures into income tax and basis questions: whether a bypass share should now be unwound, whether assets should be pulled back into the survivor's estate for a step-up, and whether a trust still earns its keep.
New trusts
New trust planning, drawn with room to grow.
A trust we design today assumes it will be wrong about something in fifteen years. So we wire the levers in from the start, and name the people who are allowed to pull them.
- Trust protector. A named person with defined powers to fix, remove, and redirect.
- Trustee removal. A clean path to replace a trustee without a hearing.
- Situs and governing law. The trust can follow the family, not the drafter.
- Powers of appointment. A beneficiary can redirect shares among descendants.
- Directed trust terms. Investment or distribution decisions assigned to an advisor.
- Express decanting authority. The statutory power, confirmed and clarified in the instrument.
Revocable living trusts
The foundation of most Arizona plans: probate avoidance, incapacity management, and a private, orderly transfer. Drafted so a later amendment or restatement is a short document, not a rebuild.
Marital and family trusts
For blended families and second marriages, where the survivor's security and the children's inheritance both need protecting, with formula clauses written for the exemption that exists now.
Irrevocable gifting trusts
Spousal lifetime access trusts, dynasty trusts with generation-skipping allocations, and life insurance trusts, for families whose estates are near or above the federal line.
Special needs trusts
Third-party supplemental needs trusts that preserve a beneficiary's public benefits while a trustee pays for what those benefits do not.
Charitable trusts
Charitable remainder and charitable lead trusts that pair a family's giving with income, capital gains, and estate planning goals.
Business succession trusts
Trusts built to hold LLC and S corporation interests, with the elections and governance terms that keep the company running when ownership changes hands.
How an engagement runs
Four steps, in this order, every time.
The order matters. Nobody chooses an instrument before the powers are mapped, and nothing is signed before the tax review.
Read
The whole instrument: every amendment, every schedule, the funding history, and the beneficiary designations that sit outside it.
You bring the trust, its amendments, and any deed or account list.
Map the powers
Who can change what, under the instrument and under the code. Whether it is still revocable, who the interested persons are, and whether anyone can act without consent.
We deliver a written map of the powers and the options.
Choose and draft
The lightest document that gets the job done: an amendment, a restatement, a settlement agreement, a decanting instrument, or a petition. Tax review before anything is signed.
We deliver the instrument, with a tax memo when it matters.
Close the loop
Execute, retitle assets, update beneficiary designations, give the notices the code requires, and hand you a certification of trust that banks and title companies will accept.
We deliver signed originals, notices, and a certification of trust.
Who reads the trust
Two generations of Scottsdale trust attorneys read every trust.
Boland Law Group is a father and son practice. Robert Boland founded the firm; Grant Boland carries it forward. The bench includes an LL.M. in taxation, which is why the tax memo comes before the signature, not after.
Questions we hear first
Plain answers, before the consultation.
Can an irrevocable trust really be changed in Arizona?
Yes, within limits. The Arizona Trust Code allows an irrevocable trust to be modified or terminated by consent of the settlor and beneficiaries, by a nonjudicial settlement agreement among interested persons, by a trustee's decanting power, by a trust protector if the instrument names one, or by court order for unanticipated circumstances, mistakes, or the settlor's tax objectives. Which route fits depends on the instrument and on who must agree.
Do we have to go to court?
Often not. Amendments and restatements of revocable trusts, nonjudicial settlement agreements, decanting, and trust protector actions all happen without a court filing. A petition to the superior court is used when consent cannot be obtained, when a mistake must be reformed, or when the parties want the certainty of an order.
Will modifying my trust trigger taxes?
It can if handled carelessly, which is why the tax analysis comes first. Arizona's decanting statute requires that the exercise not adversely affect the tax treatment of the trust, the trustee, the settlor, or the beneficiaries. We review gift, estate, generation-skipping, and income tax consequences before any instrument is signed.
My trust was drafted in another state. Can Arizona law apply?
Frequently, yes. Many trusts allow the trustee or a protector to change the governing law and situs, and Arizona's decanting statute applies to trusts whose governing jurisdiction is transferred to Arizona. We read the instrument to confirm what it allows before recommending a move.
What if a beneficiary will not sign?
Consent-based tools need the required signatures, so we look first at powers that do not depend on consent, such as a trustee's decanting authority or a trust protector's powers, and at the representation rules that allow one person to bind others with similar interests, including minors and beneficiaries not yet born. If none of those apply, a court petition remains available.
How long does a modification take?
Timelines depend on how many people must sign and whether a court is involved. A simple amendment or restatement of a revocable trust is the quickest. Consent-based agreements move at the pace of the slowest signer. Court petitions take longer and depend on the court's calendar.
What does trust modification cost?
Boland Law Group publishes its fees. The initial review of an existing trust is scoped at the consultation, and the fee for the modification itself depends on the instrument used. Ask for the current fee schedule when you book.
Next step
Bring us the trust.
We will read it, map what it can still do, and tell you which instrument fits. If it needs nothing, we will say so. If you do not have a trust yet, we will design one that expects to change.
- Office
- Boland Law Group, PLLC
15100 N. 78th Way, Suite 203
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 - Phone
- (480) 420-8268
- Hours
- Monday through Thursday, 9am to 5pm
Saturday by appointment - Also serving
- Phoenix and Chandler, with in-home appointments in Sedona and Prescott
This page describes Arizona law in general terms and is not legal advice for any particular trust. Statutory references are to the Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 14, Chapter 11. Federal exemption figures are the basic exclusion amounts for the years shown; the 2026 figure is $15,000,000 per person under Public Law 119-21 and is indexed for inflation in later years. Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship with Boland Law Group, PLLC.
